Tevis Tucker

Ms. Wolcott
ENC1102-0M11
20/2/2015
Genre Analysis
Have you ever thought of why some texts are the way they are? Why we start letters with
Dear So-And-So, and end it with a Sincerely/Best Regards, or maybe why we teach children
to write in the format of five paragraph essays in grade school, even though there are infinitely
more ways to get points across through writing? These are basic examples of genres. And the
genre I am talking about is not just your basic category of a book or movie, but something with
much deeper meaning.
Amy Devitt, associate professor of English at the University of Kansas, states that
instead of defining genre as a category, we must shift our thinking about genre from a formal
classification system to a rhetorical and essentially semiotic social construct (Devitt 573). A
genre is a text type, but we have to consider what repeated rhetorical and social situations caused
it to come into existence. Also, genres can be very specific to their respected discourse
community, because ultimately, they are trying to help that community achieve their goals.
The genre I decided I wanted to study was the menu in the discourse community of the
food service industry. To have a genre, you must have a repeated rhetorical situation. If you
were to walk in a place and all you knew was that they served food, you would ask hey what do
you guys serve here and how much is that thing you are cooking, among many other
questions. By creating a menu, these questions are answered. A menu lets you know the basics
of what your eating establishment is all about. But really, it is much more than a list of items you

can order. It is an advertisement (they have to sell you on the fact that you want to eat there
before you do). It is a translator (the restaurant serves foods that they make up special names for,
and you want them). And lastly, it is the link between employee and customer, and therefore is
an important factor in how profitable the business is.
I decided to analyze five menus from University Boulevard, near UCF. The restaurants
were Chipotle, 4Rivers, Jimmy Johns, Lazy Moon, and Burger 21 (all only serve lunch/dinner).
They all serve different foods (Mexican, BBQ, subs, pizza, and burgers respectively), but are
very similar restaurant types, and because of their close proximity, are in competition with each
other. They are all walk up and order at the register kind of establishments. No full-service
servers and all very to-go oriented.
Because they are so similar, you may expect all of the menus to be very much alike. But,
while I did find many similarities within the menus, the differences are what are truly interesting.
But first, I will start with the similarities.
All of the menus tell you what type of food they serve, and then go on to list their specific
dishes, and their prices. This answers the hey what do you guys serve here and how much is
that thing you are cooking, which is probably the most crucial thing to make sure your menu
addresses. All menus are on some form of a singular rectangular piece of paper with text on both
sides. The obvious reason for this is cost and efficiency. Like I said earlier, genres are trying to
help their discourse community achieve their goals. And when the main goals of the food
service industry is to make money, provide great food, and make the customer happy, having
menus that are cheap and easily massed produced definitely helps.
All of the menus have their company name, logo, and website present. This is so that
bond is created between company and customer. You are trusting this company to provide you

great food, and that ethos appeal (along with wanting to market their brand) is the reason those
were put on each menu. All of the menus are in English, because that is the most common
language in the U.S., and especially in Orange County, Florida, next to the nations second
largest university.
All of the menus have clear organization. Each one is divided into sections, and the first
section is where their most common food type is located. You want the most common thing
ordered easiest to find. This is all about making the experience as painless as possible for the
customer. All of the menus have no pictures of their actual food. This was honestly a little bit of
a surprise to me, but it makes sense considering the types of restaurants these places are. They
are to-go oriented, and meant to get you in and out quickly. Also, each place only serves one
food type, so if you know what that food type typically looks like, than pictures become
irrelevant, time consuming (in terms of how long it will take you to decide your order), and
costly (if pictures had to be printed on each menu).
All menus also have a variety of text sizes, bolded and non-bolded words, and utilize
multiple columns. This is all to make the menu easy to follow with your eyes. Headings are a
bigger text size, dish names are bolded, and dish descriptions are smallest. Columns save space
and allow the maximum amount of information to fit in the minimum amount of space.
Over time, all of these similarities have probably been adopted to most menus because
they all serve a very important purpose But differences among menus is where companies
distinguish themselves.
Chipotles menu is the only menu on cardboard-like paper. It is the skinniest and tallest
sized menu. Plus, it is the only menu with in-depth nutritional facts on the back of the menu. All
of these features speak volumes to the core values of their company. They are a heath cautious

company that only serves organic ingredients and is very concerned with the sustainability of our
planets resources. The cardboard-like paper is made from recycled paper and the skinny design
and nutritional facts are to show that they serve food that is good for you and that they, as a
company, have nothing to hide.
4Rivers and Lazy Moons menus are very simplistic. 4Rivers is a self-started, family
owned restaurant that has received plenty of recognition in the industry. When you go there, you
know you are getting good food, so the menu isnt anything flashy. Lazy Moon is a very laid
back restaurant. The workers are very calm and are allowed to dress how they want, but still,
they serve very good food, so again, there is no need for them to be flashy. Each of these
restaurants also has employees that may bring your food to you or pick up your plate when you
are finished. They arent servers and they wont receive tips or get drinks for you, but they are
there to make you feel welcomed and like you are important to them. There is a connection
formed there that couldnt be formed behind the counter.
On the other hand, Burger 21s menu is very flashy. They are a relatively new company
that is still trying to make a name for itself. Their menu is designed like a brochure. They arent
just selling you their food, but they are selling you their company. The interior of their restaurant
is very fresh and modern and the menu reflects that. Their menu is also the only one that has
essentially mission statements on it. They emphasize that they serve fresh, never frozen, angus
certified beef, hormone-free turkey, veggie, chicken, and seafood burgers, and they also have a
variety of original dipping sauces for their fries (from Rajan Cajun to Toasted Marshmellow).
Also, on the 21st of every month they donate to local neighborhood charities. They want you to
know they are basically the restaurant of the future and what they are doing is something that is
outside the box, but at the end of the day, something that youll support.

Jimmy Johns is very unique. Their restaurant is filled with crazy signs from your mom
wants you to eat Jimmy Johns to wed love to see you naked. The employees greet you as
you walk into the restaurant. They want you to feel like you are part of the Jimmy Johns family
while you are there. This menu has a personal statement from Jimmy John himself, further
solidifying the bond. Also, Jimmy Johns prides itself on freaky fast subs. By the end of
saying your order, your sub is made within 30 seconds. Jimmy Johns also is the only of the 5
restaurants that delivers, and the whole back of their menu is bright red and says order online
now at jimmyjohns.com to help make sure you know that.
Without menus, the experience of eating out would be much more difficult. The
similarities between each menu helps us understand the purpose of the menu, but the differences
helps us understand the values of the company. Menus, in their own way, significantly
contribute to not only the success of the company they represent, but also to the success of the
food service industry they are a part of.

Works Cited
Devitt, Amy J. Generalizing About Genre: New Conceptions of an Old Concept.College
Composition and Communication. 4th ed. Vol. 44. N.p.: National Council of Teachers of
English, 1993. 573-86. Print.