Abstract

Analyzing Genres Used in Fisheries Management

Writing in the fisheries field varies widely. Email and notes are used to communicate with other employees. There are documents and stories shared with the public through newspapers and magazines. A large portion of the writing is technical writing that will be used within the organization for further studies or made available to the public if they wish to see the documents. Examining the article "Genre Repertoire: The Structuring of Communicative Practices in Organizations", by Wanda J. Orlikowski and JoAnne Yates helps give an understanding of what a genre in writing is. Genres consist of several elements including: audience and context; exigence and purpose; content and organization; terminology and phrasing; formatting and visual presentation; and tone and point of view. These elements can be applied to documents of different genres. The elements of audience, exigence, and formatting and visual presentation will be applied to three documents of different genres in the fisheries field: a public document, a research report, and a lake survey report.

Writing in Fisheries Management

Communicating is an extremely important part of working for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in fisheries; you must be able to communicate effectively with fellow coworkers and the public. There is a different genre used depending on who your intended audience is, as with any profession. Within the MNDNR there is a lot of communicating back and forth with your coworkers, through things such as emails and notes. Sometimes the emails are very professional, like if you are communicating with a superior or someone outside the MNDNR, other times they may be informal, like if you are sending a quick note or information to someone within your office. Things like time sheets, compensation forms, and fuel logs in state vehicles must be universal in form so administration can easily and readily understand what is being conveyed.

In fisheries management you work with a lot of data. This data is often shared with other fishery offices within the MNDNR, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the federal level, and with conservation organizations across the globe. For this reason it must conform to a universal standard and measurement format. All fish weights are recorded in grams, and all fish lengths are recorded in millimeters. This is the universal standard. If you record a fish length in centimeters or inches, and someone does not know this, and they look at what is written down, the data will be interpreted completely differently and it may adversely affect what they are working on. On specimen tags the measurements are recorded on the same place on the tag every time. If someone writes the length measurement where the weight measurement is supposed to be, it will adversely affect the data as a whole. If everything is not written technically correct it could be the difference between a species being saved and a species going extinct.

There is also a research component in fisheries management within the MNDNR. When a research experiment is completed it is written similar to an IMRAD report, following the format seen in most scientific journals today. There is a management implications section in these documents, where the authors explain how they believe the results can be put to use. Some reports are mainly used within the DNR, but are available on the web, while some are submitted and accepted into scientific journals.  Fisheries research and management also write up lake survey reports, which include a lot of tables, graphs, and figures. These are made available to the public on the web if they wish to view them. They are used in planning management strategies and in setting up other research experiments.

Some in fisheries management write up articles for the MNDNR's conservation magazine "Minnesota Conservation Volunteer". These articles often tell stories and try to stay away from raw data, even though they may be summarizing data or survey information. The articles are written in more simple terms. There is little scientific jargon so that the average person can pick up this magazine, read any article, and understand what it is about.

Genre Repertoire Theory

A genre is defined as "organizational communication ...is a distinctive type of communicative action, characterized by a socially recognized communicative purpose and common aspects of form." (Orlikowski and Yates, 1994, p. 543). Genres are also socially recognized communicative actions (Orlikowski and Yates, 1994, p. 542). Genres are the communications you conduct in your field. When thinking of genres we mainly think of the writing we conduct in a career. Genre repertoire is the idea that members of a community "tend to use multiple, different, and interacting genres over time". (Orlikowski and Yates, 1994, p. 542). This means there are many genres we use throughout a career, not just one. Part of a genre is form as well. Orlikowski and Yates refer to form as the "readily observable features of the communication, including: structural features, communication medium, and language or symbol system." (1994, p. 544). Form is typically how we identify and separate genres. Genres play a key role in any communication we conduct throughout our career. I will analyze three different genres encountered in the fisheries management field of the MNDNR. These are 1) a public document, titled "For the Love of Pike", by Greg Breining, 2) a research report, titled "Seasonal and Diel Variation in Electrofishing Size-Selectivity and Catch­ Per-Hour of Largemouth Bass in Minnesota Lakes", by Michael C. Mcinerny and Timothy K. Cross, and 3) a lake survey report for Belle Lake, by the MPCA and MNDNR. I will look at three elements of genre analysis for the three documents. These are 1) exigence, 2) audience and 3) formatting and visual presentation.

