Can we say there is a genre of websites?

First of all, let me tell you what the word “genre” means?
The word ‘genre’ is used to indicate different types of artistic and literary works. These works can be business letters, narrative, diaries but also e-mails, blogs and websites. When we talk about genre we are referring to communicative purposes of a piece of writing, and not only to its grammar and lexis. Although most genres are often only vaguely definable, genre considerations are one of the most important factors in determining what a person will see or read.

E-tivity 5:
This week, on our English course, we are going to explore websites in order to discover and understand what sort of genre is it. The particular aspect of websites is that the audience is really unknown. In fact, there is a huge number of different genre on websites that they are really difficult to categorized. Other thing to say is that the genre of websites is a very new and in continuous evolution. This is another reason why they are difficult to talk about.

Analysis of two websites:
Surfing on the web, and more precisely among those websites my colleagues have chosen on del.icio.us, I found two of them being very interesting and useful.

1. BBC Learning English:

• Everybody, all over the world, have an idea about what BBC is. Therefore, I think that there is no intended audience of this website because everybody can have a look at it and use it if they want. What I want to say is that the audience is not made up only by English students and teachers but also by anybody who wants to improve his or her English skills. The creators of this website are trying to help people to learn English in an easier way, that is to say by using different areas of real interest to people, such as music, sports, news, business and stories.
  
  On the top of the home page there is BBC logo and in my opinion this make its English Learning Course more formal, serious and valid, if compared to other.



• There are many hyperlinks, which are not confusing but well organized. The home page is divided in different areas, and in three of them there is the site map, which helps the reader to surf the site. On the left there is only a list of different parts in which the entire site is divided, in the centre of the page there are images and more detailed descriptions about the single parts of the web and ,finally, there is another list at the bottom. So it is very easy to look at this website!



• The language used on the homepage is simple and concise. There aren’t complete sentences nor long descriptions, only lists of words and noun phrases. While verbs are all in present tense.



• On the other hand if one explores the activities there are many news paper articles, therefore the language becomes more formal and descriptive. But they also use a lot of images just to capture reader's or ‘learner's’ attention and make his English learning more interesting and easier.

2. Urban Dictionary:

• Comparing this website to the previous one, I identified many differences. First of all the audience changes. This website seems to be aimed to a specific discourse community, that is to say to young people, teenagers, which are those who use slang most frequently. Furthermore, at the bottom of the page the same creators of the website say that their site is not appropriate for all audiences (in fact there are many swear words).



• The home page of this site is very simple. There is a big image with photos of young people, it seems to be an advertisement that continuously change. Then at the bottom of the page there are some hyperlinks with images and, under every image, a word. If you click on it you have all the definitions of the word in question. While at the top of the homepage there is an alphabet that helps you to find the definition of the slang word or colloquialism that you are looking for.



• The language used on the homepage is very simple, only one word tags and few sentences.



• On the other hand, this situation changes a bit if one looks at definitions. Every single letter contains numerous definitions. When one chose a word, then appears its definition. Some of these words are illustrated by images, but they are not too much. Definitions are short and written in a very informal and colloquial language. Quite every definition have some examples to make the meaning more clear.

Summing up, what can I say about the genre of websites?
Through my brief analysis I become aware how websites can be different. In fact, the two web sites I’ve analysed are completely different. The first one is formal and descriptive, while the second one is totally informal, colloquial and simple. Also the organization of the web is opposite. One, the BBC website, is huge with many hyperlinks, lists and article while the second is small and poor in contents.