Myca Scaglione

Olivia Rines

UWRT 1101

08 February 2015

Genre Analysis Project

When you first think of genre Im sure that you think of different categories that books or movies
fit into. Genre is actually much more complicated because the types of genre range anywhere
from a romantic novel to an obituary. An obituary has several functions but the main
communicative function is making a verdict about the worth of the dead persons contribution
(Tight 126).Along with obituaries, epitaphs and tributes are also communicative functions. Most
obituaries include details of the cause of death, gender imbalance, and interests of the dead. The
details included in a persons obituary help us remember that persons life, whether it be their
struggles or their accomplishments.

Obituaries are usually found in newspapers as an announcement of death, sometimes with a

picture of the deceased. In the majority of obituaries they contain the deceaseds name, date of
birth, place of residence, date of death, and cause of death. This helps to inform the audience
general facts about the persons life. Since the components of an obituary can vary depending on
the person, they fall under both exposition and description. An exposition is written to inform the
reader of whatever information they are trying to put out there. The purpose of all obituaries is to
inform the audience of a persons death and the achievements throughout their life. Although to
inform is the main purpose of an obituary, I think they also serve as a description. A description
is commonly written according to your five senses but can be written to stimulate a mood or
atmosphere. The mood of the majority of obituaries is positive but because of the reason behind
the writing, a sad, negative mood can also be given off through the obituary.

As there are several purposes for the writing of an obituary, it mainly serves as a rite of passage
for the dead. The motive behind the obituary is not only to give notice of someones passing but
to provide the last judgment about their personality (Tight 126). This can be accomplished
through the content contained in the obituary. The content of the obituary, such as the deceaseds
name, date of birth, date and cause of death, and place of residence, act as the core features of

the text. Any information in an obituary regarding the funeral; time, date, or place, is also part of
the core features. These are the most significant parts of an obituary because the purpose of an
obituary is to inform which the features help to do.

For my first example of obituaries as a genre I looked at a collection of memoirs. Each of the 50
plus memoirs goes into a detailed description of the deceaseds life and accomplishments. They
also include the date of death and age at the time of death. Some of these obituaries are even
paired with a photo of the deceased. All of the obituaries start off listing the accomplishments of
each person whether it includes their success in school or their discovery or invention of
something. This is important in these obituaries because I believe the audience they are intended
for would be a group of mechanical engineers. The obituaries express the lives of the people as
engineers so a group of engineers would make sense as the best audience. Although the
engineers would be the best option for an audience, the actual audience of the obituaries can
differ. For instance, right now I am the audience of the obituaries because they follow the
requirements I need.

My second example in my corpus is the obituary of Robert Karl Johnson. He was a biology
professor at the University of Charleston. Just like the memoirs in the example above, his
obituary also recalls the achievements throughout his life. Roberts obituary contains how his life
was growing up, where he attended school, and his contributions to the American Society
Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. Also included in his obituary is a photograph of him. After
reading his obituary I believe the intended audience is meant to be members of the American
Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists because they thank him for his contributions and
talk about his love and dedication for the society. Since the obituary mentions a memorial fund in
his name for the Biology Department of the College of Charleston, Roberts obituary could
intended for both the society but the students of the college as well. Because of the intended
audience and the writer, how great Robert Johnsons contributions to the society may seem more
exaggerated then they actually were. The more impressive the writer makes him look in the
obituary, the more money they may be able to collect for the memorial fund.

For my final example in my corpus there is a collection of clinical obituaries written by doctor,
Adam Goldstein, about the passing of his patients. These obituaries differ greatly from the ones
in my first two examples. The doctor includes his relationship with the patient in the obituaries.
Along with details of their relationship, the doctor talks about the patients health problems they
have suffered. Some of these health problems are the result of their death which is included in
the obituaries also. One thing that stuck out to me that was different from these obituaries than
the others was there are no names or pictures included. Instead of posting the patients name with
each obituary, he refers to them by their initials. I figure this is because it is written by a doctor
about deceased patients so doctor/patient confidentiality is still important. The obituaries were

posted in the Journal of the American Board and Family Medicine and due to this I feel that the
intended audience would mostly be doctors and physicians.

Although all of my examples in the corpus are models of obituaries, they all have various
features. The collection of memoirs and the obituary of Robert Johnson are more similar than my
last example because of the format and structure of the obituary. Both begin the obituaries with
the persons first, last, and sometimes middle name. They then go on to describe the persons
early life, mainly including their education. Followed by their education, the obituary continues
with that persons accomplishments and goals achieved throughout their life. They end each
obituary by stating the details of the death such as, place, time, cause and age. The details of the
persons death are also included in my third example of obituaries but in a different way. Since
the author of these obituaries is the doctor of the patients referred to in them, he begins each
obituary talking about their struggles with whatever illness they may have had when he treated
them. These obituaries serve as more personal than the others because the doctor goes into detail
of the relationship he had with each specific patient. No names or pictures of the deceased are
present in the obituaries, only initials, to help secure privacy. As my first two examples are two
inform the audience of the celebration of everyones life, the last one serves as more of a way for
the doctor to say goodbye to his patients who have passed by remembering their lives.

By looking at obituaries as a genre I have learned the numerous features significant to this genre.
Most forms of writing are probably always changing as time goes on because new ways of
writing are always invented. I dont think obituaries are changing because they have always had
the same purpose of informing someone of ones passing. The obituaries itself are not changing,
but the content written in them is. This can be shown when looking through my examples
because the first two examples act as the primary focus to inform while the last example acts as a
personal goodbye. By looking more closely at the content written in the obituary, it can give you
a better idea of what the purpose of each obituary is. As most obituaries have the primary
purpose to inform, from this project I have learned that every genre can have more than one
purpose.

Works Cited

Bowen, Barbara. A Multi-Genre Approach to the Art of the Biographer. English Journal, v80

n4 p53-54 Apr 1991. Web. 1991.

Goldstein, Adam. Reflections in Family Medicine. Journal of the American Board of Family

Medicine. vol. 19 no. 4 416-41. Web. 2006.

Greenfield, David W. Robert Karl Johnson, 1944-2000. Copeia, v2000 n4 (12 2000): 1148-

1149. Web. 2000.

Sage Journals. Memoirs. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (vols 1-196)

v160 n1949 (19490101). Web. 1847-1982.

Tight, Malcom. Dead academics: what can we learn about academic work and life from

obituaries? London Review of Education Jul2008, Vol. 6 Issue 2, p125-135. 11p. 3 Charts. Web.
2008.