Academic Discourse & Genre

For this blog post I skimmed through the journal issue and analyzed the different genres and their conventions and purposes.

Genres:

1. Introductory/Opening Article from the Editor-

"Transitions" it explicitly says "As I write this, the editorial team and I are preparing the first issue under my editorship. We are in a state of transition from one editor to the next, from one issue to the next."

2. Essay-

ex: "Good Guys Don't Rape: Gender, Domination, and Mobilizing Rape" it is formatted similarly to an article, the main difference being the headings and diagrams. The essay does not have any tables or images of statistics, it has indented paragraphs and is cleanly sectioned off by the headings "Gender," "Domination," and "Mobilizing Rape." There is no abstract, just an introductory.

3. Letter-

ex: "An Open Letter from Black Women to the Slutwalk" it is simple and straight to the point; there is an introduction, a subheading labeled, "The Issue at Hand" and one other subheading labeled "What We Ask."

4. Book Review-

ex: "Book Review: Mobilizing Piety: Islam and Feminism in Indonesia by Rachel Rinaldo" It differs from articles and essays because, "There is, of course, no set formula, but a general rule of thumb is that the first one-half to two-thirds of the review should summarize the author’s main ideas and at least one-third should evaluate the book." (Book Reviews, Indiana University)

5. Article-

ex: "Women in Power: Undoing or Redoing the Gendered Organization?" it has headings and subheadings, article notes, diagrams (statistics and graphs)

Figure 4

Purpose and target audience of each genre-

Opening Article From Editor: To explain what will be addressed in the rest of the issue's content and why it was chosen. The typical viewers of their journal, but also people interested in the absurd rise of rape happening left and right.

Essay: The multiple essays all have their own themes because the editors of Gender & Society reached out to several professors and authors who study/research different subjects (i.e. sociology, law) in order to get different perspectives on the issue of rape. All of the essays have the goal in mind of theorizing rape from their focused/speciality area of study.  I think the target audience depends on each essay's theme, but I think rape affects everyone, and therefore, the message is meant to be relayed to the people who might even least expect it.

Letter: The purpose of this letter is to show what social change and protest can do on the issue of rape. The letter's target audience is all women, but also American society.

Book Review: The book reviews do not relate to the theme of the journal's February issue (theorizing rape), necessarily, but the books are all related to gender and women's studies. I think their purpose in the issue is to critique and recommend books that readers of "Gender & Society" might be interested in. The target audience are all of the readers of the journal.

Article: The article's purpose is to encourage women leadership and shows the benefits to it- that it could lead to a decrease in gendered segregation in the workforce. The target audience is young women who can make this difference/change, or organizations/management who need to accept the change and facilitate it.