Teaching Genre in College Basic Draft

Teaching Genre in College 1

Teaching Genre in College

Eduard C. Hanganu

B.A., M.A., Linguistics

Lecturer in English, UE

Draft 4

Revised – November 25, 2014

© 2014


Abstract

The identification of the genre of a text is an important aspect of written language comprehension,

and interpretation, and should be part of the required language skills for college students. Scholars

are divided, though, about instruction in genre. Some think that students acquire genre knowledge

in a natural manner, through the mere exposure to texts which represent various generic structures,

while other scholars believe that the students need explicit instruction in genres in order to be able

to categorize texts, recognize their generic structures, and comprehend the social functions and the

rhetorical roles that text perform inside the social and cultural milieu in which they are embedded.

Understanding genre as social action which accomplishes various rhetorical functions in the social

context has important implications for instructors and students. Often college education appears to

be detached from the real, professional life, and students think that taking composition courses has

a mere didactic purpose, and that no acquired college skills could be transferred into authentic and

lucrative professions. Research done in the past decades shows that students could be instructed in

genre in such ways that their acquired theoretical and practical knowledge might be used in actual

careers. This can be achieved through solid, explicit genre teaching in classrooms, through the use

of mediating genres that lessen the gap between the academic context, and the business world, and

through cooperative work between the classroom and various businesses which could benefit from

the professional work which students could perform free of charge.

Key words: genre, teaching, instruction, definition, method, approach.


Teaching Genre in College

Courses in literature include, in addition to the reading and discussion of certain classical

and modern works, text criticism and appreciation. Such work demands understanding genre and

its textual functions (classification device, communicative event, and social action) as quite often

"genre mistakes cause the wrong kind of truth values to be attached to sentences" (Barr, 1973, p.

125), metaphorical meaning is interpreted as literal, fiction is read as actual narratives, legal texts

are understood as affected, exaggerated language, and perfomative expressions are ignored. Such

misunderstanding of the textual meaning could have consequences ranging from confusion about

the intended social action and rhetorical purpose of a text, to legal issues. Explicit theoretical and

empirical knowledge about genre through exposure to different generic structures should help the

readers avoid such confusion and misunderstanding. This paper summarizes various perspectives

on the teaching of genre in college, contends that students must be taught genre in an explicit and

direct manner in order to be able to interpret texts adequately, and reviews different methods and

approaches that could be used to provide students with theoretical data, and empirical experience

in the genre identification of various texts.

Teaching Genre in College: Perspectives

Productive reading occurs as an interaction, or dialogue, between the reader and the text,

and is based on certain assumptions which the reader makes about the form and content of the

text, and on certain expectations the reader has about it. These expectations indicate the reader's

previous experience with various texts, and the presence of internalized generic structure patterns

which come to be compared with the actual format and content of the texts under inspection.

Among the generic structures, or genres, to which the reader is exposed one can mention prose,

newspaper stories, fiction, biographies, advertising, fable, academic writing, etc. During the past


decades, more genres, which represent basic social activities, have been added to the record, and

among them are "business, politics, medicine, religion, and sport." In fact more research shows

that all human activities could be included in different generic categories (Beghtol, 2000, p 17).

This extension of generic categories from literature and art to common human activities

which occur in the social context has originated with Miller's (1984) article, Genre as Social,

Action, in which she departs from the conventional definition of genre as a classification device to

its redefinition as rhetorical and social action. From an inactive mechanical device, genre is seen

as a social agent that interacts with the socio-cultural context, and supplies the framework for the

organization of thoughts, interests, and purposes (Kain &Wardle, 2005, p. 16). Miller (1984) also

defines those parameters within which a certain text can be termed "discourse" and can be

included in a certain generic group, and insists that the most important aspect of text is not its

form and content, but its rhetorical and social functions (p. 151).

Beghtol (2000) paraphrases Miller's (1984) ground-breaking understanding of genre and

states that "we need also to relate these genre issues to the larger scale of the cultural context of

the various genres" (p. 19), and mentions that the reader's expectation concerning the text must be

included in the writer's interests, as readers match prototypical generic models with the actual text

which they read in the process of genre identification (p. 18). Her article opened a new field in

genre research which Freedman has called "rhetorical genre studies (RGS)," and that relates genre

and composition from a pedagogical perspective, in order to emphasize the generic factors that

have a bearing on education and involve teaching and learning (Freedman, 1999, p. 764).

