Investigating Genres

                            In this post, I will investigate genres, specifically reference guides.

Million_Miki. "Spaghetti" Publication Date Unknown. via Photobucket. Public Domain.

1. Quick reference guides are extremely important. The majority of the time we engage text in the real world, we don't have time to read lengthy text. As a general rule of thumb, laconic is best. Quick reference guides are nice because they condense the information from a larger body of work and cut out the extraneous details. The only downside is that often times these quick reference guides fall back on archetypes, or the editor's interpretation of the author's work.

2. Readers can find these genres when they are looking online for new articles. People often think political articles are the primary users of quick reference guides, such as FOX News and CNN, but the better example in my opinion is a recipe book. You don't have time to read paragraphs about how to cook spaghetti and meatballs. A bullet-point list of ingredients and instructions not only suffices, but works much better!

3. Anyone and everyone uses quick reference guides. Long bodies of text are primarily for learning new information, such as technical skills that require detailed instructions, or to hear somebody's opinion. However in daily life and routine, we go through the motions and don't wish to hear new things, so shortcuts and abbreviated works are preferential.

4. The key features of this genre is that it assumes that you already have a brief understanding of the subject matter. If it is a reference guide about how to assemble a bunk bed, then it already assumes you possess the knowledge to hit a hammer and can use a screwdriver. It makes assumption about the reader and assumes fruition/basic understanding of the subject premise.

5. In my own words, a quick reference guide is a how-to guide, or a brief rundown of the particular course matter. It is extremely important because in day to day life, we don't have time to keep reviewing things we have already learned, so we take shortcuts to cut to the nitty-gritty of the topic.