Coe (2002), arguing against this dichotomy from a New Rhetoric (NR) perspective, pointed out that NR theorists view genre asa motivated, functional relationship between text type and rhetorical situation. That is to say, a genre is neither a text type nor a situation, but rather the functional relationship between a type of text and a type of situation. Genres survive because they work, because they respond effectively to recurring situations (p. 197).

mean- ing is relative to context