Genre of web sites

2 WEB SITES SELECTED BY ME THIS WEEK.

FIRST: 50 TOOLS WHICH CAN HELP YOU IN WRITING

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/fifty-50-tools-which-can-help-you-in-writing.html


AUDIENCE I think the audience of this site could be all those who want to improve their writing in English

PURPOSE This site wants its audience to get out important information in order to write better. It is a community discourse because of a link which allows you to join the community created by the main site (which is http://www.lifehack.com/ ), and the presence of a specific section for comments and a forum. Furthermore, the fact that this site provides a complete archive of the previous posts and let the visitors subscribe even by e-mail, demonstrates that it wishes to widen the community.
However, you are not forced to subscribe to get information, because this site is open to everybody.

LANGUAGE FEATURES This site achieves its purpose in two ways: firstly, it deals with writing as a whole, dividing it up in 50 problem situations you might face when you start a paper, secondly, it provides hyperlinks for every situation. The hyperlink consists in a heading which sums up the problem and let the visitor see exactly what he is looking for: he has just to click on it, without reading the entire text.

The informal language used by the site indicates that the author believes that everyone can write in an accurate manner; for this reason, he decided to give clear instructions that a wide public can easily understand.

He did so by means of:

1. colloquial sentences such as:

• Wanna learn more
• The semicolon is what we called in driver education a "rolling stop." More muscular than the comma, it is most useful for dividing and organizing big chunks of information.
  Not here. I prefer tools, not rules.
  Scrape away these crustaceans during revision, and the ship of your prose will glide toward meaning with efficient speed and grace

2. direct questions

3. phrasal verbs

4. contractions

5. imperative forms such as:

• Click here
• Check out,

6. figurative language such as:

• Like a barricade in the middle of a street, the parenthesis forces the reader to drive around
• The comma is a signal to keep going -- but with caution; the semicolon is a speed bump; the parenthetical expression is a barricade; the colon announces a crossroads; the dash is a tree branch in the road

7. present tenses

8. both state and action verbs

Even the layout serves author’s purpose. Every link takes to a page, divided into different paragraphs according to topics, with an evident heading in bold and a few examples for each problem tackled. Sometimes, the author needs to quote some of his colleagues (he is probably trying to seem more professional) or to highlight pieces of information by shifting their position or font.

SECOND: -DR. GRAMMAR- FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

http://www.drgrammar.org/faqs/

AUDIENCE In my opinion the audience is quite wide, it includes all those who don’t want to make grammar errors in English (that is everybody, me, too)
However, James HiDuke (professor at the University of Northern Iowa) alias Dr. Grammar, seems to have focused on specific categories of people, but he does not rule out the possibility that his public might be wider.
These are his proper words:
if a) you are a student, faculty member or staff member of an educational institution (K-12, junior college, college or university); b) you are a United States federal, state or local government employee; or c) your use of the information is exclusively at home for non-commercial purposes. If you do not meet the requirements for free use of the information, you may make a request to…

PURPOSE In my opinion, the purpose of this site is answering grammar questions in order to let people improve their English knowledge and write and speak in a correct way.
This site provides only a few extracts of an English grammar. All this extracts had been selected personally by the “doctor” because he found them to be very useful to avoid common mistakes.

At once, I was sure that there wasn’t a community discourse in this site because of the lack of a forum or a section for comments. But, going on with my analysis, I found out that every time a person sends a question to the professor or click on a link to check a rule, she/he becomes part a community because she/he comes into contact with a shared universe.

LANGUAGE FEATURES Language is quite informal, but it is not as colloquial as the previous site. Dr. Grammar chose specific words coming from an online grammar; for this reason, the language is quite accurate and includes terms that an English learner can easily recognize.
The professor succeeded in stressing information and facilitating the reading by means of particular tags, such as warning, rule, example.

I think that the informal language used in this site is fundamental for reaching a wider public and creating a sort of community. On the other hand, the fact that the definitions given contain a mixture of formal (look at the definiton of grammar, for example) and informal language, increases the reliability of the site. I will be more explicit: students may appreciate this site because they find it very similar to their grammars but also clearer.
However, as far as graphics is concerned, the site shows some gaps. The hyperlinks (external and internal) are very scarce and this interfers with the reading because if you want to check a rule, you must scroll through the entire document. The fonts are fewer and the layout is rather static and old-fashioned.


OBSERVATIONS ON THE GENRE OF WEB SITES

During this week, we had to reflect upon the definition of genre. According to Sarah, I understood that genre is mainly linked to author’s purposes and the main instrument he/she has at his/her disposal to achieve them is language.

I’m perfectly convinced that language plays a vital role in communicative process. As a matter of fact, an informal or colloquial language can allow people to join a community creating a sense of belonging. On the other hand, a formal or technical language could make difficult to share information and compromise the reading of a text. In doing so, the language creates a sort of barrier between the author and his/her readers which can be both an obstacle to communication and an incentive to it. I have used the word “incentive” because I think that communication can also be selective, I’m thinking, for example, to a scientific community whose main purpose is research.
The members of this community use a particular kind of language that is one of the conditions for having a share in it: it is not open to everybody, but only to a specific group and adressed to a specific target.

I think that this genre has two main features: language and graphics.
Graphics plays an important role because of the visual impact of the Web.
This feature is particularly developed in blogs and web sites rather than narrative papers because of the many possibilities offered by technology.
When we read a book, we love loosing ourselves among words stream, but when we are surfing the Net, we don’t want to waste our time with unnecessary links. Where is the difference?Reading on line is much more difficult, so a well-thought out graphics is needed.

Now, I would like to go on talking about language.
In my opinion, web sites genre has not a specific kind of language.
What is really important is to chose a language which helps communication, it can be formal, informal or a mixture of them. As a matter of fact, one of the peculiar characteristic of blogs is the intersection of the public and private (see Into the blogosphere: home).

The web sites I have examined are only one of the various branches, composing this genre.
I believe they are part of the branch of education, English education, in particular.
They have more or less the same aim: teaching English to a wider public and make them improve their knowledge.

To sum up, it is very difficult to classify web sites genre.
When you want to talk about it, you have to consider the context the site is referring to and the aim of the author. Genre is variable because web sites types evolve rapidly and it is shaped by the feelings of the single person who is writing. So, perhaps, it is better to divide this genre in different classes, such as education, science, sport, diaries, etc. If you look at the definition of genre, you will find that is relating to text type.
A diary is a definite genre different from business letters, scientific papers, argumentative essays, but we can define a blog also as a diary, or better as an electronic diary.
So, what’s its correct genre?

Reflect upon it and let me know what your remarks are.

Francesca