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Nathaniel Donohoe

Emily Litle

English 121

17, October 2018

Bazerman Effect

Words and what words mean are very important when it comes to communication and

properly getting ideas across. However, words in script can sometimes show a deeper meaning

based off how their presented. For example, how do you read a word in your head when you see

that effect there? What is that anyways? That, is called an italic. This effect on a word is usually

used to emphasize and give the word a stronger meaning when showing its purpose in its given

sentence. In the article, “Speech Acts, Genres, and Activity Systems: How Text Organize

Activity and People” written by Charles Bazerman, a different look at the phenomenon we

understand as just simple text is taken into a more significant depth and understanding.

Bazerman first begins with explaining to us what a social fact is. Bazerman defines it as,

“those things people believe to be true, and therefore bear on how they define a situation.”

(Bazerman 368). Social facts are what make you act, think, or feel a certain way after reading

them. The example he uses to help support this point is a professor or teachers syllabi. When

given a syllabi, before anything is mentally read, one might take a quick glance. From personal

experience I know that if I see there’s more than one page, I freak. More so when I see an

endless amount of words on each page. What catches my attention fastest though, the amount of

pages or amount of words on the pages? Trick question, it’s the underlined or highlighted words

I’m almost forced to pay automatic attention to. According to Bazerman, this is because we as

human beings mentally understand the things we are reading as locutionary, propositional, and
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illocutionary acts. Locutionary acts are the literal words you view writing. As the reader, this is

the first meaning you put with the words you see; your first reaction, in a sense. Illocutionary

acts is the writer's true meaning for what he or she wrote; what we’re supposed to interpret aside

from our own interpretations. Lastly, perlocutionary acts are the final meaning you take away

from what you are reading; kind of like your own final point of view. This is what you decide as

the reader, to feel and believe based on the writing you read.

Another important aspect to look into in terms of writing is genre. Bazerman defines genres

as a, “recognizable, self-reinforcing form of communications.” (Bazerman 372) In simpler terms,

genre can be described as an equation of a problem you have to solve. For example, you have a

math problem; but what type of math problem is it? You find this out by looking at the symbols

within the problem and analyzing their meanings. From there you’ll find that oh, it’s an addition

problem; addition serving as the metaphorical genre we’re speaking of here. In regards to genre,

Bazerman exclaims that certain careers have specific types of texts that go along with the

profession they’re working in. These are described as genre sets. Bazerman then gives the

example of a civil engineer to describe the types of documents they produce such as, “proposals,

work orders, progress reports, quality test reports, safety evaluations, …” (Bazerman 374).

Documents like these and many other documents in all different types of careers allow you to

better understand the skills required in order to properly succeed in those jobs.

Genre however, goes further on than being significant in the work area, and further younger

than reaching adults. According to Carol A. Donovan and Laura B. Smolkin, authors of,

Children’s Understanding of Genre and Writing Development, “In children’s every day lives in

schools, two genres receive the most attention: stories and informative texts.” This supports the

idea that at an early age, we are taught how to interpret genres in terms of what kind of story is
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being read to us. Maybe another fairytale, a factual book on animals, whatever we interpret in

our mind.

From Bazerman’s article, I’ve realized I didn’t fully understand the significance of writing as

much as I thought I did. While some of the information came off as common sense after reading

it, most of the statements made were ones I would have never thought of on my own if someone

were to ask me to explain the significance of genre or what certain effects on texts mean in

regards to how our brains choose to interpret them. Based on current experiences I’m having in

life, I believe that every point Bazerman makes in his article is true. School and work for

example are two of my most current examples that go along with what Bazerman has to say. In

school, I should be able to go online to the school webpage, proceed to going onto my teacher’s

webpage and be able to read and properly understand what is required for me to do for the class,

what the teacher writes, and how to complete the tasks given to me to the best of my ability. On

my side of the equation, that would be a perfect example of what is a social act. On the other

side, we have the teachers who have to be able to receive my class work, homework, and be able

to understand what I’m saying to further grade the assignment. Styles of writing, speech acts,

genres, and activity systems seem to be a part of our every day lives just as much as we say math

is. It is left to us as our own individual to use these new findings and examples Bazerman gives

to improve these skills. Before reading this article, I didn’t think anything of how or why

everyone reads the same article or passage different rather than all the same way. Now, after

reading the article, I was able to see which words Bazerman used to describe the meaning behind

the actions I perform with little or no thought to them in my head; simply something I’ve always

done naturally that I assumed had no meaning.

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Works Cited

Carol A. Donovan, and Laura B. Smolkin. “Children’s Understanding of Genre and Writing

Development.” Handbook of Writing Research, 2006, 131-143