Raquel Scalzo ENC 1102 Genre Analysis In general genres are known as categories that literature are broken

down and categorized into based on the content of the text. But Amy Devitt, a professor at Kansas University, wrote an article explaining that there is more to genres than just what meets the eye. Devitt explains that genres are responses to repeated rhetorical situations within discourse communities (Devitt 273). Based on this definition the comparison of three autopsy reports from three different medical examiners will show proof that repeated rhetorical situations create a discourse community all its own. Being that the autopsy papers are not from the same medical examiners office, I plan to prove that even though they correspond to different cases there are similarities that reassure all papers of this type create a discourse community. There are differences though because they are not from the same office but they are not substantial and all the same basic information can be found on these forms. I also attempted to get variety when choosing which forms I used to compare, I used a medical examiner from Florida, a medical examiner from New York, as well as the autopsy report from a highly watched case by the media, the Trayvon Martin case, which was also in Florida. I added the Trayvon Martin autopsy report to see if there were any significant differences between well known cases and not well known cases and cases that are being watched by the public day by day. Like Devitt mentions these three reports have repeated rhetorical situations which in turn helps create their own genre of literature. It is clear by analyzing all three that the medical examiner discourse community is determined to be efficient as well as neat in all their work and reports that are published. All three reports are very similar portraying the rhetorical situations that Devitt mentions.

The reports all begin at the top with the medical examiners information so it can be found without difficulty and the medical examiner that performed the exam is easily identified by anyone reading the report. The only report with a logo on it, is the report from New York, which includes the Westchester County Seal in the left hand corner of all the pages. Common to all three reports is the background information on the victim, including height age, weight, gender, date of birth as well as date of death. The final diagnosis is also included in the beginning stages of all three reports; it is clear that in this discourse community the most imperative information is placed at the beginning so it is effortlessly found for people in all areas of law enforcement to revisit at later times and dates. The reports are very long in length with little white space showing that the medical examiners use all the space that they have for the information they are notifying the police. The reports all also neatly typed in either paragraph form or outlined in a neat manner that makes them organized and legible to all readers. All the headers to each section are in caps locked, underlined or both that way each heading is easily found if the reader is searching for a particular part of the report at a fast pace which may happen often in a court or police setting. At first glance it is not obvious but after going through each one it is apparent that the autopsy report for Trayvon Martin is much different from the other two. This report is almost double the size of both the others and also includes the written report as well as the typed report whereas the other two were only typed. I liked being able to see the written report because it showed I was unable to read the handwriting and being that the reports are typed is a big factor in efficiency that the discourse community is trying to

support. This report also had a diagram to show wounds on the body and give a visual to the reader of what the medical examiner saw and where, not only by words but with graphics as well. I found it interesting that this autopsy report was so different from the other two because this was such a well-known case which makes me question whether or not this report was more in depth for that reason alone. Does more effort and detail go into reports that are controversial and closely watched by the public and the media simply because of the fact that the medical examiners name and career could be on the line? None the less this does not take away from the detail and effort that were put into the other reports because all three successfully provide detailed analyses of the deaths and fulfill their purpose in the judicial system. The repeated rhetorical situations prove that in a medical examiners profession the most important aspect of their reports is to be neat to create efficiency for the next person who is reading the report.

Works Cited (Devitt, Amy. Generalizing about Genre. College Composition and Composition. Volume 44. 4. 573. 1993. Print.