A genre is a type of communication that comes from a particular recurring occasion and is used to respond to that same or a similar occasion. For example, one writes emails at work to communicate about problems and progress on business developments, generally. We write texts to stay in contact with friends and family.

Genres meet audience expectations for content, structure, and style. Those three things vary, depending on the genre. Genres are “flexible” in that writers can adapt them to meet specific needs.

• Individual Reflection: Think about something you might need to write in the future. How will knowing about genre—about recurring occasions, content, structure, and style—help you?

• In other words: how do you plan to use this knowledge to help you in future writing tasks?