Lauren Ross February 26, 2013 English Project 2: Genre Analysis

Importance of Genre in an Incident Report

An important concept to learn and understand in English is genre. Although, there is much controversy about what exactly genre is, there has been great strides in narrowing that confusion. Throughout this genre analysis I am going to discuss a genre in my discourse community involving my major. I hope to help the understanding of genre by using examples from scholarly authors that have done research on this topic as well. The goal is to inform you of how important and helpful different genres can be to you by focusing on who, what, when and where the genre is used. There are many examples of the 4 Ws in Learning New Genres: The Convergence of Knowledge and Action by Anne Beaufort which will be further discussed later. I am going to discuss how these 4 Ws are important to an incident report. In the field of study I am involved in there are many different types of discourse communities. A discourse community is a grouping of people who share common language norms, characteristics, patterns, or practices as a consequence of their ongoing communications and identification with each other (Bazerman). Bazerman is also mentioned in the work done by Berkenkotter and Huckin where he did a study, the formation of a scientific discourse community and the development of appropriate discursive strategies for making claims about experiments that, in turn, reveal the inner workings of the natural world (p.497).

Within these discourse communities there are different forms of genre which are used to communicate with other people in that discourse community or even people outside of that discourse community. For example, location is an important part of understanding a genre which is supported by both Kerry Dirk and Carolyn Miller. Miller defends that, Situation serves primarily to locate a genre; it does not contribute to its character as rhetorical action (p.153). Understanding who you are writing too, what your surroundings are and the type of work you are doing is part of understanding your location. Dirk supports that statement by saying, Your goal is to recognize these shifts in location and to be aware of how such shifts might affect your writing (p.256). For example, if you were writing a text message to a friend you would talk differently than in a text message to your current boss. The first W that should be discussed is the what. What is the genre we are focusing on? The genre I am using in this genre analysis is an incident report. An incident report is used in all different types of fields of study but most importantly in the fields of Criminal Justice, Sociology or Criminology. An incident report is written up to identify a problem that is against a law or policy. A police officer, judge, investigator or boss would be the audience that evaluates an incident report. It is important to understand what an incident report is by seeking knowledge from the inside. In Rethinking Genre from a Sociocognitive Perspective, the authors Berkenkotter and Huckin suggest knowledge of genres is derived from and embedded in our participation in the communicative activities of daily and professional life (p.478). The importance of the location of a genre helps us answer one of the 4 Ws which is the where. Understanding where the location of the genre is can help you learn why someone talks, interacts and writes the way they do. In a discourse community of Police Officers the way they talk to someone else, how an email is written or the type of work they do is strongly based

on the type of community they are involved in. For example, their work has to be very detailed, serious and confidential. It is evident that in an incident report there should be very detailed and descriptive writing involved. Determining and evaluating an incident report can change many circumstances for the people involved and is why it is so important to explain everything exactly how it happened. In any field of study that you are unfamiliar with the genre it would be easy to misunderstand due to all the jargon. Another statement used to explain genre is to know that genre is a constantly changing term. Genres and discourse communities are constantly changing which makes it more difficult to understand the correct definition of each. For example, there is an assessment used by Probation Officers that has been recently renewed from the old version. This version is much more detailed and looks into more instances of the offenders past. Even though, it is hard for each discourse community to change a genre it is important to do so. This change in genre is to help protect society from offenders. Also, the fact that society continues to change can cause confusion and disruption in genre. The next concept to look at in an incident report would be the who that is involved. Typically in an incident report there is an offender and a victim. The person writing the incident report has to understand who their audience is going to be. If they were telling a friend about what happened it could be very casual, leaving out a few details. But in the discourse community of a Police Officer it has to be detailed so that it is clear who the victim and offender is. The details of the report can determine what happens to the person who committed the offense. Many times the audience will be a judge or boss who will determine this. With a lack of details, support and evidence it would be hard to do your job of finding someone guilty for a crime they committed.

Lastly, but not least the W that is helpful in this or any genre analysis is the when. In writing an incident report the next most important detail to knowing what actually happened is when it happened. This evidence can help prove or disprove someone committed this offense. The person who wrote the incident report could just be out to get a co-worker they do not like so by doing that they make an incident that really did not happen. By providing a time and date that the incident occurred could help the victim in this case. The victim could provide evidence that he/she was somewhere else at that exact time. Also, the when is used to determine whether the victim is found guilty or not. These 4 Ws have significant importance to all forms of genre. Also, by knowing how to use them correctly can make your writing more effective. For example, you do not want to put all of the Ws in one sentence. Each one needs to be explained and used in the most effective way for the audience. In an incident report it would be most effective to immediately state the date and time of which the incident occurred rather than explaining what happened and then oh and it happened at 9:20 pm Tuesday evening. Another key factor with incident reports is to get to the point. Yes, it needs to be detailed but the audience does not want to know what you ate yesterday for lunch then the incident. Be detailed but get to the point. Being able to use many different genres in your discourse community or any other discourse community can strongly help your versatility and capabilities within your workplace. It is important to use and understand genre in the correct way. I cant express how valuable it is to use the correct type of genre at because that can contribute to how employees, bosses, friends, or even co-workers evaluate, react, or respond to you.

In conclusion, I hope to have helped clarify some of the confusion about genre. I know that there may never be a concrete definition of it but this can be a start. Most importantly know that your understanding of genre can not only help you and your writing skills but with your audiences understanding as well. Through the research of many scholarly authors there have been many strides forward with genre.

Works Cited

Berkenkotter, Carol and Thomas N. Huckin. Rethinking Genre from a Sociocognitive Perspective. Written Communication. 10. 4 (1993): 475-509. Print. Beaufort, Anne. Learning New Genres: The Convergence of Knowledge and Action. Written Communication. (1990): 103-137. Print. Dirk, Kerry. Navigating Genres. 1. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, 2010. 249-262. Print. Miller, Carolyn. Genre As Social Action. 1984. 157-167. Print. Bazerman, Charles. Issue Brief: Discourse Communities. 1999-2013. Web. <http://www.ncte.org/college/briefs/dc >.