Analysis

Exigence

The first analytical category is exigence. Exigence is the authors "call to write", or what motivated the author to write the document. Exigence can be brought on by many things. In a class your exigence could be to complete the assignment and get a good grade. In a career you may be writing due to an email you received, or something you read motivated you to do research and explore some further aspect or respond to that piece. In every piece of writing there was some exigence, or "call to write".

In the first article, the public document by Greg Breining, the author is called to write for a couple of reasons. The author has an obvious love for Northern Pike. He includes a little story about his childhood to show this. It is hard to even think of writing about something if you have no interest in it. He shares some stories about his childhood and what he remembers of pike and a paragraph that shows some strong feelings about pike today:

And that is the story of pike in a nutshell- the romance, the myth, and now the sad demise. Where once swam monster now swim "hammerhandles" and "snakes." (Breining, 2003, p. 1).

He also shares many facts about pike such as how big they can get and how they hunt, like that they are ambush predators (Breining, 2003, p. 2). This shows he has taken time to get to know this fish. Second, he wants to share the story about pike with the public. He has a section devoted to dispelling myths, a section on how pike are being protected to have future trophy fish for the public, and he gives names of lakes where people can go to increase their chances of catching a trophy fish.

In the second article, the research report by Michael C. Mcinerny and Tim K. Cross, the authors are called to write for a specific reason. They wished to develop a procedure for when electrofishing would provide the best representation of largemouth bass populations, as evidenced by this statement:

However, little information is available addressing whether electrofishing during any of these sampling periods provides representative samples of largemouth bass populations.

(Mcinerny and Cross, 1996, p. 1).

The management implications section summarizes what they found to be the best electrofishing procedure to get the best population representation. Like for long-term monitoring programs they found "electrofishing should be done during the same time of day and season, and when the water clarity is similar." (Mcinerny and Cross, 1996, p. 11).

In the third article, the lake survey report, by the MPCA and MNDNR, the authors are called to write for three reasons. First, to summarize what was found during the survey. This is evidenced by the numerous graphs, tables, and figures summarizing data (MPCA and MNDNR, 2009, p. 2). Second, to provide base data for future surveys, experiments, and management decisions through the numerous graphs, tables, and figures throughout the document (MPCA and MNDNR, 2009, p. 4). Third, for fishermen to decide if they should fish there by providing data on what fish are there, their abundance, and their size (MPCA and MNDNR, 2009, p. 4).

Audience

The first document, the public document by Greg Breining, the author 's intended  audience is clearly the public, for four reasons. First, the article is published in the "Minnesota Conservation Volunteer", the MNDNR's public magazine, which is free and available to anyone at MNDNR offices. Second, Breining shares stories about his childhood, in order to connect with a broad, public audience:

The romance of the iconographic pike never faded. Through the years of my childhood, big pike adorned place mats and coasters, brochures and tourist maps. A massive pike slashing an airborne lure advertised the "brew that grew with the great Northwest." (Breining, 2003, p. 1)

Third he shares information on where to catch big pike in Minnesota (Breining, 2003, p. 4-5). Fourth most of the language used throughout the article is easy to understand, there is little scientific jargon.

In the second document, the research report by Mcinerny and Cross, the authors' intended audience is within the DNR and the scientific community. It is written in a format for a scientific journal, having an abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and management irnplications section, as well as a list of references. There is rnuch scientific jargon that could be difficult to understand if the casual reader were to pick this document up and read it, as evidenced in this section:

Length-frequency distributions (10 mm length groups) of largemouth bass 2. 120 mm TL were calculated for each day-season sample period electrofished at each lake. (Mcinerny and Cross, 1996, p. 3)

It is also intended for the scientific community because of the tables, graphs, figures, and statistical analysis, such as Table 1(Mcinerny and Cross, 1996, p. 5). These tables, graphs, figures, and statistical analyses can be difficult to interpret if you are not used to working with them or seeing them.

