The article "Teaching Critical Genres Awareness" by Amy Devitt is not your everyday choice of reading. At first glance it seemed like nothing more than your average scholarly article, however, upon reading it the level of reading and use of description were almost incomprehensible for newly transfer student like myself. The thought of what is genre never fully encapsulated my mind as it did before I read this article. Just the other day a child at my work asked me what type of genre was her book. The option were as followed fiction, non-fiction, poetry or biography. This was my definition of genre for the most part before reading this article. But that is of no surprise as the article mentions not everyone can learn how to master a genre in a single moment in time.

Apparently, as the article would suggest, we've been exposed to different types of genres besides those I have learned from school and other educational agendas. Such assignments like biographies, narratives and persuasive essays school assigned me were the majority of my knowledge on genres.

Although I find these types of genres quite familiar and well known straying away from it and writing my own way has become almost foreign to me. As Devitt mentions that genres taught in schools "seem too embedded in the aims of the ruling power for teacher comfort" which to my understanding means writing it this way and you pass or else it means possible failure of the class (340). Such example would be the WPA that I'm sure everyone at San Diego State is familiar with. The WPA requires the writers to follow the prompt given which is the same every time and create an essay answering the following prompt and no more. To some this seems pretty straight forward but to others knowing what is required is milestone for those who have lived their lives writing with simple high school genres. From community college to WPA writings and finally to this writing course this will be an interesting first semester for me.

Moving along to what Devitt describes as "genres" to me seems as a sort of idea or construct that has evolved to be a social norm both in our culture and history. The term genre is very underestimated in its meaning and usage. In this class, for example, the professor uses memes to bring a message across which is a type of genre. And learning about such a broad term within my first week at San Diego State fills me with both anxiety and excitement of the writings I will come across during my stay at SDSU.

Because I work for the YMCA the structure of writing I use is that of a more casual style that one would use when talking to a friend or excited child. The reason being is most of my audience is that of children and scholarly readings would not suffice in such environment. Devitt describes genre awareness and its importance as something essential that provides us with the necessary tools to overcome the different types of genres we may come to face in our life time. Once learned to use a genre to the point it seems natural the easier it is to relate to your general audience of said genre. The better you are at differentiating genres in writings the more adept you are at overcoming everyday writings that would otherwise look difficult to relate to your average reader.

And that is my tale on Devitt article hope I did a good job.

Sincerely,

David G. Bobadilla