Abstract

This presentation provides a brief overview of the interconnections between orality, materiality, genre, and process. I argue that materiality studies can contribute to genre studies by examining how various forms of literacy are kept/changed/eliminated by various writing technologies (handwriting, printing, typing, electronic word processing and e-publishing); these media shape the features of genres and text-types. I also introduce the distinction between medium of composition and medium of delivery, and why each should be considered rhetorically. The media of both composition and delivery must be included in what Amy Devitt calls the “nexus” within which genres are situated.