The word genre usually means a specific classification of some sort of media, a movie for example can be a thriller, a drama, a comedy, a horror, etc. This is how the word genre is understood in almost all facets if life. However, in writing studies genre has a very different meaning. The creator of this “new meaning”, Carolyn Miller, defines genre as “a typified response to a recurring situation.” To put it in layman’s terms genre is a written response to a specific scenario that is able to speak to those who have experienced that scenario before. It may be confusing as to why this is important; however genre allows for these rhetorical situations to be relatable and allows discourse communities to make connections based on the situations they face. Using genre allows these discourse communities to feel closer and gives them a sense of independence from other communities who use different genres.
A lexis is a language that is specific to a group of people. Different discourse communities will have different lexes and having a specific lexis allows a discourse community to have a deeper understanding of a particular subject. These lexes can be used to further and advance conversation within the discourse community which allows for that community to have individualism and be different from other discourse communities much like genre.
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