Rhetoric Genre

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New rhetoric genre researchers hold that genre emerges from repeated social action in recurring situations which give rise to regularities in form and content (Bazerman, 1997; Devitt, 2004; Miller, 1994). While some definitions of the genre have focused on textual regularities, especially in literary works, such as comedies, tragedies and novels, new rhetoric genre studies based in North America, which tend to concentrate on non-literary texts, probe further than this. Without abandoning earlier conceptions of the genre as ‘types’ or ‘kinds’ of discourse, characterized by similarities in content and form, new rhetoric genre theorists focus on “tying these linguistic and substantive similarities to regularities in human spheres of activitiesˮ …show more content…

These features can be summarized as follows.First, new rhetoric sees genre as “a conventional category of discourse based in large scale typification of rhetorical action” (Miller, 1994, p.37). That is a form of social action. That means an individual social actor or group of actors for fulfilling their rhetorical purpose can understand a genre as a frequently repeated social action. Second, as meaningful action, the genre is interpretable by means of rules. That indicates genre is rule-governed to some degree. Third, the genre is distinguishable from the form. Miller (1994) explains that form is the more general term than genre, and “a genre is a form at one particular level that is a fusion of lower level forms and characteristic substance ˮ (Miller, 1994, p.37). Fourth, genres serve as recurrent patterns of language use and help constitute a culture. That implies genres are not only parts of a culture, but also, in some ways, shape the …show more content…

In addition, Miller (1984) argues for an open principle of genre classification based on rhetorical practice, in contrast to genre studies, which focus more on structure, content or aim of the genre. Furthermore, Miller (1984) advocates a kind of ethnomethodological approach to studying genre. That is an approach, which “seeks to explicate the knowledge that practice creates ˮ (Miller, 1994, p.27). In her view, to understand how a genre has developed and how it works, researchers must consult the interpreters of both the genre and the situation.In her (1994) article ‘Rhetorical community: The cultural basis of genre’, Miller (1994) further describes what she means by genre as a ‘cultural artefact’. She suggests that genres are bearers of “knowledge of aesthetics, economics, politics, religious beliefs and all the various dimensions of what we know as human culture ˮ (Miller, 1994, p.69). That suggests that to understand genres, we should understand the culture of which they are constituents. Genre, in this sense, could be regarded as part of social processes by which knowledge and ‘facts’ are made (Freedman & Medway,

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