what I've learned this week

This week in Writing 2, a topic that was discussed was genre. Although I have been exposed to the term genre many times throughout my learning career, this week I learned more in depth about what a genre really is. I found the word "convention" being discussed and at first I didn't quite understand it, but now I realize that it's numerous conventions that make up specific genres and each convention is basically a recurring pattern that you may see within that genre. That being said, each genre is made up of different conventions, but conventions can be seen in multiple genres. That kind of sounds confusing but for example, some conventions of the genre action movie includes, loud/fast music, running/hiding, and high speed car chases. But the running/hiding convention may also be seen in the genre of horror movies. All in all, I’d say I now have a clearer definition of genre and how each one varies. Another topic presented this week was two different kinds of thinking that correspond with two different parts of writing. To me, this was very interesting. Of course I knew previously that there were multiple skills and tactics used when it comes to writing, but reading the piece in class opened my eyes to a whole new idea. The thought that you can write anything with two simple steps was very new to me, although it makes a lot of sense. I enjoyed piecing together the difference between first order and second order thinking. Where first order thinking is more uncensored brainstorming and exploring ideas, second order thinking is more logical, critical, and clarifying. This works nicely because once you get out all your ideas, you place them where they logically should go. I think that this whole new idea will be very helpful when it comes to writing future papers.