PB1B Understanding Genre With Generators

PB1B

There are many different types of genres that are made up of many unique conventions. I explored a few types of genres through genre generating websites. These websites will create different varieties of a particular genre.  For example, there are websites that generate scientific research papers, memes, comic strips, and fictional plots.

The website, pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen, generates scientific research papers about made-up theories and ideas. Each paper contains extensive paragraphs about resources and evaluations made along with a “related work” category. Near the end, there is a conclusion paragraph and a lengthy list of references on the last few pages. These papers use formal language and correct punctuation. Although the content itself is false, there is a structure that mimics real scientific papers. Because these papers are generated with those conventions in mind, they can easily be identified as this type of genre.

On another website, there are meme generators that take common pictures of various characters and attach a comical sentence on it. Meme pictures are used over and over again with different amusing statements. For example, memegenerator.net took a picture of “grumpy cat”, who is commonly used in memes because he is well known for his inability to physically smile, and attached the comical phrase “That look you get… when the last person in line takes the next open register”. This in itself is considered to be very funny and attaching a few words to the image adds to the hysterical element. In most memes, the sentence is broken up so half is at the top and half is near the bottom of the picture and one single image is used. Usually well-known characters are used and can be formatted so that about half of the memes have a cropped face of someone with color in the background instead of using an entire photo. Another convention is having the words written in a white bold font, which makes them easier to read.

Pandyland.net/random is a comic strip generator that has colorful drawings side-by-side in a group of three. These comic strips have funny dialogue between the characters. From this particular website, one character consistently has brown hair and the other one has yellow and they stay the same in personality and appearance. Additionally, sound words appear with actions, such as drawing a high five followed by the word “clap”. Other conventions are thought bubbles that appear whenever a character is thinking to himself and punctuation is not always used. Comic strips are expected to be funny and typically follow a general story.

I found a fictional plot generator from the website fictiongen.inky.me. It creates short story ideas that one could write extensively about. These are clearly fictional plots because the purpose of them is to inspire the reader to create their own writing and further ideas. Each plot line gives brief background details about the characters as well as a general outline of all of the action taking place throughout. Additionally, there is a short phrase about how the story will end, includes a title for each plot line, and the format consists of being a paragraph. Most plot lines contain these elements.

Each genre has the same conventions; conventions are something that appear throughout a particular genre. Conventions are expected elements of particular genres and act as the “glue”, which holds the genre together. For example, memes have a single picture with a sentence written on it which clearly differs from a scientific research paper. Conventions are patterns that, although they may vary, are relatively consistent across the genre. They are not official laws that are set in stone, but they are assumed rules that are traditionally followed. If one were to see and understand these patterns, one would understand the concept of genres better. Overall, this activity helped solidify in my mind the concept of a genre and gave me a clearer understanding that there are still many types of genres I am unfamiliar with.

PB1A-Recipe

PB 1A

I am familiar with the genre of food recipes. I sometimes enjoy cooking and baking even though I am not very good at it. There are a surplus of various recipes that come from many different cultures and nationalities. In order to find a recipe, I flip through a cookbook or browse the Internet for a website that has a particular dish I am interested in making. There are many websites and books that contain a wide range of recipes such as ones for appetizers, entrées, main courses, breads, jams, and desserts. A few examples would be spinach and artichoke dip, macaroni and cheese, casserole, garlic bread, strawberry jam, and brownies.

For this genre, the audience is anyone who wants to cook, mix together, or bake a particular dish. The purpose of a recipe is for people to follow the written instructions in order to make a desired dish. The context is that the recipes are found in cookbooks and cooking websites and are written for readers to follow the directions they contain. They usually are formatted so that the information is clearly organized for the readers to understand.

Recipes have many conventions such as lists of ingredients and step-by-step directions. If one were to make brownies, one would need a certain amount of eggs, oil, chocolate chips, cocoa powder, and flour. There is also a list of needed sizes for bowls, measuring cups, pans, and spoons to use. The directions are a list of commands that need to be followed to be able to create the right food. A recipe for brownies might instruct one to put the eggs into the ingredients last. There are also preparation instructions, which include what temperature to preheat the oven if using one; this is necessary in order to prevent the food from burning or being undercooked. A recipe typically includes an estimate of how long the food will need to cook and an overall estimate of how long until everything is ready. For brownies, it may take thirty-five minutes for one particular recipe to bake or it may only need twenty minutes. Somewhere on the recipe page there may be an approximation of how many the recipe serves; a pan of brownies might serve only a dozen people. Usually there is a nutrition label specifying how much protein, calories, sugar, sodium, cholesterol, trans fat, saturated fat, and total fat are in a serving size. All recipes should have the title of the dish near the top of the page and sometimes even a picture of the dish. An online site may include short paragraphs of reviews from those who have tried following the recipe. People have the opportunity to rate recipes with using stars. If one felt that the recipe was well written with specific directions, one could give it five stars.

Overall, food recipes are a type of genre that are easy to identify. Although there are recipes for many different types of food, such as cakes and tamales, they all have similar conventions and are written for the use of anyone who would like to attempt to make the dish.

First Intro Blog

Hi! My name is Sarah Freeze and I am a first year student at UCSB. As of right now, I am thinking of majoring in psychology because it sounds really interesting. This is my third quarter at UCSB because I got to start early with being part of the Freshman Summer Start Program. I love being so close to the beach and hearing the waves at night from my room. I made the mistake of walking far on the beach one time with a friend and ended up with our feet being covered in tar. I discovered that dish soap works really well in removing it! I live on campus in San Nicolas and also work there as a desk attendant. I am originally from San Diego and lived about fifteen minutes from the beach. A few things you all should know about me is that I am a Christian, vegetarian, and cat lover.  I played the flute for eight years and was one of those cool marching band kids in high school. My favorite color is blue and I really love cats (did I already mention that?). I enjoy spending time with my friends and watching Netflix. During the past few months I started watching Once Upon a Time which is a pretty great show. In my free time I also like to go swimming and occasionally knit scarves. I like listening to music that is not country or heavy metal but most of the time I listen to Christian artists like Toby Mac. My other favorite activity is sleeping! I think I have been to Disneyland at least ten times in my life and Space Mountain is my favorite ride. I am terrified of “big” roller coasters so Disneyland is a perfect theme park for me. Lastly, I do not consider myself to be very good at writing but I look forward to improving and learning new techniques!