Investigating Genres

The Video Essay

For this study, we were told to choose a genre that can be used in our four main English projects that we wanted to investigate further. As someone who loves movies and Netflix binges, I decided to investigate the video essay. And so I began my research watching video essays with the essential popcorn bowl and cozy socks. Below is what I learned:

• The purpose of the video essay is to share information and to argue a point using a different medium other than the traditional essay. In a video essay, one can present visuals to help argue their point or to help get information across in a more visual way than in a standard essay.

• Usually, to find a video essay, one might search across a video hosting platform, such as YouTube, for a video relating to the information they'd like to know. However, a lot of times, although these videos are hosted by YouTube and other such sites, they are shared via social media such as Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr so that one's followers or friends can also view them and possibly discuss them with each other.

•  The audience for this genre is obviously anyone who is interested in the topic that is being discussed, but it is probably also someone who is not an expert on the topic, but wants to either become an expert, or just wants to know more about the topic. It also has to be someone who is likely to get on a computer and watch a Youtube video. For example, my 90 year old grandmother is more likely to read an essay on paper than to watch a video, so it's likely that this genre appeals more to younger people. 

Prupert. "Grandpa Fedora Core" 11/21/2005 via flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives License

• The video essay is so special because it is exactly that: a video. What is really unique about a video essay is that allows for someone to associate visuals with their argument, which can help to drive their point home. It also allows the creator to be more personally involved in their video, either by appearing in the video or by giving the voice-over, allowing the video essay to be a combination of both sights and sounds that can help to explain things much more clearly, and in a different way than a standard essay.  

• Based on my above answers, if I had to give a definition, I would say that a video essay is an argument that is presented in a visual form, in this case via a video, that helps to argue or explain a point verbally, while using visuals related to the topic that is presented. 

Reflection from Raj Vij's Genre Investigation:

Raj's blog post can be found here. 

I really like how Raj broke down the quick reference guide into the different parts that you were likely to see in the guide. This highlighted the main points of why you would want to use a quick reference guide as your genre. It also made me think about my own genre investigation and sort of prompted me to go back and think more about the intended audience, and the purpose for creating a video essay.

Reflection from Alexis Morrison's Genre Investigation:

Alexis's blog post can be found here.

Although Alexis and Raj both had the same genre to investigate, I found that each investigation was helpful in its own way. Alexis pointed out something really important about the intended audience: that it was unlikely that someone who would read a newspaper article would also read a quick reference guide. I also found Alexis's investigation to be extremely helpful when thinking about the key features of the video essay in my own investigation. She was very specific about what made the quick reference guide so special, and that prompted me to think about what makes the video essay so special.