In the essay “Navigating Genres” by Kerry Dirk, the writer illustrates the true meaning of genre to his audience by comparing writing to music genres, citing examples from other writers, and giving real life applications to using genres.

Dirk’s attention grabbing introduction kicks off with country music stereotypes. When people think about the subject matter of a country song, they notice that the lyrics constantly portray politics, patriotism, fictional stories, and depression. The author then asks the question, “If I wanted to write a country song that didn’t do any of the above things, would it still be a country song?” (Dirk 3). Dirk ties in this example with writing genres; for example, “Every thesis statement should introduce three points of discussion,” (Dirk 11). This is a typical method in writing a paper; in fact, I used it in the first paragraph.

Kerry Dirk also cited many other credible sources to support her claims, such as Professor Amy Devitt, Carolyn Miller, and Lloyd Bitzer. They all had similar thoughts; the pieces in certain genres tend to repeat themselves content-wise, and genres are necessary for distinguishing the context of the message. Dirk also gives some real life applications that people do on a daily basis. For example, updating a Facebook status or telling a joke is “recognizing the rhetorical situation of your action and choosing to act in a manner…” (Dirk 6). He states that all genres have their own purposes, functions, and formulas. Sometimes people can break certain barriers of the genre but still retain the key components of it.