ABSTRACT
Practical 13 Tutor notes In discussing this chapter, it should be stressed to students that any generic categorization is arbitrary. We have found that ours works well in practice, but it is not the only one possible. Another point to stress is that each of the five genre types can be virtually endlessly subdivided. It quickly becomes pointless to try and fmd a label for every sub-category, sub-sub-category, etc. Ends should not be confused with means: the important thing is to be able to see what the purpose of the text is and how typical an example it is of texts having such a purpose. Related to this point is another: the more categories sub-divide, the more likely a text is to have characteristics of several different categories. This point is made in the coursebook (§ 13.3), and it is a good idea to draw attention to it in class. The reason this is important is that students do at first tend to oversimplify the question of genre; instead of examining the text and seeing what generic features it actually has, they assign a text a priori to one of the five genre-categories, and then deduce from this category what features the text must have. The result is that they often miss vital features. This is also mentioned in the coursebook (§ 13.3) and is worth drawing attention to. (The ST in Practical 13.2 is a good example of a text involving some 'hybridization'.) At the same time, however, students can be reassured that, especially in a professional specialist situation, the translator will know in advance what genre most STs are likely to belong to, so that only a quick read through the text will be needed to confirm this. At the training stage, of course, it will take some time to learn what features signal the genre, and - just as important - what the TL expectations are for that genre. Chapters 14-16 are an introduction to these considerations in respect of some genres in which translators commonly fmd themselves working.
13.1 Genre
