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Audrey Arellano

Professor Gardiakos

ENC1102

15 September 2022

Genre Analysis and Intertextuality

We are familiar with the concept of discourse communities requiring certain criteria in

order to function socially and understand each other to work towards their shared goal. This

includes but is not limited to communication and language, but another important subject to this

would be genre. Genre is what the community shapes their content into a platform that will

effectively reach their equals or audience. Knowing how to dissect and write the genre within a

discourse community is critical for constructively conveying your message.

For a research community, a research paper, article, or journal is the most straightforward

platform for displaying and sharing said research. Rhetorically speaking, the research article is

the genre for the research community. Furthermore, much like any other form of writing, there

are going to be elements of intertextuality, where the author is taking content from other sources

and working the information into their own writing. In the article A Time to Dream: Black

Women’s Exodus from White Feminist Spaces, we are presented with an academic paper of no

personal bias, where researches focus on BIPOC and black women’s struggle to not only fight

for survival, but also for their rights as women. Without even having to read the article, the

audience can immediately form the idea of what kind of problem is going to be addressed in this

article. In order to follow the nature of this genre, there needs to be a sort of pull, in this case the

header, that gets the reader interested without boring them. Due to the nature of this research

article, it is most likely that the discourse community involved in this topic and the ones that are
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going to be reading this would be other researchers specializing in gender studies and activism,

as the entirety of this article explains the problem with racism and predominately white, yet

women based communities.

The article as a whole focuses on the main question of what these black women have to

endure and what changes can society do in order to help them live a more peaceful and equal

life? However, in order to do so, the authors had to organize their thoughts and information,

especially when there are a lot of facts and explanations to do. Typically, this genre with this

kind of question will first state the problem, for example it is the corruption and struggles of

POC in their workplace, followed by an explanation, why these struggles are so impactful, and

closes it with a solution. This article specifically does in fact follow this format, making it easier

to read, especially for a piece of writing that is on the longer side, and the authors also utilize

headers before every chunk of writing that may have a different direction from another section in

the article. For example, one header within the article says “A Dream and Promise for Something

New” and then they proceed to explain temporary bliss and empty promises, however there is no

long term fix to the systemic problems in this institution. It is something eye-catching, and it still

shows passion for the topic without making it feel too personal and too biased, which helps keep

it grounded and professional. This is why the researchers writing these research papers need to

consider the kind of word choice they use because at the end of the day, this is an academic

paper that is going to be shared with other scholarly peers and needs to maintain that kind of

sophistication to establish credibility as a writer and a researcher in the discourse community.

This genre requires the author to balance the flow of content, evidence, commentary, and

emotion all while keeping it relevant to the topic. It is one thing to have all of the information
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written in one piece of writing, but if it is not displayed in an organized manner, it will become a

difficult and uninteresting reader and overall will not make any sense.

A research paper is not a research paper without the actual research. This is where

intertextuality comes into play. The authors of A Time to Dream: Black Women’s Exodus from

White Feminist Spaces, Staci M. Perryman-Clark, Mariam Konate, and Jennifer Richardson, did

not collectively come up with the exact same idea and write an entire article based on their own

cognitive thinking. It may have inspired them, but nothing in this article is purely original and

that is completely normal for this kind of genre. In fact, citing your resources and using quotes

and statistical information from other documents within the article is almost a required practice.

It shows that you truly did your research, which makes sense since this is quite literally a

research article. Not only blah blah blah

*now talk about james porter and the intertextuality in this article*

\q

●
Article focuses on BIPOC and black women’s struggle to not only fight for survival
(discrimination, accusations, stereotypes, equity as humans) and rights as women
START WITH WHAT GENRES ARE CREATED IN THIS DISCOURSE COMMUNITY AND
HOW THEY USE INTERTEXTUALITY
AND THEN ALSO START WITH THE BEGINNING OF THIS ARTICLE IN PARTICULAR
● Struggle as a woman comes with dealing with a sexist AND racist society
○ Toxic, PWI, yet women communities
● Opening of the article catches the attention of scholars “Scholarship in rhetoric and
composition explores intersections between race and gender…”
● A discourse community represents ways of speaking, writing, and doing that
relate to the common public goal of that group.
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1. In what discourse community does this article exist?

Directed towards other scholars in this field, specifically those that may specialize in gender
studies and activism.
- THIS IS THE DISCOURSE COMMUNITY

2. What kinds of research questions are important in this community?

3. What question is your article asking?

How to combat this problem (write a more specific question when your brain is working later :)
- “A Dream and Promise for Something New” section in article
It’s one thing to say you care going to combat a problem, but it is another to take action and
pursue your goals

4. How is this article representative of the features of a research community?

- Uses multiple references
- Includes credit at the end for everything used/works cited page
- Academic resources
- No bias/no personal feelings/straight facts
-

5. What are the organizational characteristics (parts) of this genre?

- Headers for the topics addressed throughout the articles
- These headers proceed in a manner that keeping the overall situation moving
- Stated problem, explained problem, how to solve problem
- Relative information and commentary to keep the narrative moving
- Statistics and quotes

6. Why these choices?