Freedman (1999), agrees with Bakhtin's (1986) warning that language use and research

cannot be done without a clear understanding that language is a social event, and must not be

separated from the social realm, as such a viewpoint will cause estrangement, evasion from the


real world and retreat into abstractions, and a disconnection between language and life (p. 766;

Bakhtin, 1986, p 63). Composition courses need to state their rhetorical purposes, which are to

teach about human existence and social life, to provide students with clear perspectives on the

people around them, and to involve students in the dream for a better life (Freedman, 1999, pp.

766-767).

Engagement with the text occurs through an instinctive evaluation of the co-text, context,

and the rhetorical situation of that fragment of discourse. The crucial questions asked are related

to the text's intended communicative purpose(s), its meaning, the structure and the content of the

discourse fragment, and the emotional load of the message. This assembled information provides

the reader with data needed for the decoding of the message (Bawarshi, 2000, p. 335). The trade

between the reader and the text does not leave the reader unchanged. Smith (1991) remarks that

some of the effects that literature reading has on students are (1) emotional growth, (2) cognitive

development, (3) fictional character emulation, and (4) skills development. Due to the fact that

generic features differ in strength among genres, exposure to multiple genres provides enhanced

cognitive and emotional learning experiences for students (p. 440).

The past four decades have witnessed a constant debate concerning whether genre should

be taught to students in school as an explicit subject, or whether the students should be permitted

to acquire this knowledge in a subconscious manner, through reading exposure to various genres.

Commenting on the genre debate, Henry and Roseberry (1998) state that "the arguments for and

against the genre approach in ESP/EAP have been limited to the theoretical, and few if any

attempts have been made to evaluate the approach empirically in an ESP/EAP context" (p. 148).

Though their research dealt specifically with English for Academic Purposes (ESP), and English

for Specific Purposes (ESP), the same observations apply to all areas of English instruction. With


no empirical evidence to support either side of the issue, the argument remains open. There are,

though common-sense reasons for teaching or not teaching genre on both sides of the matter, and

this section of the paper will review the most important ones.

Carter, Ferzli, and Wiebe (2004) state in their article on approaches to teaching genre to

adults that one of the first educators who argued against explicit genre instruction was Freedman

(1993) who declared that genre learning is natural, and context-dependent, and occurs through

mere student exposure to various literary genres. For this reason explicit teaching is not required,

it is difficult or impossible to provide outside the context, and may harm the students (Carter,

Ferzli, and Wiebe, 2004, p. 395). Williams and Colomb (1993) and Fahnestock (1993) made a

rebuttal to Freedman's arguments, and commented that context is not always required for text

interpretation, and that genre conventions can be learned even outside generic contexts (cited in

Carter, Ferzli, and Wiebe, 2004, p. 396).

Carter, Ferzli, and Wiebe (2004) also affirm that the decision whether or not explicit genre

should be taught are made harder because there are three major theoretical perspectives on genre:

(1) Swales's (1986, 1990) model, (2) The Australian model, and (3) The North American model.

Swales's (1986, 1990) model, is based on the idea of structural moves and patterns in genres, and

those who advocate his perspective believe that there are good reasons for explicit genre teaching.

The Australian model, similar to Swale's model, is based on Halliday's (1985) systemic functional

linguistics, and formulates "well-designed pedagogies for explicitly teaching genre," while the

North American model is based on Miller's (1984) "understanding of genre as social action." The

supporters of this school of thought on genre do not think that genre could and should be taught as

an explicit subject (Carter, Ferzli, and Wiebe, 2004, p. 396).


Swales's Theoretical Perspective

Fahnestock (1993) finds that "in looking for evidence on whether or not to teach genre,

researchers might recall the role that the explicit teaching of genre in rhetorical education has had

for more than two thousand years," as in classical rhetoric writing and argument were seen as

inseparable and the acquisition of such skills was deemed essential for students. Those basic

studies are equivalent to the freshman composition courses which students take in college now,

and their importance does not need emphasis (p. 257). What is important about the writing and

argument instruction during the classical period is that the focus of that teaching was not on the

rhetorical subject or on context, but on the rhetorical action that the text performed, and on the

approaches which developed the rhetorical effects of the text (pp. 267-268).

