Alyssa, I agree with you about the fact that Kerry Dirk’s essay was much more enjoyable to read than I had expected. It was informal and creative. I appreciated it even more because Mr. Dirk easily related genres to different actions each one of us performs in everyday life, on social media, in college, and in the workplace.

Additionally, Mr. Dirk, whilst doing his homework and researching how he should write this essay, evaluated the format of previous essays because he was not entirely sure how he should organize it. Mr. Dirk was showing us that he practices what he preaches. That is important because, as a student, I would like to know that the author knows what they are talking about before I take their words seriously and use the information that they present in my own writing career. Also, when Mr. Dirk uses references from other authors, that further backs up his argument and uses ethos by saying that other authors agree with him on this topic.

As I aforementioned, Mr. Dirk looked up examples on how to organize his essay. That time spent researching was apparently very well spent because, in my opinion, he organizes the essay very well. He starts off talking about a joke that was going around at the time and he explains how that joke and genres relate. He then goes on to explain how he wrote this essay and ties that very well into how genres allow writers to know how to write based upon a predetermined set of rules. Altogether, each idea leads into another in a very nice manner.

I stated previously that Kerry Dirk relates different genres to actions in everyday life. He does that in a very entertaining way so that the readers do not get bored as easily. That, in turn, adds to the informality of the essay. Of the many examples of informality in the paper, my personal favorite is the time when Mr. Dirk uses a ransom letter to explain how well to navigate the situations where different genres are being used. He puts down three examples of a ransom note and only one is proper because the other two do not at all seem like they would be effective.

As shown above, I agree with Alyssa and I thought that Mr. Dirk’s essay was enjoyable to read, was very well organized, and was full of entertaining examples. He clearly knew what he was talking about because he referenced a number of different authors in order to back up his statements. Also, adding to the enjoyableness of the essay was the fact that he related genres to everyday life which was very helpful in telling me how I could use his information on a day to day basis.

Hey Alyssa! I like how you mention that this composition and is informal and easy to read – I agree! The genre he chose definitely matched his goal to reach us as readers. Dirk clearly knew his audience and followed the “writing rules” while still connecting to his audience in a non-formulaic way.

I really liked the ransom note part Dirk uses to give his audience an example of genre. He used a grammatically-challenged piece, a short, concise letter, and a long letter. The concise letter resonates more with the audience and gets his point across, making it the proper genre for the situation.

Overall, Dirk provided an essay that was able to communicate well with his audience and explain genre to our age group!

I agree with Alyssa that the essay is very easy to understand. It helps us understand what genre is without using examples that we would not understand. The author used examples like music, movies, and writing, which we can relate to. This essay really helped get a firm idea of what genre is. I had an idea of it, but never fully understood the concept of it. I just thought it was how you categorize something, but is much more.

Like Alyssa was saying, genre builds off a first response. I never thought of how a genre was created; it was just there. An example Dirk used was talking about country music. For a country song to be a country song, it has certain principles it needs to follow, and we all know these principles without thinking about it. You will just know it when you hear it. Someone had to be the first person to do this, or we wouldn’t have a country music genre. I still don’t really understand how this happens, but someone creates a genre and everything builds from there.

Throughout the years, I never really thought about the genre of my own pieces of writing. We did not really discuss it in any of my previous english classes. Like Alyssa said, the teacher normally has strict rules you need to follow. Sometimes the rules are helpful and guide you through the assignment, but other times it is hard because you are not allowed to say what you want to say and make it your own. I like to be able to pick my own topic because it makes me more interested in writing, and I enjoy it more. I liked how last semester in my english class I was able to pick a topic that I was interested in. Even though I had to follow the project guidelines, I was able to feel like it was my own work, and it was different from everyone else in the class. We were all allowed to work with different genres.

I think the tone of the essay was informal but informative. The essay made me feel like I was talking to another college student instead of a professor or out of a textbook. Even though the essay was informal, it still felt like the author knew what he was talking about and backed up his thoughts using examples from other authors. He definitely made me much more informed about genre. The author also made sure he appealed to the audience throughout the whole essay by using examples college students would like.

While reading Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk I noticed his informal style of writing which helped keep my attention and so did his witty examples – like Alyssa said. I also enjoyed how he used relatable examples to aid in the readers understanding of how genre is used in writing, if Dirk didn’t use the examples he did many including myself would have trouble grasping what he is trying to say. I found the ransom note a great example of what he was explaining because it made it very obvious that the first note was the best and he even preceded to explain why which was also very helpful. Another thing Dirk discussed which I found very interesting is how he acknowledge that there are teachers out there that try and give us the ”perfect paper formula” and how those formulas don’t result in a perfect paper in the long run, throughout college and taking a few courses which require a large amount of writing I’ve learned that professor much prefer your actual writing than a formula which makes everyone sound like robots. Its actually a really nice feeling when a professor gives you a higher grade on a piece of work that was formulated on my own instead of something that a teacher pretty much told you how to write.
The essay was interesting to read because as I read I could easily relate what he was describing to the styles of writing that I use but I was never aware I was using. For example as I was reading his explanation of genre I quickly noticed that this blog is a good example of a genre Dirk said “when something new happens that requires a response, someone must create that first response. Then when the situation happens again, another person uses the first as a basis for the second, and eventually everyone who encounters this situations is basing his/her response off of the previous one resulting in the creation of a new genre.” This explanation of how genres are formed sounds quite similar to this blog, first there’s the initial entry and then the rest of the class is supposed to respond and build on to what the original post said therefore the responders are looking for guidance form the original post so they can relate to things, get a better understanding of the essay, and complete the blog.

