Academic Discourse and Genre

In this post, I will be discussing things that I have learned after looking through the academic journal Engineering and Mining Journal.

"Academic Journal Markets" via jisc.ac.uk.  Open Access.

How many different kinds of genres seem to be published in this particular issue of the journal you selected? (Remember, genres are usually identifiable by their form, content, techniques and/or social function.)

The two discernible genres that were published in the journal are news articles, which are similar in style to quick reference guides, and advertisements.  A third genre that showed up a couple of times is a genre that describes important people.



If you don't know the 'official' names for these different genres, come up with names for the yourself. Identify at least three different genres within the journal issue and describe the significant formal differences between the three genres (that is, what are the key differences or characteristics that seem to be unique and distinguish them from other kinds of texts?). 
Now come up with your own definition for each genre (using the name you coined, if you weren't sure what the 'official' name is for the genre). Be sure to explain what you percieve to be the purpose of each genre and how each genre might meet the needs and expectations of a target audience.

The first genre that was relevant is a news article.  News articles are similar to quick reference guides in that they contain bold headings, subheadings, pictures, and figures which help split up the information and make the information easy to digest.  Then there are the advertisements which generally contained large images of the product that captures the eye.  Within the picture are big buzz words to again capture the reader's attention.  Advertisements contain contact information for people interested in the products.  A third genre is something of a people describer.  Pictures of people are shown followed by descriptions of who they are and why they are important.

 The people describer genre is almost like a really short news article in which the "story" is the person.  Advertisements are different from everything in terms of style, but they have the same purpose as the other two genres:  inform the reader.  However, ads have the additional purpose of persuading people to buy/learn more about a product.  News articles and people describers are there to inform the reader, and most likely entertain (although it depends on the author).