Assignment sheet for Genre Analysis and Parody

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Project 1:
Genre Analysis and Parody (100 points)
This project aims to help you more deeply understand the relationship between style and
genre, first by analyzing and then parodying a specific non-fiction prose genre.
Genres can be defined as semi-stabilized forms that have developed over time to communicate
to specific audiences for specific purposes. There are literally hundreds of written (nonfiction)
genres: everything from eulogies, to newspaper articles, to Match.com profiles, business
memos, clothing catalog copy, letters of reference, talk radio programs, press releases, human
interest stories, blog posts, open letters, “listicles,” Facebook status updates, Tweets, etc. All of
these genres have recognizable and conventional features, and you need to recognize and
understand these in order to successfully parody them.
Learning Objectives
After completing this project, you should be able to…
 Understand the concept of genre.
 Identify the features of genres, including their function, purpose, and stylistic features.
 Use your understanding of genres to create a parody or spoof of a specific genre.
Project Deliverables
I use “deliverables” to refer to the actual things you’ll be handing in for the assignment.
1. A stylistic analysis of one written genre (memo format, 600-800 words)
Collect three examples of the genre you plan to parody and write a stylistic analysis that
introduces the genre and answers the following questions, making sure to cite specific things
from the examples you collected as evidence:
a. In what situations or contexts is the genre used?
b. Who is the typical audience for the genre?
c. What rhetorical action(s) does the genre aim to accomplish?

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d. What are some typical or conventional features of the genre? (include content,
physical features, and style)
e. Which of these genre features could potentially amplify and/or otherwise make fun
of?
2. A parody of that genre.
Taking inspiration from genre parodies like Charlie Brooker’s “How to Report the News” (a
more explicit or meta-parody), and more implicit parodies from Mad Magazine, Weird Al’s
“pastiche” genre parodies, Tom Connor’s Is Martha Stuart Living?, The Onion and its social
media lampoon site Clickhole, you will choose a specific nonfiction prose-based genre and write
a parody or spoof of it in that style. Note that for this assignment, you’re parodying a genre,
and not just an individual instance of that genre – think Weird Al’s “Generic Blues,” which is a
genre parody (of blues, obviously), rather than “Tacky,” which is a parody of an individual song
(Pharrell’s “Happy”).
Successful genre parodies will…*
 Mimic the language, style, tone, and features of the genre.
 Cover the typical ground of the genre, but push that material over the top.
 Have a clear, humorous message about that genre.
 Be edgy, sacrilegious, even rude, without being crude, vulgar, or mean-spirited.
 Make you, the writer, laugh when you read it a second or third time.
 In parodying, reveal something about how that particular genre works.
Grading Chart, Genre Analysis and Parody (Final)
Quality of genre analysis. The analysis is thorough and insightful, and
incorporates evidence from three different examples of the genre to
support its points.
50 points
Accuracy of parody. Convincingly mimics the language, style, tone, and
features of the genre.
25 points
Quality of insight about genre. The ideas expressed through the parody are
original and clever. The parody reveals a clear awareness of how the genre
works – where its weak points or “failures” lie, for instance.
25 points
TOTAL 100 points
* Borrowed in part from Tom Connor’s “Writing the Well-Spun Spoof” (Writer’s Digest 03/11/2008).