Definition of Genre ESP theorists generally agree on seeing genre as a class of structured communicative events employed by specific discourse communities whose members share broad social purposes (Swales, 1990, pp. 45–47). These purposes are the rationale of a genre and help to shape the ways it is structured and the choices of content and style it makes available (Johns, 1997). At the heart of ESP perspectives, then, are the concepts of community and social purpose.