PB1B- Generating Genre

Looking at the research papers from the generator I found that some of the conventions of a research paper had their own conventions within them. For example, the convention of an abstract within a research had its own convention. Abstracts appear to be short and contain a brief explanation of the experiment and its purpose. Research paper then has a Table of Content; within that Table of Content there is an Introduction, Related Works, Architecture, Implementation, Results, Conclusion, and References. The introduction has conventions of being medium sized. It also is where one will find the hypothesis that set up the experiment. Results also have conventions within them such as, containing graphs and charts, as well as an explanation of the results in relation to the hypothesis. The conclusion seems to be relatively short and is very similar to the Abstract. Conventions of the References would be that it is very standard and orderly and follows guidelines for a particular style to cite other’s work.

Comic conventions seemed like they would be the easiest because everyone would be able to point to the comic if asked if it were presented in a line up style interrogation. It was actually a lot harder trying to identify what makes a comic a comic.  Some of the conventions I found were illustrations/cartoons, dialogue is short, to distinguish who is speaking there is a bubble around that characters words, comics are light hearted and humorous, more than one character, scenes are separated by boxes. The particular comic generator we viewed was purely for entertainment, but some comics can be political. Some comics could even be seen as an entertaining new sources if they were written with informative intentions.

Memes’ conventions were also difficult to pin point because they are so simple. Some conventions of memes include large white font, usually at the top and/or bottom of the image. The images that are being written on come from screenshots of videos, movies, and TV shows. The images’ action or facial expression of character within the image relates, to some extent, to the message/joke of the text. Memes are funny; it is rare to see one with a serious message. Or at least the message is perceived as less serious if presented as a meme. Memes also tend to make fun of someone/something. The meme could be making fun of the person that the meme is of, the viewer, or some other person that is mentioned in the text.

Sticking with the same concept as my PB1A I looked up “Romance Novel Plot generator”. I wanted to see if the list of conventions followed the same blueprint as the generators. Many of my conventions did fit with those of the generator. One of the conventions for the plot of a romance novel was the MULTIPLE use of adjectives. Every time I generated a new plot there was na introduction of how the protagonist met their lover, then a problem is created by the antagonist (often in love with the same person the protagonist), then finally the solution where the protagonist succeeds and wins over their lover. The conflict of someone coming between the lovers is also a convention within itself.

To understand genre is to understand patterns as well as an understanding how the patterns are use. These patterns are then used to classify and create a particular type of writing into a category.  Genre can be better understood with the used of genre generating websites because the websites show the patterns within each genre.  The websites developed a structure that mimicked the basic collection of conventions within the particular genre. By deciphering which components of a genre are reused over and over again within the same genre one finds the patterns which are the conventions. It is helpful to see what conventions are used repeatedly in the generators because it gives one insight as to what makes up that genre as well as hinting at why that convention is important for that genre. For example, the convention of being funny is found in both memes and comics, but why they are both funny can be inferred from other conventions within their genre. Memes can be funny because of their convention of making fun of someone/something where as comics can be funny because of their convention of having illustrations/cartoons.