The research that Carter, Ferzli, and Wiebe (2004) did on the explicit teaching of genre

showed that "genre can be explicitly taught and effectively learned," but that instruction does not

have to be decontextualized, as Freedman (1993) had declared, even when students are exposed to

intensive learning of theoretical concepts. Students were provided with proper materials, and

learning was included in the general educational context of the project. The "outsiders" problem,

as Freedman (1993) called it, and which she thought was caused by those educators who did not

teach genre in their area of educational expertise, was not an issue in the research because all the

teachers were specialists in their fields, and the focus of instruction was on learning the practical

aspects of genre writing and not on learning theoretical aspects of the genre (p. 407). Freedman's

(1993) concern that by teaching genre explicitly the teachers were preventing the students from

using their tacit knowledge of genre, did not prove to be true, and the conclusion was that "tacit

knowledge can be effectively enhanced through explicit teaching," and not disabled (p. 408).


Reppen (1995) comments that as students' experience with oral language covers different

registers, so their knowledge of written language should include various writing styles or genres,

as this knowledge would allow them to write for different rhetorical purposes. She comments on

the evidence from recent research, which suggests that in order to widen their English language

skills students should be exposed to various genre texts, practice which is "important for English

L1 students and crucial for English L2 learners," as mere intensive writing would not be enough to

provide the students with skills on writing in different academic styles (p. 32). Reading skills can

be developed and improved in a significant manner when students benefit from exposure to texts

in different genres, according to Stamboltzis and Pumfrey (2000), and therefore "the issue of text

genre has begun to loom larger in thinking about reading development" (p. 60). Research shows

that though narratives seem to be the most attractive genre for students, no genre could be said to

have all the features that would cover all the reading needs of the students, but that a combination

of texts in different genres was the best approach to reading development (p. 60).

The Australian Theoretical Perspective

In the article entitled, Genre in Three Traditions, Hyon (1996) discusses the significance

of explicit genre instruction for ESL students in Australia. She reviews first the main schools on

genre, and their contribution to the evolution of different pedagogical approaches to the teaching

of rhetoric and composition in the context of genre, and remarks that "genre-based pedagogy, in

all its forms, involves some kind of classroom consideration of genres and the context in which

they are found" (p. 697). The methods and approaches were intended for teaching in English for

Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Professional Communication (EPC) courses (p. 698).

The conclusions drawn in the studies on the effects of explicit teaching of genre were heartening,

remarks Hyon, as "in studies of ESL reading development, Hewings and Henderson (1987) and


Hyon (1995) both report positive effects of genre instruction on students' understanding of text

structure and overall reading effectiveness" (1996, p. 714).

Explicit genre teaching in Australia, in fact, dates from the early 1980s, when the concept

of genre began to be shown increased interest, and was included as part of the curriculum on the

basis that if genetic structures or patterns could be identified in texts then such patterns should be

"made available as explicit knowledge for learners in school" so that the writing education could

be more effective (Kress, 1999, p. 463). The adoption of explicit genre instruction was perceived

as a matter of fairness to the students, as part of an equitable curriculum, as student diversity was

too great, and the teachers could not assume that all students who were coming to school had the

same knowledge, or for teachers to assume that all had "the same cultural capital" (Kress, 1999, p.

463).

The Australian opposition to explicit genre instruction was based on a few main reasons,

among which were: (1) writing was a personal expression of ideas, and should not be restricted

through the introduction of mandatory forms, (2) the Australian society was not homogenous or

uniform, and there was no to impose a common denominator among students, (3) the issue was

one of social power and control, rather than a matter of access to education, (4) performance in

writing would decrease, and dynamic writing would be replaced with the mechanical structures

which were characteristic to genres (Kress, 1999, p. 464).

Christie (1999) states that the Australian approaches to genre instruction are based on the

systemic functional (SF) theoretical model articulated by Halliday and Hasan (1985, p. 12). From

their standpoint, language is characterized as functional, and its functions can be identified in the

text as ideational (propositional content), interpersonal (social interactions), and textual (patterns

of linguistic message). Implanted in the contexts of situation and culture, the text carries meaning


and performs various social functions (Christie, 1999, p. 760). The practical application of this

theoretical model is that "for pedagogical purposes, the theory proposes that a knowledge of how

language works to build the genres associated with school success will enable teachers to guide

their students (both L1 and L2 ) in learning them" (Christie, 1999, p. 762).