Alyssa, after reading your post, I actually understood the article in a more comprehensive way then when I read it on my own, and as a matter of fact, this is exactly what Dirk was explaining in the reading. Your post guided me on how I would write my comment. This connects the concept of what is actually intended by the word genre. I never knew there is so much more to the definition of genre because prior to this article I thought of it as different popular types of things such as music, movies, and books.

Similarly to what you mentioned, I am also a visual learner and it helps me understand and further “brain storm” by looking at examples of what I now can properly call genres. Dirk’s style and tone was very captivating. Originally when I saw the title of the article Navigating Genres, I automatically assumed the writing was going to be something boring but surprising it was anything but boring. The informality and the constant engagement of the audience made me feel as if Dirk was talking to me personally. I really like how he asked questions and then assumed the reader’s mindset as if he already knew some of the things he was saying could be confusing and further backed up his explanations with relatable examples.

Dirk said “it is in this knowledge that helps us to recognize and to determine appropriate responses to different situations”(12), in context he is talking about how this applies to genre, but this advice can apply out of context and be used to mentor people on handle real life situations. The more educated we are the “easier” it becomes to respond to those tough situations. I like when I can use information I learned and be able to apply it in real life and have a purpose for what I am learning.

This was a very fun and entertaining essay to read. Usually most essays tend to be written in a formal manner, however this one was easy to read because of the way he applied his writing towards his audience. The essay didn’t get boring to me at any point and it provided good information about genre that I did not know previously. Dirk tended to use many real-world examples which makes it easier for the readers to apply to our own lives. By doing so, it helps us to better understand where he is coming from and it helps to get his point across. I never thought about a genre being about how something happens and then someone responds to it which changes all further responses. That became very interesting to me because whenever I hear the word “genre” I always assume someone is talking about movies or music. Genre has so much more meaning than just describing a movie or a song. I liked the example Alyssa used about resumes because I had to write multiple resumes for different jobs that I applied to. For my first job, I had no idea where to start so I had to look up online what a proper resume should look like in order to get the knowledge I needed to write my own. I had to go by a previous example in order to come up with my own genre.
Rules set structure, so without rules we would be pretty lost. We would have no guidance. Writing has it’s own rules believe it or not. BUT, I think what Dirk is saying when it comes to rules is that our readings would all be somewhat similar and boring to read it everyone followed the same exact rules and if everything was the same. When you write a specific piece, you need to look outside the box and talk about whatever comes to your mind about your topic. I think it’s good to take notes on the things that come to mind and then eventually organize your thoughts in a way so they can fit into the paper without adding confusion. As writers, we need to use our imagination and be adventurous in our thoughts. It will be more interesting to your audience if you put your own twist into your writing. I agree that it is good to have your own freedom. This will help you write better. The more freedom you have, the better you write. I think it is much easier to write freestyle rather than having a topic chosen for you. Write about something you find appealing, or something that draws your attention because it will be 1000 times easier for you to come up with a written assignment on it.
I like how at the end of the essay he breaks down his main points to make it easy for the reader to come to a conclusion. I think he talked about genre in a great way and he taught me something I didn’t know about genre. I think Dirk’s essay was well written and I liked the tone he used to get his point across.

Alyssa first off you did a great job summarizing the whole reading. I agree with you that the way he wrote this did sound like it was an email rather than something straight out of the textbook. I think the way that he wrote this was really good because he was targeting us college students so he knew exactly how to keep our attention. When I first opened up the PDF file and saw it was fifteen pages I was like “really fifteen pages on genres.” As I started to read I found myself reading through it pretty quickly because it had grabbed my attention because one it was not written as something in the textbook and two because he knew how to keep our attention to finish reading the whole essay. The thing I liked about this author was that he was real. By that I mean when he told us that he looked up different examples of essays before he actually started writing this one. I like that because I feel like I can relate to him because when I do not understand something in class I like to look for examples or something similar to what we are doing so it can give me a spark and then I can complete the assignment. I also like to look up examples if the teacher is not clear on what our task is. Alyssa I also agree with you that if we have too many rules for writing it takes the enjoyment out of it. I am a person who loves to free write and not follow so many rules. I feel like if a person can pick their type of genre to write then they will most likely get a better grade as well as not feeling like its pulling their teeth. I like the fact that the author had added some humor because it’s like he puts a piece of himself into the essay. By that I mean he does not try to act all professional just like how our textbook have to be all professional.

Alyssa, you did a fantastic job briefing over what Dirk was saying in his work. I can wholly agree with you that this piece was much easier to follow and stick with because of it’s informal tone. I can personally say that it amazes me of how much more there is to genres. Like you said, I really only knew of genres because of music or movies. I find it quite interesting that how even though something looks completely different, it can still be the same genre.

I agree with your point of how in earlier school years, everything was given to us. Yes it was easy, but it took away our ability to be creative and do what we wanted.

Alyssa, I agree with everything you touched on. I know personally I have a harder time reading formal essays so I really liked how informal this one was. By keeping it informal, Dirk was able to keep my attention. The use of his lists and examples kept it an easy read and I was able to read through it in no time. I am also a visual learner so I agree that it was settling knowing that other professional writers look up other essays to get a feel about how they should be structuring their own writings.

Alyssa, I really enjoy how well you touched on each subject. I also agree, with Morgan on how it is also difficult for me to read formal essays. I believe there is just a better flow to to informal essays, it is easier for me to understand and also relate with. Once again agreeing with Morgan, I am a very visual learner, I find it very difficult to learn through reading or being told, but the visualization helped me very much. You did a great job on reviewing the article.