Uncovering Genre Through The "Termline"

For the “Build-A-Tool” activity, Mackenzie and I wanted to demonstrate the relationship between terminology and theorists that are integrated throughout the “Theories of Genre” readings.  In order to accomplish this, we decided to create an interactive, stackable “termline,” which would organize the readings by specific criteria.  Ultimately, we wanted to combine the functions of a glossary, timeline, and annotated bibliography, while primarily maintaining vocabulary and articles that circulate within the discussion of genre and collaborative learning.  In the spirit of collaborative learning, we wanted to ensure that searchers would have the capability to add additional sources, theorists, terms, and articles onto the stackable “termline”, which would allow the term to grow as new voices entered the field.

            Because Carolyn Miller integrates multiple voices in "Genre As Social Action," it is fitting to use this text to demonstrate how our "termline" synthesizes terms and theorists. She introduces theorists, such as Campbell and Jamieson, Burke, Karrell and Linkugel, Bitzer, Fisher, Wellek and Warren, Brinton, Patton, Halliday, Blumer, Searle, Toulmin, Pearce and Conklin, Downey, and Simons.  It was our hope that our tool would contain various organizational capabilities that could allow accessibility to these theorists and publications, while sorting and displaying the abstracts according to terminology.  For instance, Miller utilizes Campbell and Jamieson’s argument that “genre study is valuable…because it emphasizes some social and historical aspects of rhetoric that other perspectives do not” (151).  If the searcher was trying to obtain materials on this topic, Campbell and Jamieson’s “Form and Genre in Rhetorical Criticism: An Introduction” would appear beside Miller’s “Genre As Social Action,” allowing the searcher to compare theorists and time of publication.  For additional clarification, a visual example utilizing the term "audience" is provided below.

Ultimately, the aim of our tool is to build and create conversations among the theorists presented in our weekly, while expanding the conversation to additional sources.  Because the interactive, stackable “termline” synthesizes theorists, terms, and ideologies over the span of time, the searcher can also draw conclusions based in historical findings and contemporary ideologies.  This can prove to be beneficial when observing theoretical turns in genre study.

Works Cited

Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs., and Kathleen Hall. Jamieson. Form and Genre: Shaping Rhetorical Action. Falls Church, VA: Speech Communication Association, 1978. Print.

Miller, Carolyn. “Genre as Social Action.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 70.2 (1984): 151-67