Imagine you get yourself a nice chair or piece of furniture but you have to assemble it. You open the box and a plethora of different pieces fall out. You have nuts, bolts, wheels, a seat, backrest, and some plastic thing that you don’t understand why it is there. There are also some pieces of paper that you look at, don’t feel like reading, and then throw away. You probably would be able to put it together but it would take a long time and you would probably end up assembling the chair wrong or leaving that random plastic piece off (which you found out later is the most important piece.) Now, if I gave the same pieces of that chair and also gave you back that piece of paper that you threw away which tells you exactly how to put that chair together, that chair would be a lot easier to assemble. Those pieces of paper are the instructions. Although instructions aren’t the most popular type of genre in the world, they are some of the most helpful pieces of genre in the world.
There are many different other genres in the world. Like Kerry Dirk said in her piece “navigating genre” “You are probably already familiar with many genres, although you may not know them as such” (250). When people say “genre” I bet most people think of music or books. They then probably think of the different types of genre such as pop; rap; hip-hop; country; alternative: or mystery, fantasy, or romance. A menu is considered a type of genre, along with letters, magazines, tweets, texts, emails and many, many more. Instructions are also considered a type genre that have the ability to help people in everyday life.
Instructions don’t only come with chairs or furniture, they come with almost anything you buy now a day. Little thing such as shampoo tells you how to wash your hair. Even a toothbrush tells you how to brush your teeth, or deodorant tells you how to put it on your armpit. Homework assignments and job requirements also come with instructions whether they be “Read ch.7 and answer the critical thinking questions” or ones such as “Go to lunch with your client and talk them into buying more products”. Everyday products, such as gum wrappers, have instruction on them as well. These instructions are very short but also very commanding. On the outside wrapper of a new pack of gum you may find instructions such as “open here” or “pull here”. These instructions along with all others are there to help you and “knowing what a genre is used for helps people accomplish goals” (Dirk 253). Instructions have a sense of guidance associated with them, just like a good friend. If someone needs help with something they go see the instruction, or that good friend. Although instructions may not always be used, they are always there and willing to help, you guessed it, just like a good friend.
Instructions also interacts with other genres such as a recipe, directions, a list, and also a formula. These are all in the same category for several reasons. One of the main reasons is because of how they are all worded. They are commands which are structured with a verb as the first word and a subject noun as the last word such as “screw the bolt into the bottom of the chair” or “finish your homework”. You never see instructions say “you can…” or “try to…”; they are always telling you what to do. Unlike suggestion where you can do the steps out of order, instructions are telling what to do and when to do it. Also all these similar genres have very short steps that are easy to follow as well. If you look at instructions, recipes, directions, ect; you never see long descriptive paragraphs; they are always short and to the point. They always say, “Turn left on Central Street” or “pour milk then stir slowly”. It is a lot easier to follow those steps due to the fact that there aren’t any extra filler words. It’s a lot easier to understand “Turn left on Central Street” than it is “Slow down and put your blinker on before you take a left hand turn onto Central Street in 200 feet.”
Also with instructions there can be descriptive pictures along with captions. The picture will really help clarify what you have to do and will give you a visual aid which will help as well. For an instruction such as “place washer on bolt then screw into arm rest” it would be of great help to show a picture. Along with the captions, the pictures don’t have much going on within them either. The pictures are black and white and they don’t have many descriptive features either. They have the general outline of the product and they also have the key features of the product as well but they don’t get into minuscule detail. The more detail the picture has, the more it takes away from the actual instruction. The pictures for instruction are to be used as a guide.
For instructions, we aren’t always certain of one person who wrote it but we can presume that it is written by lawyer and attorneys from the company as well as people within the company who created the product. When they first sit down to write the instructions they think about 3 different thing: audience, purpose, and genre (Dirk 260). They have to focus on the audience and think about how they will respond to all the steps that are written. Also, they have to think about the purpose of the instructions and what they are supposed to do whether it be put together furniture or making a cake, there is always an end goal that you have to work towards. And lastly they think of the genre, which in their case they know it is instructions. Unlike recipes which say “Mac-N-Cheese by Rachel Ray” Instructions aren’t clearly labeled like that. As silly as it seems to have directions on toothbrushes, shampoo and deodorant, there are people out there who probably put deodorant in their mouth to get rid of the “odor” in their breath. People who write these genres need be straight to the point. Like I stated earlier you can’t beat around the bush or be really wordy with what you are saying because it will distract the user from the main idea or point of the instructions. The wording needs to be short and straight to the point. Also, it need to be very commanding and assertive in their writing because you need the people to tell from the text that they need to listen to you. As stated in Kerry Dirks piece, genre is supposed to help with ”more effective communication” (252) and if there are too many words or too many pictures in the instructions then it will defeat the purpose of what instructions are supposed to be used for.
This genre, instructions, is meant towards a large variety of people but will only be used by people who are willing to use the help. The instructions come with almost all products especially those which need to be described, put together, or have a lot of features to them to help with any questions about the product. A lot of the times the instructions will come with the product on a piece of paper or even in a booklet. Recently instructions have also been added to websites as well since technology is becoming a large part of society and everything is also going paperless to save the environment. Instructions can come with a QR scanning code or even might have a link to an app you can download. Compared to a paper back instruction manual, electronic user guides or instructions never will go away. You will never lose them or have them accidentally be tossed out with the newspaper, they will always be online and there for you to use at your convince.
Genres are everywhere in the world today. It can be very overwhelming to think of all the different genres in the world and try to remember them all, but Kerry dirk says it best when she says “Learning about genres and how they function is more important than mastering one particular genre” (259). She goes on to say how the response that we formulate during certain situations comes from our knowledge of all the different genres that we have learned about. From different types of cars, to different type or music and even to different types of instructions such as user guides and road directions and even recipes, genres are everywhere. Instructions are a very effective way of communication that help people with a step by step process to reach their goal. Not everyone has to use the instructions but they are always going to be there as a support to help you whenever you need it. Considering instructions are written by the experts who made the product, it is a good idea to take a look at them before you start messing around with the pieces and making a mess of your product. Instructions are there to help you and it will be of very much importance to use them when they are available. Think and try to imagine a world without instructions.