PB#A
Older Genre: Now, I know that you weren’t thrilled about the whole “ballad” idea, but I think that it fits into the older generation genre. Specifically I would be doing a broadside. They were like 16th century newspapers that we hung on the street. They have a big picture on them that accompanies a little song. They give the tune that the song is supposed to be sung in, and the good ones are quite scandalous. I understand that identifying the characteristics of the audience might be hard because since the audience hasn’t been alive in a while but I’m willing to put in the work to research exactly what the audience was like. If that is a no-go for whatever reason, I do have a backup for the older generation genre. I think it would be fun to write a super-market tabloid. They have always kind of interested me because I don’t understand them at all. Who reads them, are they held to any journalistic standard, and how they get their stories. I think it fits into the assignment pretty well and would but fun to write. Other topics I can think of are very doable but awfully boring.
For the younger genre, I was thinking of doing something like a board game. I understand that a board game isn’t exactly a textual genre but boardgames instructions are. If I make good enough instructions I think I can do a good job of relating the essence of my article and analyzing the audience a purpose etc. This is kind of a stretch I realize, but I think I could do a good job with it. Other ideas are more tech-y since when I think of young kids today I think of tech. App descriptions, pewdiepie videos, and apple terms and conditions all pop into my head when thinking about writing a genre for young people. These are iffy genres at best though. Another solid idea I had was act/sat prep stuff or AP questions. I could write up AP questions that has to do with my topic or I could write a act/sat prep guide about my topic.
Topic:
To be honest I am still a little confused on what the topic is supposed to be like. We are supposed to extract the “essence” of the scholarly piece then use that essence as the base for our new genres. However, to me, the essence of a scholarly piece can really only be the content of what’s within. So if i’m wrong about this, then please correct me because I have no idea. Moving on, unless otherwise instructed, I will be using the content of the scholarly piece as my essence. As such, I want my article to be broad enough for me to write a ballad on, yet playful enough to make into a board game. Marine biology keeps popping into my head because I can easily enough write a ballad about life under the sea, and I can relatively easily make a board game that teaches the players about sea life or takes place under water. If I can not do either of those genres, then I will have to change my topic probably. If I have to do super market tabloids and AP questions, I might choose an article that has to do with divorce. I could write a super market tabloid about the divorces of celebrities, and write a statistics questions and a literature question that has to do with divorce. Once I figure out the genres that I am doing definitively, then I will choose a topic that fits into those genres effectively. That shouldn’t be to hard.
If all else fails, I’ll just write a ballad about writing a ballad which fits under Option 3(self-referential genre). I really want to write a ballad.
I always love reading your stuff. I feel like you have a very unique way of thinking and I really wish I was as creative as you. In terms of the essence, that is what I thought too. I want to keep a similar idea throughout all my pieces so that the “essence” will not be lost. However, I do feel like that might make my project boring and similar to the ones Zack showed us in class, which kept the same topic throughout and didn’t think outside the box. I think you are on the right path in terms of ideas but unfortunately I am just as confused as you are so maybe I am not the best source of input. I love the self-referential genre idea. I was thinking of doing something like that too but I am afraid of going so outside the box that I completely miss the point of the assignment. I feel like maybe that’s how you feel too?
ReplyDeleteDominic,
ReplyDeleteI don’t want to crush your broadside dreams (seriously). I like the idea of students experimenting with genres they’re interested in, so go for it—now we just need to think about how to make it work.
Ask yourself: is this used in any way/shape/form today? I feel like it might be used for some advertisement-related purposes… festivals? Bars? Protests? I feel like there’s got to be a chance, so if you can think of an actual use for it TODAY, then yes, do it.
However, one big question I have for you is: what’s the original basis for your transformation? What will you be basing this transformation on? Do you have a scholarly article in mind? And is this going to be the transformed genre to an older audience? Or is this something along the “Option 3” lines? Will you be using this broadside to bring the “Writing 2 concepts” to life? Or could this be a self-referential genre? Or could you combine the “bring Writing 2 to life” with the self-referential genre idea? Hey, you’re a super-creative dude, so that could work. Whatever you choose to do, please do so purposefully. Have a specific plan about what you’re trying to accomplish.
As far as the “essence” of a scholarly article goes, that all depends. It might help to think in terms of argument or the researchers’ ultimate point—or maybe what they did really, really well. Consider the difference aspects of the IMRAD structure—each section has a very distinct purpose/function in a scholarly article. The “I” (Intro) of a scholarly piece lays out relevant background on what’s been found on the issue being researched, and it acknowledges many previous studies and what they’ve checked out. Is that “I” at all related to what’s on the cover of a broadside? Does it lay out the background of the issue and let the audience know what the song/piece is about? Or is the cover of a broadside more like the research questions—does it ask questions that pique people’s interest in the piece? Or, I don’t know, is it somehow related to the findings/results (the “R”)? You mentioned that the songs are scandalous—does scandal play a part in the either the IMRAD structure? Or perhaps you could find a scholarly piece about scandal…
Lots and lots of wiggle room. I’ve probably asked you too many questions, but most of all, I want you to do 2 things: (1) have a firm reason(s) for whatever you’re doing and (2) have fun with it.
Z
ReplyDeleteAlright Dominic, I am quite surprised about how much you really want to write this ballad. But hey, if you are motivated to do it, then go for it man. However, aren’t there examples of ballads that are more modern and don’t go as far back as the 1600’s. Maybe if you can find an example like that Zack won’t be as against it as he is right now. Another thing, I think that your younger audience genre is a good idea. I don’t know if you are thinking about making the whole board game or just the instructions, but it’s a good idea. However, something like instructions to a board game has a different format that it is written in. So I think that you should look into that before writing it. Then finally, I am going to do the same thing that you are doing for the essence of your topic. I am just going to use the content too. So don’t feel alone in doing that. Anyways, I think that you have the right idea in what you are doing here. I hope you do a great job and have fun!
To hopefully help guide you out of confusion, the topic, as far as I am concerned, can be about anything! Just make sure you search your topic as a scholarly peer-reviewed source. Once you have that you can take any aspect of that scholarly source (structure, topic, whatever) and apply it to absolutely any two genres, one being adult another for youth. I do not see the topic or the genre relying on each other at all. You just need to use your creativity and make it work like the sci-fi genre generator and how they combined random topic with a research paper genre. Also spend more time on discussing the actual ways in which you will structure and create these genres. For instance, the moves you plan to make, the tone, diction, audience age bracket, rhetoric. You spent more time on discussing your concerns and thoughts rather than what you may do for the WP3 project.
ReplyDelete