The Australian educators have applied the functional language model with those students

whose intellectual growth had been slow due to a negative socio-cultural background or harmful

educational contexts, with L 2 students, with native Australians, and with migrant children. The

outcome of this educational approach has been positive and encouraging (Christie, 1999, p. 762).

The benefits of teaching language within the functional model are that: (1) learning occurs in a

structured instructional environment whose framework facilitates the learning of grammar and

discourse features; (2) the students are provided with numerous generic models which show the

way in which such models perform various social actions; (3) the students learn how to generate

meaning through the form and content of their written texts; and (4) the students learn to extend

their explicit knowledge of the configuration of the English language into textual criticism, and

discourse analysis (Christie, 1999, p. 762).

The North American Theoretical Perspective

In North America, the resistance to explicit teaching of genre has been in general derived

from low interest in genre. Heilman (1963), for instance, states that he doesn't think that "genre is

an indispensable subject when we are making proposals about curricular phasing" (p. 358), while

Kessler, Nunberg, and Schütze (1997) make the observation that genre "can be a difficult notion

to get a conceptual handle on" (p. 32). Freedman (1993) has made, as described before, the most

serious objections to the explicit teaching of genre. She has argued that genre learning was tacit,

natural, and context-dependent, and occurred through contact with various textual structures, and


that explicit teaching was not needed under such linguistic circumstance. Williams and Colomb

(1993), and Fahnestock (1993) refuted her arguments and showed that context is optional during

instruction on genre, and that students benefit from explicit learning of genre even if they learned

to recognize genre through exposure to different texts (Carter, Ferzli, & Wiebe, 2004, p. 396).

Research has confirmed again and again the relevance of explicit genre instruction in the

development of the writing skills of children. Donovan (2001), for example, shows how children

develop their genre recognition aptitude at the primary school level, and mentions Kress's (1994)

remark that the development of such ability cannot be separated from genre acquisition because

"learning to write is the learning of forms, demands, and potentialities of different genres (p. 11)"

(Donovan, 2001, p. 394). The implications are that children should be exposed to various genres

during the time when they learn to write, and that they should be taught the structure of the texts

that represent those genres, so that they will be able to replicate the new generic structures in the

process, and develop their writing (Donovan, 2001, p. 400).

Knowledge of genre and writing develop in two stages, at the micro and macro stages of

expertise. The micro level comprises the linguistic features of a language (word use, vocabulary,

tense, and cohesion), while the macro level includes the features which define the specific genre

(Donovan, 2001, p. 397). Students begin at a starting point, and move through transitional levels

towards more advanced writing skills (p. 400). Because all the "writing is the learning of genre,"

the writing exercises which students perform develop their knowledge of text configuration, and

genre structure (p. 437). Donovan (2001) agrees with Kress (1994) that the students' "knowledge

of genre, from a Kressian perspective, is as important as their developing control of the

conventions of spelling and punctuation," and that knowledge of genre should not be considered

optional, or a matter of little importance, but a basic area in the development of writing (2001, p.


437), and that explicit college classroom instruction in genre could contribute to a large degree in

this development.

Explicit instruction on genre makes good sense from a historical rhetoric perspective, and

has been defended with ample research data collected in the past decades. Rhetoric and argument

have been seen as contributing factors in the phenomenon of text as social action (Miller, 1984, p.

151). This social action is defined and expressed through the generic structures and the rhetorical

force of various texts, and a good knowledge of the specific characteristics of genres could make

the difference between a well written and persuasive text and a weak, mediocre document.

Writing as Part of Social Action

Referring to the writing level of college students, Lillis and Turner (2001) remark that "in

recent times, student writing in higher education (HE) is increasingly seen as a problem" (p. 57).

The problem seems to be the fact that students are not able to meet the expected academic norms

on English writing. The reasons appear to be that (1) students come to college less prepared than

before, and their knowledge of language, and writing practice seem to be below those expected in

the academic environment, and (2) students are confused about the writing expectations in the

academic setting (2001, p. 58).

The criticisms raised concerning the student writing deficiencies included writing outside

the expected college conventions, and failure to pursue a certain document structure. The pattern

of writing expected from students seems to derive from the "conduit model of language" that has

its origins in the rationalist view of language as knowledge carrier separated from the transmitted

meaning. This speculative model does not consider the import of language as a rhetorical device,

or as language in action (Lillis &Turner, 2001, pp. 62-63).


