Genre as difference: The sociality of linguistic variation

Giltrow, Janet

doi:10.1515/9783110226485.1.29

Cited by 68 publications

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“…In this article, I draw on the concept of metagenre in particular to explore how practitioners use texts to exert influence and control over biomedical writing activity. Berkenkotter (2001) credited Giltrow (1998) with coining the term, characterizing metagenres ascommodious genres around which other genres cluster and from which they draw features, conventions, and substance (content). Metagenres are mutable and possess resources for translating information across professional and cultural boundaries.…”

Section: Genre and Metagenrementioning

confidence: 99%

Genre and Metagenre in Biomedical Research Writing

Wickman

2023

Journal of Business and Technical Communication

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The use of reporting guidelines is an established yet still-evolving practice in the field of biomedicine. These documents are often linked to common methodologies (e.g., randomized clinical trials); they include multiple textual artifacts (e.g., checklists, flow diagrams) and have a history that is coextensive with the emergence and ongoing development of evidence-based medicine (e.g., as an epistemological orientation to research and decision making). Drawing on the concept of metagenre, this article examines how practitioners use reporting guidelines to define and regulate the boundaries of biomedical research and writing activity. The analysis, focusing on one prominent set of guidelines, shows how practitioners use the genre–metagenre dynamic to promote strategic intervention while upholding traditional principles and standards for evidence-based research and communication.

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Section: Genre and Metagenrementioning

confidence: 99%

Genre and Metagenre in Biomedical Research Writing

Wickman

2023

Journal of Business and Technical Communication

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“…As is well known, genre studies have always been faced with analytical challenges. To name just a few, there is the traditional 'form vs function' dilemma (see e. g. Devitt 2009, Giltrow 2010, with the issues of tackling the linguistic variation that different instances of (even) one and the same genre may exhibit (see e. g. Rose 2012, Swales 1990, the issues of genre hybridity (see e. g. Fairclough 2003: 69), and of genres 'never actually being stabilized' (see e. g. Devitt 2009: 39) gravitating towards the 'form' end of the spectrum, and the issues of the disparate ways actors can actually engage with (even) one and the same genre (see e. g. Askehave & Swales 2001;Swales 1993) gravitating towards the 'function' end. There is also the "well-known quagmire" (Lee 2001: 41) of distinguishing between genres and a plethora of other terms like text-type, register, and style (Giltrow 2010;Lee 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To name just a few, there is the traditional 'form vs function' dilemma (see e. g. Devitt 2009, Giltrow 2010, with the issues of tackling the linguistic variation that different instances of (even) one and the same genre may exhibit (see e. g. Rose 2012, Swales 1990, the issues of genre hybridity (see e. g. Fairclough 2003: 69), and of genres 'never actually being stabilized' (see e. g. Devitt 2009: 39) gravitating towards the 'form' end of the spectrum, and the issues of the disparate ways actors can actually engage with (even) one and the same genre (see e. g. Askehave & Swales 2001;Swales 1993) gravitating towards the 'function' end. There is also the "well-known quagmire" (Lee 2001: 41) of distinguishing between genres and a plethora of other terms like text-type, register, and style (Giltrow 2010;Lee 2001). And finally, there has always been the issue of the 'form' not really being restricted to the linguistic form per se, but rather being an intricate combination of various modalities -an issue which could be somewhat backgrounded in case of (and in the age of) media often relying on (simple) printed text (see, however, Hiippala 2017) but became more a matter of concern with the advent of digital genres (Askehave & Nielsen 2005, Giltrow & Stein 2009, often relying on arguably a wider range of modalities which digital media seem to make more 'readily available'.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metapragmatics and genre: Connecting the strands

Molodychenko

Spitzmüller

2021

Russian Journal of Linguistics

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Genre analysis involves at least a foray into the social/contextual dimension framing genre-exemplars. One way to explore this dimension is drawing on the concept of metapragmatics, which is primarily associated with (American) linguistic anthropology. However, with a few exceptions, genre studies have not consistently operationalized metapragmatics, either theoretically or practically. The purpose of this article is, therefore, to explore one possible angle of such operationalization by means of studying discourse fragments reflecting on fragments of (these very or other) discourses (so-called metapragmatic discourses) vis--vis any generic properties of the reflected discourse. Specifically, we analyzed comments sections for a number of YouTube videos exemplifying several lifestyle genres. The results indicate that generic references can range from simply using a generic label to refer to the discourse in question (as a token of a certain type/genre) to actually discussing the generic characteristics of the genre it instantiates, as well as projecting certain (generic) metapragmatic stances. Another observation is that different wordings used by the discourse community to refer to generic models can be, as it were, proper generic labels, but they can also be words and phrases that would hardly qualify as proper names of genres from an analysts point of view. Both these proper and other - genre-like - labels are also often used in conjunction with or are replaced by other ways of metapragmatically referring to what the speaker does or even what they are in/by dint of using the discourse in question. This suggests that any generic labels or cues are just part of a large pool of other possible metapragmatic meanings, knowledge, and ideologies circulating in discourse communities. More broadly, the results may indicate that genre studies should see genre as an even less stabilized entity because what a genre is depends on what people who actually use it make of it, as well as augment their standard toolkits with methods aimed at exploring metapragmatic discourse.

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“… 1. Of course, building genre knowledge is so situated and complex that many—most notably Freedman (1993) and Russell (1995)—have argued whether genre could be explicitly taught and learned at all (see also Devitt, 2004; Dias et al, 1999; Giltrow & Valiquette, 1994; Hyon, 1996; Wardle, 2009). …”

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confidence: 99%

Toward Genre Access: A Micro-level Analytical Approach

Russell

2024

Written Communication

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Many genre scholars have focused on how individuals might build genre knowledge, generally understood as the enculturation processes, gradual stages, or ingredients that lead to one’s facility with a genre in context. While genre knowledge describes whether people can engage genres, it does not describe the various factors that shape how people may engage genres. By consolidating scholarship across Rhetorical Genre Studies (RGS), this article characterizes genre access as the power, opportunity, permission, and/or right to engage genre. Furthermore, this article integrates Network Gatekeeping Theory to develop a micro-level analytical approach for explicitly describing genre access. The author demonstrates and develops genre access as a concept and analytical approach with an illustrative example from a larger ethnographic project. Specifically, this illustrative example explores genre access for the Staff Report, a common genre in local government that proposes recommendations from individual departments to their elected City Commissioners for voted approval. Overall, the purpose of this article is (1) to consolidate and extend RGS’s exploration of the power, opportunity, permission, and/or right to engage genres; (2) to identify and name genre access as a fundamental aspect of how genres work; and (3) to provide a micro-level analytical language for researchers to tease out the various factors the shape genre access.

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Genre as difference: The sociality of linguistic variation

Cited by 68 publications

References 0 publications

Genre and Metagenre in Biomedical Research Writing

Genre and Metagenre in Biomedical Research Writing

Metapragmatics and genre: Connecting the strands

Toward Genre Access: A Micro-level Analytical Approach

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