Berrios

Genre Analysis: Theories of International Relations

Melissa Berrios
University of Central Florida, USA

Abstract
International Relations are complicated and ever growing as a discourse community. As John Swales, the author of Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings, proposes the concept of a discourse community is not well defined and because of this it is primarily based on the center of ideas of a social view (Swales 22). This is why International Relations has the capability to grow and constantly change. The central ideas that make-up the discourse community are always changing. Theories are always rising in order to answer and solve the mysteries that rock our nations. Theories in this particular community are the foundations that eventually create policies and treaties. This article discusses how someone outside the community can establish through the genre International Relations what purposes the theories have to this particular community. In the article written by Amy Devitt, Anis Bawarshi, and Mary Jo Rieff, Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities, they suggest, How genre analysis contributes to the use of ethnomethodology as a research technique (Devitt, Bawarshii, and Rieff 542). This applies to someone outside of a community who is trying to understand the way another community works. For example, the theories in International Relations are ordinary rituals that are engraved into this community. In the following pages the articles and their theories are analyzed in terms of the genre they fall under.

Keywords
Discourse community, Genre analysis, Ethnomethodology, Lexis,

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International Relations

Introduction
Jury instructions are written by lawyers away from the ears of the jurors who must us them. By the time the judge give a jury instructions, those instructions contain presumptions, implications, specifications known well by the law community but unknown to the unsuspecting jury members. (Devitt 544) The quote above is from Devitts article, Where Communities Collide: Exploring a Legal Genre. Devitt is talking about the difficulty that an outsider has when trying to immerse themselves inside another community. This is true especially in terms of International Relations (INR) theories. Many of the theories proposed are based upon years of studies and observations. Someone cannot just drop in and begin to understand the purpose of each theory. It is like being in a jury and not fully understanding the language that is on the instructions given to you; Part of the difficulty when specialized communities write to nonspecialist user lies in technical language (Devitt, Bawarshii, and Reiff 545). The lexis used can make it difficult for anyone to figure out what the community is about. The three theories proposed within the three different INR articles begin to form a pattern in order for others to study them and read them fluidly. If a reader sees patterns and norms within a given text it makes it easier for them to read through it. Devitt makes this clear in her article Generalizing about Genre: New Conceptions of an Old Concept when she talks about how authors follow patterns in order to avoid confusing their audience (Devitt 576). Growing up students learn to view this as the simple definition of genre. The European Journal of International Relations uses organization to allow their target audience read efficiently. The fact that they include a section at the beginning highlighting the key vocabulary within the text shows that this community values the spreading of information. This community functions on the ability of others to interpret and

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3 understand the theories that they generate. Without the acceptance of outside and inside peoples the theories and the genre would be pointless. Devitt made this point when speaking about jury instructions, All genres exist through and depend on human action depend on the cooperation of participants from multiple communities, on people accepting the roles the genres assign to them and on being able to carry out the tasks expected of them (Devitt 548).

A closer look at the text

Recurring features in an article, especially political articles, make a great difference in how the reader views the journal. A professional in the field of INR wants to see consistency; a trustworthy journal that he/she can base their views on. In each of the three articles citations are used frequently. Such as in the article Why international norms disappear. The writers Diana Panke and Ulrich Petersohn continually paraphrase other INR intellectuals and their contributions to the larger theory. After reading through two of the articles it is clear that not just one person came up with this idea. To support the theory itself the writers use hundreds of different INR professionals. For example, International norms cover many issue areas, and the density of international norms is so high that some speak of a regulated anarchy (Wendt, 1992) (Panke and Petersohn 721). This norm spans across all INR journals not just the European Journal of International Relations. Research shows that theories are a compile of thoughts from multiple INR professionals. In terms of the genre this means that the discourse community cares a lot about the individuals in its community. It wants to promote its ideologies. When it comes to organizing all the different thoughts from multiple INR professionals the writers have a unique pattern. Of course each writer has a unique voice when they are written about something they are passionate about. This is evident in Colonial reflection and territoriality: The peripheral origins of sovereign statehood the author shows a strong sense of patriotism. Professor Jordan Branch begins his patriotic spiel when he says, I label colonial reflection, as it involves the reflection of practices used first in colonial areas onto European internal political arrangements (Branch 279). The patriotic essence that Branch brings is not present in Robert E. Kellys a Professor of Political Science at Pusan National University, Korea. Kelly has a great inside view about the political structure of Western East Asia. However, he is emotionally driven like Branch was. Branch used ethos to promote his theory and Kelly uses his credibility, logos, to appeal to his audience. The thoughts that are projected in the articles are very similar. Not in exact words, but in context. They all

