"Critiquing and Changing Genres" and "Getting Personal"

All decisions writers make are creative decisions. Writers must be creative because, although there is room for interpretation within each genre, there are also conventions that create limits. We, as the audience, use these conventions to discuss and critique a piece of work. In order to analyze a genre, one must look below the surface of the writing to discover meaning, which can help the reader better understand the work. Another part of analyzing a genre is critique, which asks the reader to question and evaluate the assumptions of the work, discovering its strengths and weaknesses. Critiquing genres allows us to compare its purpose and the objectives and assumptions of the scene it functions within. “Genres change as the people who use them and the scenes in which they are used change.” As we make new discoveries and new advances, new genres are made to accommodate them. New genres most often develop as the result of revisions of previous ones. Changes in genre can lead to changes in the ways that people interact and communicate.