Genre Conventions
Novels - tell a story, mostly fictional, but sometimes based on real life events, climatic moments where the protagonist has to solve problems, plot, characters, narrated by protagonist or omniscient narrator, descriptive writing, dialogue, organised in chapters, few pictures, not always chronological, hard copy/electronic, crafted writing (drafted and edited over a long period) resolution at the end of the novel (problems resolved or circumstances changed, flashbacks and flashforwards, self-contained usually as part of a series
Newspaper report - non-fiction, account of real events that happened recently (normally current affairs), eye witness accounts, third person, primary and secondary sources of information, unbiased, author information and perhaps a photograph, headline, subheading (tagline), photographs, videos (if online), digital and hard copies, no columns if online, online=BTL, hard copy=ATL, personalised adverts
Transcript of a conversation - dialogue only, simultaneous speech, punctuated by para-language and non-traditional punctuation (if transcribed), repetition, false starts, only makes sense within a certain context, contextual information in brackets, non-standard English, politeness features (back channelling, turn taking, running repair) Remember that a transcript is a written record of a conversation or utterance that was originally spoken, whereas a script is written first, then spoken.
Travel blog - account of places the author has been to, non-fiction, opinion-based, pictures, personal, unmoderated, descriptive, recent reflection (no hindsight)
Text message - mostly informal (depends on context, first person, abbreviations, emojis, lack of capital letters and correct grammar, very personal (individual style), pictures, links, restricted code (personal language that relies on shared context), may refer to things outside of the text with no direct reference to it, business advertisements, attachments
Emails (similar to texts) - subject lines, list of emails, salutations (sign off, automatic signature), varied formality (dependent on context and greeting), attachments, hyperlinks, pictures, emails in capitals=shouting, addressees=blind copies (cannot see other recipients)