A hitchhiker’s guide to my galaxy

A hitchhiker’s guide to my galaxy

Without genre there can be no communication and without communication we would not survive. They are the premise of our conversations in all forms as ‘genres are dialogues; they form links in the chain of speech communication’ (Van Luyn, 2013).

Goodreads has very few rules in regards to what its users can and cannot do. It has an administrator and moderators that look after the site and deal with any major issues.  It relies on its members to practice socially acceptable behaviour just as they would use in their everyday lives. However it also allows its groups to set up their own rules and regulations which are usually a lot stricter then the main site. The groups have their own administrator and moderators who work in conjunction and not only run the page but also deal with any infractions of these rules.  This gives groups a feeling of control and ownership of the space that they have created for themselves while helping the site by taking some of the responsibility for keeping it in order. Both on the general site and in the group forums members have the ability to flag content that they deem inappropriate and then it is up to the administrators and moderators to decide if it breaks the rules. Most groups give warnings to members however they can kick out and block anyone that they deem has seriously breached the rules.

Most of the groups run weekly questions based on certain genres and ask their members to research the question, whether it is from a book or another source, and then come back and discuss it between certain dates. You can write what you like however you should be prepared to back it up as many of these groups are full on discussion boards and your statements will be questioned. A number of the very dedicated groups also require you to reference if you are quoting sources just as you would expect if you were at school or university. These forums are great to read but it is best to think very carefully before participating if you are not fully prepared. Good grammar and sentence structure is also expected and generally used and although the Goodreads site allows some swearing it is banned by many of the group pages.

Many of the responses throughout the various blogs could be classified as essays. The word ‘essay’ suggests less a formal and systematic approach to a topic then a casual even random one (Di Yanni. 2005) and this is a good description for quite a number of the posts on the forums I read through. Not all are like this but the more interesting ones had many of these elements.  Essays evaluate like a number of other genres however ‘Their manner of going about offering information, making a case, and providing an evaluation differs from those less variable genres’ (Di Yanni, 2005).

Adams, D. (1979) The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, Image retrieved 20/09/2013 from: http://storiesbywilliams.com/2013/03/12/remembering-douglas-adams/

Di Yanni, R. (2005). ‘Introduction: reading and writing essays’. In. Twenty-Five Great Essays. 2nd ed. Pearson Longman: New York.

Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002. Our space: Networks, Narratives and the Making of place. Week 6. Retrieved 20/09/2013 from: http://learnjcu.edu.au