The third document, the lake survey report by the MPCA and MNDNR, leans more toward the scientific community, but also has some information that is aimed towards the public/average fisherman. There are charts and images that could be difficult to interpret without training as well as some scientific jargon, such as:

Based on this record, summer-mean Secchi typically ranges from 0.7 to 1.7 meters, which is within or below (worse than) the typical range for a lake in the North Central Hardwood Forests ecoregion. (MPCA and MNDNR, 2009, p. 3)

The data in Table 3 would be useful to a common fisherman, giving them what type of fish are there, the abundance, and the size of the fish (MPCA and MNDNR, 2009, p. 5). Figure 1gives depth that would be useful to someone interested in fishing the lake (MPCA and MNDNR, 2009, p.  1).

Formatting and Visual Presentation

Formatting and visual presentation are how different genres are most easily distinguished. Without even reading a document you could scan it and tell a lot about it, like whether it is a scientific journal article or a public document. Formatting and visual presentation is decided after you choose your genre, but is a key characteristic of genres.

The first document, the public document by Greg Breining, follows a pretty basic format.

There is a title, author, and picture at the beginning. Paragraphs are in blocks across the whole page with simple headings separating each section, indicating it is likely a public document (Breining, 2003, p. 1-2). The end of the document gives some information on the article like you would see in a newspaper: Greg Breining is a contributing editor of the Volunteer and author of Fishing Minnesota, reissued this spring by University of Minnesota Press. (2003, p. 5)

The document also has larger, easier to read print indicating it is geared more towards the public. The second document, the research report by Mcinerny and Cross, has a distinct format.

It follows a research report similar to the IMRAD form. There is an abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and management implications heading, indicating separate sections. Beyond the abstract, the paper is divided into two columns on each page, and there are numerous tables and figures, along with a long references section (Mcinerny and Cross, 1996, p. 1-12).

This indicates it is a professional scientific document, which could be submitted to a journal  for review and publication.

The third article, the lake survey report by the MPCA and MNDNR, follows a form that indicates it is unique to the fisheries field. It is laid out with graphs, tables, and figures being the main focus of the paper (MPCA and MNDNR, 2009, p. 1-2). The text that is there is small and seems to give just a little background (MPCA and MNDNR, 2009, p. 3). Because of these things this document seems to be aimed slightly more towards someone in the fisheries field, as they would likely be able to interpret and make sense of the data the fastest with minimal explanation.

Conclusion

Understanding genre and genre repertoire are important to having a successful career in any field. Understanding the elements that make up genres will help you make the correct genre choice when communicating within or outside of your field. Through analyzing genres encountered in fisheries management, I have gained these skills and now feel much more comfortable communicating within and outside of the fisheries field.

References

• Breining, G. (2003). For the Love of Pike. Minnesota Conservation Volunteer, May-June, 2003.
• Retrieved September 28, 2010 from http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteer/index.html.
• Mcinerny, M.C., & Cross, T.K. (1996). Seasonal and Diel Variation in Electrofishing Size
• Selectivity and Catch-per-Hour of Largemouth Bass in Minnesota Lakes. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Investigational  Reports: Section of Fisheries, 451, 1- 12. Retrieved September 23, 2010 from http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/index.html.
• Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, & Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (2009).
• Belle Lake, Meeker County. Retrieved September 23, 2010 from http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/index.html.
• Orlikowski, W., & Yates, J. (1994). Genre Repertoire:  The Structuring of Communicative Practices of Organizations. Administrative  Science Quarterly, 39 (4), 541-574. Retrieved August 23, 2004 from http://www.jstor.com.