Journal 2 - Matthew Schmeltzer

• Based on your reading of all seven concepts, how do you define "genre"? Is this definition of genre different from how you've understood genre previously?

Originally, I thought that genre was just a category of what a piece of writing could be, and just by the genre a person would be able to decide whether or not they want to read a piece. After reading the seven concepts my perspective of what genre is has changed. Genre is more than just a general category, it represents an area off messages we may get from a text, or the kind of position it comes from.

• What are three major ideas about genre and/or writing that you can take away from your reading of this text? In other words, what three ideas seem most important for you as a writer?

I think a major idea about genre is that it is always evolving with the times. What I mean by this is that as time goes on genres and their norm are changing, and also new genres are being formed. Another major idea is that genres are not specific, and there can be a very broad amount of pieces under 1 genre. The last idea, and the most important idea is that a piece of writing can be categorized in to multiple genres. This means that writing is not limited to one genre, and can incorporate aspects from many different genres. 

• Has your understanding of "genre" and/or "writing" changed as a result of reading this text? If so, how and why? If not, why not? 

My opinion about genres has changed as a result of reading this text. I always thought genres were ultra specific and if you were writing something in a genre you had to stick to the norms in it. I now feel that genres are very broad, and it is okay to mix elements from many different genres into one piece of writing.

• Are there any concepts or claims in the text that you disagree with? What is it, and why? 

I did not disagree with any of the concepts or claims in the text. Not only do I agree with what is said in the text, but it changed the way that I think about genre as a whole.

• Find two examples of texts that you would classify as being part of the same genre and link to them in your post. Then, provide a brief description of how you see these two texts adhering or not to the seven concepts outlined above. (e.g., I might include two links to Buzzfeed listicles and then explain how the "listicle" is a recognizable form that uses conventions like a title, gifs, captions, etc; how it represents the world/events/feelings by the language and images that are used; how it is multimodal because it uses language, image, moving image, color, layout, etc.)

http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/80800/baseballs-top-ace-clayton-kershaw-is-no-longer-the-clear-answer

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19758988/zach-lowe-chris-paul-james-harden-running-houston-rockets-nba

The two forms of text I linked are from espn.com. They are both articles about completely different sports that are not really related, but because they are both sports, they are considered similar in that respect.

• Lastly: what questions do you have about the reading? what more do you need or want to know? what confuses you? 

I was not really left with many questions after the reading, I clearly understood what the author was trying to convey and actually finished reading it with a changed mindset about genre.