The essay entitled “Navigating Genres” by Kerry Dirk addresses composition students as the intended audience. The author immediately grabs the reader’s attention by telling a joke regarding country music lyrics. The joke was not only entertaining, but helps students understand how genres might apply to their writing. Dirk’s motivation for this essay is to expand a student’s definition of genre and improve awareness of how genres function. The author, who is also a teacher, admits writing to students in an informal manner, such as this essay, is rare. Therefore, this is a new writing genre for the author. Dirk further describes the bad reputation ‘genre’ had in the past, but has made a comeback, in part due to rhetorician, Lloyd Bitzer.