The modern view on language, though, perceives meaning as a crucial aspect in language

use, and declares genre and rhetoric fundamental to the social action which language performs

(Lillis & Turner, 2001, p. 64). Donovan (2001) asserts that in Kress's (1994) perspective "writing

is the learning of genre" (p. 437), and therefore writing instruction should focus more on the role

of genre in the structure and rhetorical force of the discourse. This new approach would make the

explicit learning of "the elements of genre" an essential area of the composition process, and the

instructional goal would be no more teaching certain genre structures and grammatical rules, but

the reasons for the writing process and its intended rhetorical functions. This educational method

is known as the genre-based approach to the teaching of writing, as opposed to the dated conduit

model (Donovan, 2001, pp. 439-440).

The research performed on genre in the past four decades has had two effects on English

language instruction: (1) it has caused a change in the theoretical perspective on genre, which is

no more understood as a mere classification device, but as the discourse structure within which all

writing occurs, and as social action, and (2) it has accumulated knowledge that could be used in

writing instruction. The change of perspective on genre that had a direct impact on the English

composition teaching began in the 1980s through studies done by Miller (1984), Halliday and

Hasan (1985), Swales (1990), and Bhatia (1991, 1993). From their perspective, genre was a social

device which had a communicative purpose, and which performed a rhetorical action in the social

and cultural context (Henry & Roseberry, 1998, p. 147).

From an educational perspective, this new understanding of genre created the framework

for new, genre-based writing methods and approaches, in education and business. The main goal

was to improve the assimilation of new writing patterns through (1) the identification of essential

textual features, (2) the acquisition of the generic structures which characterize various academic


and business genres, and (3) the understanding of the rhetorical functions and actions which each

genre was going to perform in the socio-cultural context. These goals could be achieved through

the introduction of the new teaching methods and approaches into the courses that taught English

for Academic Purposes (EAP), and English for Specific Purposes (ESP).Through these different

genre-based methods and approaches, college educators have hoped to "raise learners' awareness

of both the rhetorical organization and the linguistic features closely associated with genre," in

order to help their students to reproduce different document formats and improve their writing

skills (Henry & Roseberry, 1998, p. 147).

Flowerdew (2000) remarks that the development of genre-based methods and approaches

on writing can be traced back to Swales' (1990) influential genre studies that resulted in practical

applications of the theoretical perspective. Among the various applications of the method for the

academic or business writing, she describes Bhatia's (1993) "examples of materials to familiarize

students with the promotional genre of sales and job application letters, some language exercises

designed by Flowerdew (1993) for students majoring in communications which were intended to

teach them "the process of acquiring new genres," and the use of Swales' (1990) CARS ('creating

research space') rhetorical model by different scholars among whom are mentioned Hopkins and

Dudley-Evans (1988), Kusel (1992), Dudley-Evans (1994) and Jacoby et al. (1995), with the aim

to "disambiguate the rhetorical structure of various types of academic report writing, specifically

the introduction and discussion sections" (Flowerdew, 2000, pp. 369-370).

The notion of genre as social action involves a restructuring of certain educational norms

and boundaries because it involves a relation between formal or academic writing, and writing in

the larger, socio-cultural context. It is unfortunate, believes Russell (1997), that at this time there

is no theoretical framework which would make the connection between them:


There is currently no comprehensive theory of writing to explain how doing school, doing

work, and doing the other (political, familial, recreational, etc.) things our lives are made

of come together through the mediation of writing—or how to trace the ways people

change as writers, individually and collectively, as they move within and among various

social practices. (p. 505)

Such questions are legitimate and relevant as quite often composition students do not see

the relation between college writing and their future careers because academic writing appears to

be too abstract and removed from their practical needs as individuals and professionals in various

business fields. Russell (1997) seems to find the answer in Vygotsky's (1986) interactionist view

on formal education and other social practices, the cultural-historical activity theory, that "traces

cognition and behavior, including writing, to social interaction" (Russell, 1997, p. 509). Cole and

Engeström (1993), reformulate Vygotsky's (1986) activity theory, and define human interactions

as "dynamic systems of networks" (Russell, 1997, p. 509). Such networks comprise "both human

agents and their material tools, including writing and speaking," and provide the structure which

integrates all the communication devices that people use into a multiplex of human activities that

happen "without separating either from collective, ongoing motivated action over time" (Russell,

1997, p. 509).

