Randall Collins ENC 1102 9/23/2013 Genre.

According to Devitt, genre is a classification system deriving from literary criticism that names types of texts according to their forms(573-574). Genre also represents its discourse community according to Devitt (Devitt, 543). What does this all mean? What makes a script a script? How does a script represent its discourse community? What defines the roles of each person working with the script? Scripts are used as means of communication in the acting/film industry. Without the script, actors wouldnt know their lines or actions and the production crew behind the scenes would be no help to aid in the success of the play/movie. Scripts are generally made easy to read for all those that read it. It takes very little background knowledge of font to understand this genre. With tons of white space and various uses of font, scripts make communication between actors, directors, producers, cameramen, etc. relatively easy.

The first example of my genre is One Act play. Directors, actors, and other production personnel are listed along with a brief summary of the play. Character description and setting are listed as well. The following pages of the script consist of the dialogue and actions of the characters. Each character is isolated by all capital letters and a period. The dialogue or actions follow that period. Actions are distinguished by parenthesizes after character names. Stage directions are also in parenthesizes but are surrounded by white space on the page to eliminate confusion between stage directions and character actions. Towards the end of the script there is a section of strict actions numbered to indicate the order of the actions. Everything related to the actual production of the one act is under the supervision of the

director. The director receives his or her power through experience a majority of the time. If one is announced to be the director of a play/movie/one act, everyone is to follow instructions from him or her. It is the directors vision that matters in this discourse community.

The second genre is a much shorter script meant for a skit. Very few aspects are the same. There are no actor or director names, just character description and setting. This is due to the fact that it is not a published play and it has probably been performed by unknown actors or even beginning actors. The white space around the text is relatively the same. Does this mean it cannot be considered a script or that it is not the correct genre for the discourse community? No. It is a different type of script, but nonetheless a script. Same genre, same discourse community. Skits are typically comedies and are often performed by new coming actors. Directors are not usually needed for skits, although they can be used. Power at this point has transferred from director to actor (depending on the purpose of the skit of course).

The last genre is a full play equipped with everything from the first two scripts and more. Full plays usually consist of three or more acts (Unlike the one act play, which is just one act). Since this is a fully published play, the playwright receives residuals each time it is under production by any group of people. These plays are not easy to find. In fact, they absolutely have to be purchased for one to even glance at the script. Published plays are usually longer than unpublished plays but it is not a characteristic to distinguish the two. The only true difference is that one went the process of publication while the other one did not (or was rejected).

In all three cases, the director has a majority of the power to control how the play is performed. Actors have little say in how they perform unless they have a good reputation in the acting industry. The ethics of a single person in the industry makes a huge difference about how much creativity they are allowed to offer to the discourse community. Actions and dialogue are distinguished by font and punctuation. Types of scripts are distinguished by length and sections. Without a script, the only way of communication in this field is word of mouth. Writing the script like a book would be too confusing. Scripts are recognizable by the structure they have developed over time. So to the question Do genres represent their discourse community?: The answer is yes. Genres tell readers what kind of discourse communities is being represented just by the structure. Over time people have developed stereotypes for genres so that they are easily recognizable.

Works Cited

Devitt, A.J.,(1993). Generalizing about Genre: New Conceptions of an Old Concept. College Composition and Communication, Vol. 44 (4) pp.575-584. 23 Sept. 2013

Devitt, Amy J., Anis Bawarshi, and Mary Jo Reiff. "Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities." 65.5 2003, pgs. 541-557. Web. 23 Sept. 2013.