Genre Conventions

 Entry 16: 

Research, Reflections

Topic: Genre Conventions

What are genre conventions? 

    Genre conventions are story elements, all the little things that allow us to distinguish what the genre is. Each genre has specific story elements that allow the readers to distinguish what genre they are reading, this is a genre convention (the elements, structures, formulas). A way to figure out what the genre of something is, figure out the story (action), plot, character, and the setting- this should tell you the genre. 

    Each genre imposes certain conventions, the choice determines what is possible to do within the story. That means that there will be conventional settings, events and roles specific to the genre. Genre has visceral appeal to its readers/audience. 

This picture gives an example of genre conventions. 

In this link: writingstudio, they talk about conventional settings, events and roles in the crime genre.     Further explaining genre conventions: 

Conventional settings: the setting of the murder will have its particular characteristics.

Conventional events: there must be a crime

Conventional roles: there will be a detective character that discovers clues and suspects 

(Dercksen,Daniel).

This is important because if someone is writing they should know their audience and what genre they are writing about. Making sure to follow exactly what their genre typically contains. As writers there is a wide range of genres, knowing the differences and the characteristics of genres is a key factor to success.