The first reading we did for today was ‘Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)’. This article was basically written for us as the audience. It was written knowing that we would need to use it as a basis of our writings. She gave the readers a murder case and five simple facts about it. Then she told the students to act as if they were investigating the scene of the crime as a policeman, and to write a police report on what they found. The next thing she asked them to do was write a coroner’s report, as if they were the coroner themselves. Then they had to write a eulogy and a closing argument from the victim’s lawyer. This article basically laid out what genre was, and how genre differs from person to person.
The next article we were supposed to read was about ‘Discourse’. This article really confused me, except for when he mentioned that discourse is a sort of “identity kit”. This basically said to me that that everyone is connected in some way, shape, or form and it’s basically just how you’re connected that makes you realize you have your own “identity kit”. It is basically culture that ties everyone together in some way.
I believe that we read these articles together because genre and discourse are so very commonly connected. Genre is not only applied to writing, but also to everyday life. Discourses are basically genres within how you speak to one another. Discourses cannot easily be learned. It is not something you can be taught, but is something you must learn through experience basically on your own. This is why I believe that discourses are hard to join, as Gee suggested in his article.
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