Project 3: How do communities shape writing, or how does writing shape communities?

What is a genre? This is the question which i will explain further and answer in project 3. Most people have relatively the same idea of what they believe a genre is, which is a classification of movies or music. Such as country music or action movies, yet there is a much different meaning of the word genre’s when it comes to discourse communities.

Genres are around us everyday, new and reoccurring ones. As Dirk states, “when something new happens that requires a response, someone must create that first response…genres develop because they respond appropriately to situations that people encounter repeatedly.” Dirk continues to go on to explain how situations that are experienced for the first time create the setting for the genre. Such as the first state of the union given by George Washington. He was the first one to give such a speech and had no outline to go by, but since then there have been many state of the unions with similar layouts to the first.

Dirk goes on to explain the importance of genres by stating, “knowing what a genre is used for can help people to accomplish goals, whether that goal be getting a job by knowing how to write a stellar resume, winning  a person’s heart by writing a romantic love letter, or getting into college by writing an effective personal statement”. This further explains the necessity to know what the matter at hand is, and there will a genre to go along with it. And if there is not, then you, yourself are going to create the outcome and layout of that specific genre.

Now that we have the notion and idea of what a genre is, I will go ahead and discuss the different genres that take place within my local Santa Barbara surfing discourse community. And the first of that would be the local weather forecast on 17ft.com. The website tells you the forecast for the week in many different categories, from swell height, peak period, average period, swell direction, tide, and detailed graphs and maps of the region. And the projections are reliable, they have their projected analysis in red and the actual in blue. In the screenshot below you can see the accuracy and detail.

 

Not only is it a good place to check the report and swell, but not anyone can read the buoys and know the best spots to surf. That is where local knowledge comes in, anyone can see that the waves are coming in at 6ft at 13 seconds with a little south wind but not everyone knows where the best spot in Santa Barbara county is the best to surf in these conditions.

Another local source of information and reading for the surfing community in Santa Barbara would be Bliss Magazine, they are free at most of the local surf shops. And they cover everything form local up and coming talent to the latest events and tour info. That is the WSL tour events, world surfing league. Speaking of which the next event that is coming up is the premier of the new Volcom surf movie, Psychic Migrations on Sept 17th down in Newport. But not only is it a local news source for the surfing community it also gives local artists a chance to showcase their work by having a new artist featured in each magazine.

 

It not only appeals to males either, it often times showcases new bikini lines and female surfers that are changing the way we look at the sport.

Another genre within the surfing community would be Surfing Mag and Surfer Mag, they are international and cover the latest events and happenings of the surf community. They have articles that everyone can relate to about traveling, girls and just life in general. Not only that but they have articles of surf destinations that many of us have never even heard of, getting surfers all around the globe to travel there, meet and advocate the global surfing community as a whole.

 

Sources:

Dirk, Kerry. “Navigating Genres.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Eds. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Parlor Press, 2010. 249-262.

“Santa Barbara Surf Report.” Santa Barbara Surf Report.m N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Aug. 2015.

“It Works | SURFER Magazine.” SURFER Magazine. N.p., 31 Dec. 2013. Web. 04 Sept. 2015.

“A Discussion on Style.” Surfingthemag.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Aug. 2015.