Genre Analysis

Angela Clayborne
University of Central Florida
During this section of the class, a big focus has been on genre and its
importance to various discourse communities. Before I elaborate more on
how genres are essential to discourse communities, I want to establish a
clear definition of genre in context to this paper by using a quote from Mary
Jo Reiff. Mary Jo Reiff, an assistant professor of English and the director of the
composition program at the University of Tennessee, states that, As typical
responses to repeated social situations, genres are rhetorical maps that chart
familiar or frequently traveled communicative paths (Devitt, Bawarshi, Reiff,
2003). In other words, genres are the solutions or the guidelines to different
situations that have been repeated by many people over time. So what does
this have to with discourse communities? Well, genres are used as methods
of communication between members of a particular discourse community
and sometimes members outside of the community. Without genres, there
would be no standard way or no format for communication within a discourse
community. In addition to communication, genres can be used to help a
discourse community achieve its goals. In this paper, Im going to decipher
just how genres help a discourse community, in this case the psychiatric
discourse community, achieve some of its goals and what they can reveal

about a discourse community by extensively analyzing the participants, the

format and structure, and the content of three different examples of the
same genre of case studies.
Background and Participants
The three case studies I analyzed were titled Risk Factors for Binge Eating
Disorder (Fairburn, et al., 1998), Childhood Sexual and Physical Abuse as
Risk Factors for the Development of Bulimia Nervosa (Welch & Fairburn,
1996), and Psychiatric Risk Factors for Adolescent Suicide (Brent, et al.,
1993). I retrieved these case studies from the Journal of the American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the Archives of General
Psychiatry, and the journal of Child Abuse and Neglect. In order to access
each of the three case studies online, one must pay to subscribe to the
online databases; however I was able to access them through the UCF
library. This alone shows who can participate with this text. Unless you are a
college student who has free access to databases through the school or
someone, possibly a psychiatrist, who can pay for the subscription through
their practice or company, you may be unable to or deterred from accessing
these case studies. This text doesnt invite the person with mere interest or
curiosity in the topics covered in the case studies to participate. The
language in these case studies also provides insight into who is invited to
participate with this text. The introduction in each case study defines and
explains the topics discussed to a level where anyone with basic literacy
skills can understand; however, throughout the rest of the text, there is

language used that only someone with certain knowledge can understand.
For example, one sentence in the case study Psychiatric Risk Factors for
Adolescent Suicide states, By design, completers and controls were
matched with respect to age, M=17.1 (SD=1.9) versus 17.3 (1.6) years,
gender (both 85.1%male), SES (for completers I and II, 31.4%; III, 26.9%; IV
and V, 44.8%; for controls I and II, 20.9%; III, 34.3%; IV and V, 44.7%), and
county of origin (35.8% versus 34.3% from Allegheny County) (Brent, et al.,
1993). This sentence isnt a common sentence that just any average reader
could comprehend. In order to understand this sentence, one must have
great knowledge in statistics. The participants of this text show that, in
relations to this particular genre, while the psychiatric discourse community
may try to be inclusive to nonmembers, such as scholars or college students,
their main audience is members of the discourse community.
Format/Structure
In studying the three examples of case studies, Ive noticed many
similarities in the structure and format of each case study. Each of the three
case studies includes an abstract before the introduction that includes the
background/objective, methods, results, and conclusions. This summarizes
the whole case study and allows the reader to determine if this case study
will be useful to whatever topic he or she is researching. It is also very
beneficial in time management because often psychiatrists or other people
that find case studies useful dont have the time to read the whole document
to determine if it will be useful. One goal of psychiatrists is to diagnose,

treat, and prevent mental illnesses in a timely manner. Frequently,

diagnosing, treating, and preventing mental illnesses involves research and
examining case studies, and the inclusion of an abstract before the actual
case study helps the discourse community achieve its goal of time efficiency.
Following the abstract is the introduction, subjects and methods, results,
discussion/conclusion, and references at the end. These are the main
subtitles, and in two of the case studies they are bolded, and in one case
study, it is in normal print but is in the middle of the page and has spacing
before and after it. The variation in the way the subtitles are typed to make
them stand out shows that the discourse community doesnt focus much on
how these subtitles are displayed as long as they stand out from the basic
content of the text.
One feature of each case study that stood out to me was that right after
the main title in each of the three case studies the authors are listed. Theyre
placed right in the center of the page and have spacing around them that
makes them stand out. This reveals that this discourse community finds
authorship to be very important. In fact, one of the communitys goals is to
give proper credit where it is due, and putting the authors names in a
strategic location to where they stand out helps the community achieve this
goal.
Content

