Websites...What's their genre??

Hi everyone!

How are you?

This week I'm involved in a new activity dealing with genre! The question is... Do websites belong to a specific genre? and if so, what genre? I know...the answer is not simple.

Reading "Boundaries real and imagined: personal websites" I have understood that the real problem represented by websites is that web publishing is not governed by national laws or quality control; for this reason, nowadays linguists find themselves having to deal with a great variety of personal websites and the difficulty for them is how to classify these new documents in relation to their language and contexts.

The situation in which our English course is taking place is represented by a blog. This kind of technology can be compared for many aspects to personal websites: thanks to their contents and form they represent the link between a secret diary and public revelation. When people write in a blog, they reveal their sentiments but at the same time they know that their personal facts will be seen by the whole world.

Another kind of website is represented by institutional websites; these are characterised by the fact that they provide information to a specific audience. During our previous activity we searched for some websites which could be useful for us and we recorded them in "del.icio.us". Most of our bookmarks deal with tools for language learning and translation.

Searching for the most interesting websites (and most useful for me), I found two examples presenting different features : one deals with idiomatic English expressions and the other is about the use of articles in English.

The first, English as a Second Language Glossary of Idiomatic English Expressions, is a website aimed at teaching English idioms; this is a subject for advanced learners, who are the intended audience. I think that its creators want to provide a tool which teaches the use of idiomatic expressions in English, the context in which they are used and some examples to clarify meaning. Although it refers to teaching, language, it is quite informal, characterized by the presence of noun phrases, the use of the present tense and obviously descriptive sentences. There are also a lot of hyperlinks: each letter of the alphabet stands for all the idioms beginning with that letter. For example, clicking on "B" you can find the idiomatic expression "to beat around the bush" and its definition is: "speak indirectly or evasively; not directly address the problem". Other hyperlinks link to various English dictionaries.

The second website I've chosen is The Use and non-use of articles in English. It focuses on English grammar and in particular on a specific aspect: the use of the English article. This subject is at the basis of language learning and for this reason the intended audience of this website is beginners of ESL. The structure, in fact, in order to help comprehension, is characterized by complete but short sentences (e.g. "These indefinite articles are used with singular nouns when the noun is general; the corresponding indefinite quantity word some is used for plural general nouns") and by the presence of paragraphs explaining different aspects. The language is quite formal, as it is describing grammar. There are few hyperlinks, only for exercises at the end of each chapter.

In conclusion, The websites I have tried to analyse are similar as they are both aimed at teaching some features of English; but, as each aspect of a language needs particular explanation, it is not strange that each website is structured in a different way, using a different register in accordance with its intended audience.

Please, if you have something to tell me about my analysis, comment on my blog.

I'll be happy to read your comments and answer to you!

Have a nice week!!

Bye

Giorgia