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evolved out of some force acting upon the country. For example, if someone at the University of Central Florida were to develop a theory about how China is the next hegemony. An outside force would create this. All the theories themselves cannot affect the force that started them. The individuals within the discourse community wish to create awareness and some how through that theory create a policy or a movement. The lengths of each article are all the same. They range from 22 to 25 pages. Most of which include graphs and charts and five to six topics. The reason for this is the audience the journal is trying to reach. The extreme organization that is used in each and every article under the European Journal of International Relations means that they target a highly educated audience. The people within or outside the community that are able to comprehend what is said in these articles must be influential and knowledgeable. The lexis used within the genre is extremely complicated. It is not the words themselves that are complicated it is the context in which they are used. For example, Devitt wrote about the word might in a court hearing and how the word affected the jury. In an appeals court the defendants lawyer said, The problem is that the world might has a different meaning in law than in common usage. The word has a different weight to each party; it is material in different ways (Devitt, Bawarshii, and Reiff 545). If the language is difficult to understand the scope of people who can truly understand the theories are very slim. The discourse community wants to promote their theories so in an attempt to simplify their articles they include a keywords section and graphs. The simplifications that they add do not do much. In theory, it would be nice for a majority of people outside the community to understand the theories. The fact of the matter it that the genre is not targeted for just anyone to understand. In order to make changes in our societies the ones who need to understand and read these theories are INR professionals and individuals with power. The power dynamic instilled in this community goes unseen. Until one takes a closer look the bias is not shown. The power dynamic is visible when one looks at the writers and the articles that the readers are reading the most. As shown in Figure. 1 the top read article of this month were mostly written by males. Figure. 2 shows the number of male and female writers that have written articles in the past three issues. Figure. 1 Top 40 most rated articles this month Male Writers 41 Female Writers 16

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Figure. 2 Sample of the past three printed issues Male Readers Female Readers 26 9 The majority of the individuals who read and write in this particular genre are males. This is a male dominated field. The graph shows that readers trust men more than they do females with the theories they are reading. The power positions held in INR are a majority of the time held by males.

Topics covered
The content of each article is very different. However, the context of the content is all the same. They were all written in response to some economic or political anomaly. The article written by Kelly, A Confucian Long Peace in pre-Western East Asia? talks about the possibility of a peaceful East Asia as well as investigates, first, whether such a peace did in fact exist, and, second, whether this might be attributed to Confucianism (Kelly 407). Professor Branch decides to take his theory across the country and focus on colonial times. He talks about the idea that the modern international system [that] is commonly argued to have originated within Western Europe and spread globally during centuries of colonialism (Branch 277) was actually developed when the Europeans brought their system to colonial American and then it developed colonially. Both share an ideology that impacts a political way of thinking. The topics discussed are based upon the writers that the journal decides to use and the audience that they are trying to target. Further research into the genre reveals that each issue of the European Journal of International Relations is categorized and themed. The articles within each issue are slightly related. In the way that if one article is about how the economic deficit was created in the US another article in the same issue will be about an economic problem in another country. Another trend is that the articles are not printed monthly; they are printed every three to four months. The information that they are allowed to print is therefore constricted. Because they are theories and not actual new articles the community has more leeway. The journal is not published every month because unlike normal news theories cannot be developed over night. The process takes time and extensive research. In order to spread the word of their theories the INR discourse community needs to act fast spreading its theories. The limited printed journals allow them to spend exuberant amounts of

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time promoting each theory. This is why there are not more than seven articles per journal issue.

Source of information
INR journals are not as popular as medical journals or travel journals. They are harder to find and usually are not read by the general public. To find the European Journal of International Relations a relatively simple search was used. Simple, for this genre, means opening multiple pages until finding a link at the bottom of a government blog. However, using Google scholar is the fastest way to the original page. If connected to a University server the search International Relations Journal should provide you with an article from the European Journal of International Relations. If not the article should also come up. This means that the community wants its theories to be seen by as many people as possible. The article does not take you directly to the journals main page however the website it posted on the article as a hyperlink. The hyperlink suggests that no matter how someone comes about the article the community wants him or her to read more. The journal is open to the public even though the University of Central Florida endorses it. An open journal further adds the communitys efforts to spread their theories. The audience they want to reach has the ability and the means to pay for the journal. However, it takes away from the movement they are creating. They want to make their theories accessible to more than just the elite. The INR genre is a government-associated genre they in partner with our government want to make the citizens of the US more politically involved.

Conclusion
INR is a complicated and multi-facet genre it just one of many ways to uncover the true meaning of the community. Theories are the first step and the fundamentals in the community. The step above theories, policies help others understand what is truly important to this community. The norms that the genre creates helps the community get started and build foundations for the stances they will take on political movements and battles. A theory to this community is more than an idea that has been tested, it is a way of being.

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References

Devitt, Amy J. "Generalizing about Genre: New Conceptions of an Old Concept." College Composition and Communication 44.4 (1993): 573586. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/358391>. Devitt, Amy J., Anis Bawarshi, and Mary Jo Reiff. "Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities." College English 65.5 (2003): 541-558. Web. 14 Feb. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3594252>. Jordan, Branch. "'Colonial reflection' and territoriality: The peripheral origins of sovereign statehood." European Journal of International Relations 18.2 (2011): 277-297. Web. <http://ejt.sagepub.com/content/18/2/277>. Kelly, Robert E. "A 'Confucian Long Peace' in pre-Western East Asia?" European Journal of International Relations 18.3 (2011): 407-430. Print. <http://ejt.sagepub.com/content/18/3/407>. Panke, Diane, and Ulrich Petersohn. "Why international norms disappear sometimes." European Journal of International Relations 18.4 (2011): 719-742. Print. <http://ejt.sagepub.com/content/18/4/719> Swales, John M. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Print.

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