The content reveals a plethora of information about the discourse

community and its goals. When examining each of the three case studies,
right off the bat I realized that each of the three case studies mainly uses
appeals to logos and ethos. All three case studies include percents and data
like p<.001 (Fairburn, et al., 1998) and SD=4.9 (Welch & Fairburn, 1996)
throughout the text. Additionally all three texts include at least two tables,
either in the middle or at the end of the case study, that describe the
quantitative data from the study, and various parts in the text make
reference to these tables. Also, the authors names that are listed at the
beginning of the text include some of their credentials beside their name,
and throughout the study, one will find many citations.
Another key feature in these case studies are the inclusions of key words.
Two out of the three case studies I examined included key words right
beneath the abstract. For example, in the case study I examined that was
studying psychiatric risk factors for adolescent suicide, the key words
included were suicide, depression, conduct disorder, substance abuse, and
adolescent (Brent, et al., 1993).
Additionally, I noticed that in each of the case studies in the methods
section, not only how the study was conducted was explained but also how
the participants were recruited was given in full detail. One of the case
studies even uses three paragraphs to describe exactly how the participants
were recruited, whether it was random sampling or some other form of

sampling participants, a little background on the participants, and the

qualifications they had to fulfill to be a part of the case study.
Each of these features of the content of the case studies demonstrates
different facts about the psychiatric discourse community and its goals. The
extensive use of logos appeals and lack of pathos appeals show that the
members in this community are convinced less with words and more with
quantitative data. The quantitative data is displayed throughout the text
because it shows validity and allows other readers to understand the basis of
the conclusions made in the text. Validity of research and study is a major
goal of this community and having the quantitative data displayed
throughout the study each step of the way helps the community achieve this
imperative goal. The key words included beneath the abstract allow the case
studies to be shown when certain searches are conducted that include the
key words listed. This allows the search engine to filter out the case studies
that are not relevant to what the researcher is researching and display those
that are more beneficial to the researcher, thus saving time. Also inclusion of
key words better ensures the author/s that their research will be shown when
a search is conducted related to their topic of study. Time efficiency, as
mentioned earlier, and the sharing of research are goals of this discourse
community as well. Finally, the detailed description of how participants are
recruited in the methods section gives insight into the community and helps
it achieve one of its goals. When conducting research and studies,
researchers wants to ensure that they have acquired non-biased samples,

otherwise their results will be skewed and will not be representative of the
population. Likewise, those accessing the studies want to know that the
samples were acquired in the proper manner so they can determine the
validity of the conclusions. These are two goals that both are achieved by the
inclusion how participants are obtained in the methods section.
Conclusion
In general case studies are used in the psychiatric discourse community for
communicating research that has been conducted, which achieves the goal
of communication among members and the sharing of research. However,
each part and section of this genre achieves a goal beyond just
communication like time efficiency and proving validity, as demonstrated in
this paper. Without this genre, there would be no standard format for
reporting the findings found in the case studies, and possibly not all of the
important details of the study that achieve certain goals of the community
would be included. This one particular genre is essential to the psychiatric
discourse community as are other genres to all other discourse communities.
Genres dont just serve as communicative tools but also as tools that reveal
what the discourse communitys mind set is and what they find important. It
gives insight into the communitys identity and what makes it unique.
Without genres, there would be no distinct discourse communities.

References
Brent, D. A., Perper, J. A., Moritz, G., Allman, C., Friend, A., Roth, C., . . . Baugher, M.
(1993). Psychiatric Risk Factors for Adolescent Suicide: A Case-Control Study.
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 521.
Devitt, A. J., Bawarshi, A., & Reiff, M. J. (2003). Materiality and Genre in the Study of
Discourse Communities. In College English (p. 553). National Council of
Teachers of English.
Fairburn, C. G., Doll, H. A., Welch, S. L., Hay, P. J., Davies, B. A., & O'Connor, M. E.
(1998). Risk Factors for Binge Eating Disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry,
425.
Welch, S. L., & Fairburn, C. G. (1996). Childhood Sexual and Physical Abuse as Risk
Factors for the Development of Bulimia Nervosa: A Community-Based Case
Control Study. Child Abuse and Neglect, 633-642.