Genre Analysis

In the discourse community of accounting which is a community that files taxes and
makes sure all funds are going to the right places and all accounted for. From this discourse
community I have gathered three different tax forms, the 1040, 1040EZ, and the 1099 which all
serve different purposes. The 1040 is for an individual income tax return, 1040EZ being for a
joint income tax return, and lastly the 1099 being for the employer to fill out for their employees
whom they have supplied income. To link all of this with genre I got this quote from Devitts
essay about genre In particular, Miller defines genres as "typified rhetorical actions based in
recurrent situations" (159). Although potentially deriving from Aristotle or Burke, the connection
of genre to rhetorical situation has been most frequently drawn from the 1968 work of Lloyd
Bitzer.(Devitt 576) she is a long time professor at many universities and if she supports it I
know it is a good one and I believe it fits nicely with the documents that I compiled from my
discourse community of accounting. All of these being from the official Internal Revenue
Service website which is the overall authority in the accounting discourse community if these
forms are not done by the intended persons to fill them out there are major problems with not just
this discourse community also with the larger communities such as the government. All of the
articles I have gathered to showcase my genre are in the style of forms and this is the best
possible way that the information could be delivered from this discourse community.
The different tax forms are all split into sections and they have numbered steps that are
most likely there for ease of the person filling it out, yet many people are always hiring
accountants to do their taxes because it is simply easier than filling out the forms or simply the
forms are just plain confusing to the person filling them out and that just might be why these
forms are made to be how they are, designed by accountants for accountants basically. The

normal person unless they have been taught or gone through training on how to file or do their
own taxes will either need an accountants help or they can buy a tax program all in the end
causing businesses to profit, and this even happens on a large scale because many employers,
such as cell phone companies hire thousands of accountants to work for them because they need
people trained in these fields to do the work in which others cannot which directly relates to the
small scale.
In all of the forms that I gathered all the sections are boxed off and some are numbered in
order to complete them, the tax forms are all meant to be grouped and gathered together in the
neatest format possible to make it uniform most likely because every adult in the united states
that has income, unless it is un reported, fills out these forms and it is illegal if you dont not file
for income taxes, which is how the three forms I gathered all relate, but the person who fills them
out and for who changes between each one. All the forms have a common goal and that is for,
who the form is intended for, to get their taxes filed and stay out of trouble and that correlates to
the common goal of the accounting community which is to get taxes filed as many accountants
are hired by working citizens to do their taxes for them.
Tax forms ask questions like What is your salary or wage? What is the value of all
your assets? and many other questions concerning your personal income or payments, and these
are not things that many people do discuss with others or will not because they believe it is very
private information not to normally be discussed, yet so many people put all of this information
on these forms and sent off to be seen by someone who they dont even know and are told it is
confidential information, but how can anyone know that this is actually true but people continue
to send it purely because they are told to. It could be the threatening consequences that everyone
is aware of or it could be because the way the forms are written, they are written in a non-

invasive manner because you are simply just following the steps that are given on the sheet
instead of question after question, and it could allow a sense of accomplishment to arise when
the person is getting closer and closer to the final steps because no one wants to spend their free
time doing taxes.
The main goal for tax forms 1040, 1040EZ, and 1099 are all for people to fill them out to
file for income taxes but I believe in this genre it is more than just simply to fill out tax forms,
these forms help support the accounting discourse community and supply jobs to many
accountants although the overlying goal is to fill them out. Although I am sure the IRS doesnt
want legal trouble, when an accountant or a citizen does not file for taxes with the forms they
supply the IRS takes legal action resulting in punishment for a crime because the IRS oversees
the whole discourse community and people outside of it as well. Without considering the effects
of the forms being confusing the general person will just blindly hire an accountant to do the
forms for them without even realizing that they are completing the underlying goal of the forms,
this is an extremely beneficial goal that is accomplished extremely well.

Works Cited
Devitt, Amy J., Anis Bawarshi, and Mary Jo Reiff. "Materiality and Genre in the Study of
Discourse Communities." College English 65.5 (2003): 541-58. Web.
Devitt, Amy J. "Generalizing about Genre: New Conceptions of an Old Concept." College
Composition and Communication 44.4 (1993): 573-86. Web.
"Forms & Publications." Forms & Pubs. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.