The role of meta-genres in the construction of genre: A generic stability factor?

• Main Authors: Valfrido da Silva Nunes, Maria Inez Matoso Silveira
• Format: Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS) 2018-10-01
• Series: Calidoscópio
• Online Access: http://revistas.unisinos.br/index.php/calidoscopio/article/view/14814

<p>This paper discusses how some meta-genres constitute a relevant factor for the generic stability of the memorandum in the administrative activities’ systems of the Federal Institute of Pernambuco (IFPE), Recife, Brazil, in the period between 1973-2014. From the theoretical point of view, the present work belongs centrally to the Rhetorical Genre Studies (RGS), a perspective that defends genre as a social action motivated by recurrent rhetorical situations, mainly through the studies of Carolyn Miller, Charles Bazerman, and Janet Giltrow. As for the methodological aspects, this research is described as descriptive-interpretative, based on documentary analysis, whose nature is qualitative. The results indicate that the dictionary entries and the official writing manuals constitute conservative forces that contribute to the maintenance of the memorandum as a fairly formatted genre.</p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Rhetorical Genre Studies, meta-genre, memorandum.</p>