Contreras 1 Soledad Contreras Professor Lynda Haas Writing 37 January 31, 2014 Observation, Knowledge and Deduction Understanding

any type of writing becomes simpler once the writer is able to identify the different genre conventions that make each and every genre unique. Genre Conventions allow the reader to know what type of literature is being presented to them without the genre being specified. They are like rules the writer must follow for their specific genre. The mystery detective genre follows a series of genre conventions ever since the Novelist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, established the milestone for crime fiction with his novels about the amazing detective, Sherlock Holmes. The extraordinary use of observation, knowledge and deduction of Holmes were one of the most important genre conventions that allowed the readers to understand how with general premise, Holmes is able to deduce a specific conclusion. According to Twenty Rules for writing a Detective Stories, The culprit must be determined by logical deductions not by accident or coincidence or unmotivated confession. The Sign of the Four, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is a mystery novel that was published in 1890 and follows a series of events where Sherlock Holmes, the genius detective solves the mystery surrounding Miss Morstan. Observation, knowledge and deduction are a specific mystery genre convention established in

Contreras 2 Conan Doyles stories being seen almost as a super ability of Holmes to come up with something that has never been thought of before. A great detective must possess three things: Observation, Knowledge and Deduction. We see Holmes portraying to us how he goes by solving mysteries in many occasions using these three characteristics. He specifically shows us how he solved the mystery in The Sign of the Four when he explains to Officer Jones at Bartholomews house that the criminal who had been there and stolen the treasure was Jonathan Smalls. Holmes was not only able to come up with the name by looking at the evidence left behind, but he was able to give a detailed explanation of his appearance. Sherlock Holmes is the genius that figures out the impossible. His name, I have every reason to believe, is Jonathan Small. He is a poorlyeducated man, small, active,. He is a middle-aged man, much sunburned, and has been a convict. These few indications may be of some assistance to you coupled with the fact that there is a good deal of skin missing from the palm of his hand .(43) First, Holmes uses observation as the basis of gathering evidence. Observation is a way of finding all the clues he can gather to later put them all together and solve the mystery. He uses all five senses and engages completely while doing this to not let any clue escape him. Holmes explains to Jones, His left boot has a coarse, square-toed sole, with an iron band round the heel(42) In the passage, because of the prints on the ground we see how Holmes is able to explain the material of the boot, and that he was wearing a shoe only on one foot. We also see how Holmes sees that the material of the boot is rough. Although these clues are small,

Contreras 3 they are vital information. These close observations come in handy when trying to find the criminal in a mystery story because the detective gets a clear understanding of what they are wearing and what they look like. Observations are things the detective sees that are left behind in the crime scene, the clues that he must carefully examine and look for to gather all the parts of the puzzle. Sherlock Holmes not only possesses incredible observation skills but he is able to use the information he observes as a gateway to deduce the crime. Knowledge is needed to do so and it refers to the encyclopedic knowledge Holmes retains. with his right leg off, and wearing a wooden stump which is worn away upon the inner side.(42).When Holmes saw that the man was wearing a stump, he used his knowledge to not only determine it was a wooded stump, but also to know it was on the right side and that it was worn upon the inner side. We can conclude this due to the fact that he is a detective, and therefore has seen an incredible amount of footprint so figuring out what type of material the footprint was must be simple knowledge for him. His level of intelligence facilitates the process of deduction. Holmes takes an inductive leap, even though things are missing, he manages to gather enough specifics. Deduction is a skill that in this mystery, the detective has the extraordinary skill to come up with something no one else can see how. Holmes explains to Jones, His name, I have every reason to believe, is Jonathan Small. He is a poorly-educated man, small, active. He is a middle-aged man, much sunburned, and has been a convict. These few indications may be of some assistance to you coupled with the fact that there is a good deal of skin missing from

Contreras 4 the palm of his hand.(43). We see how Holmes was able to deduce not only his name, but a serious of information that would be impossible to figure out without the power of deduction. Holmes was able to figure out that Jonathan Small was a poorly educated man, active, small, middle-aged, sunburned, and a man that had been a convict. The question we all ask ourselves is how in the world, is someone able to figure all of this out just by observing the few clues that was left behind? That is the magic of the mystery genre, the importance of this convention. It allows us to see the importance of deduction because without it , the mystery genre simply wouldnt exist. To conclude, observation, knowledge and deduction the possessions every detective must have, are an important genre convention of mystery because it allows the reader to see how a detective solves the mystery. Today, in every mystery movie like A Game of Shadows we see the use of all three of these. We see the usage of technology to observe every inch, we see the immense intelligence of detectives, and we see how deduction can sometimes only be done by the detective, who uses his knowledge and observation skills to construct the answer to the mystery.

Works Cited
Doyle, Arthur Conan, and Christopher Roden. The Sign of the Four. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1993. Print ""Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories"(1928)." Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories (1928) by S.S. Van Dine. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2014.