Russell (1997) expands on Miller's (1984) perspective on genre as social action and states

that genres are more than texts which share similar generic structures. Genres define expectations

among various social groups, and express a common ground among the group participants (1997,

p. 513), and should be interpreted as "forms of life, ways of being, frames for social action. They

are environments for learning" (Bazerman, 1994, p. 1). From such a perspective, learning a genre

is to realize the rhetorical functions of writing as social action, and its meaning (Russell, 1997, p.


513). As communicative actions, written texts contribute to mediation among the group members

of a social class, and help in the creation of a stable group environment (Russell, 1997, p. 514).

Russell provides the example of a list of items which he used together with his daughter, to show

the value of a "non-school and non-professional genre" in the management of one feature of their

social relationship, and the mediation of their arguments over shopping matters (1997, p.516).

The social events produced through various generic structures have a direct impact on the

academic environment. Higher education does not take place in a vacuum, but in particular social

context, the academic milieu, which is connected to the larger social context through the "written

genres which mediate the interactions between school and society" (Russell, 1997, p. 525). As an

example, Russell mentions the interaction between a research institution of higher education and

the researchers who work there. Most of the mediation occurs as written formal academic genres,

but there is also informal written and unwritten interaction. States Russell:

There are also a huge range of what Medway (in press) calls informal written genres, such

as marginal notes, scribbles, and e-mail, as well as bureaucratic genres such as rolls, grade

forms, drop/add slips, and so on. There are also genres that are oral, gestural, mechanical,

architectural, monetary, and so on. Certain genres are also the outcome or product of the

activity sistems' functioning. (1997, p. 525)

Classroom interactions in college are also mediated through different written genres such

as reader responses, book reports, essays, research papers, theses or dissertations. Oral genres are

also participators in the mediation process, as also gestural genres. The oral and written genres in

the classroom connect the classroom to the whole academic environment, and establish the social

context of academic language in action (Russell, 1997, p. 532). In this context, students also have

to confront "double binds," (Russell, 1997, p. 533)—the pull towards conflicting life choices and


paths. They have the option to involve themselves in academic pursuits, as active members of the

academic environment or rather to select "to involve themselves as consumers of a discipline's or

profession's commodified tools (knowledge) in distant genres" (Russell, 1997, p. 534). The issue

is also a matter of social power or influence in the academic world, as few students are so familiar

with the genres of academic interaction and mediation to exercise a relevant influence or to cause

radical changes in the established tradition (Russell, 1997, p. 538).

Most college students appear to "have a 'text based' approach to learning," and understand

texts as "arhetorical," that is, isolated from the social context, and isolated from social action, and

intended for educational purposes only. They do not see how classroom genres will support them

in their education and careers. Their writing exercises lack interest and enthusiasm, and show the

students' refusal to get involved in the academic actions generated by language. The consequence

is that "most students are doing school most of the time, not disciplinary work" (Russell, 1997, p.

539). This problem is more severe in freshmen composition classes which are in general attended

by undecided students. States Russell:

I suggest elsewhere in an activity theory analysis of first-year college writing instruction

(Russell, 1995) that composition students have particular difficulty seeing the connection

between their writing and the other social practices. Students tend to write in the classroom

genre of the five-paragraph theme, which has a history almost exclusively educational.

(1997, pp. 541-542).

The solution to this lack of student engagement problem seems to be "scaffolding," which

is an integrated, cooperative learning context or "the classroom/curricular experiences instructors

and students construct to facilitate learning" (Russell, 1997, p. 542). This scaffolding would have

a dual role: (1) provide openings into different disciplines by training students in specific generic


structures which are characteristic to those disciplines, and (2) act as a selective filter for students

who are not inclined towards a certain field of academic study or profession. The approach could

be seen as a "selection versus introduction" process, as students would choose between academic

fields or professions, and remove those choices which were of no interest to them, and then move

towards the academic field or profession that would fit their interests (Russell, 1997, p. 542). The

construction of that scaffolding between students and teachers would lead to a clarification of the

writing process and its rhetorical purpose, and would help students involve themselves in writing

as social action, and allow educators to evaluate their teaching methods and approaches and find

out what works better for both the educators and their students (Russell, 1997, p. 545).

Teaching Genre in College: Methods and Approaches

Learning genre identification is, to a certain degree, similar to learning a craft. This point

of view is nothing new. In the classical rhetorical tradition, teaching and learning genre occurred

thorough creative instruction established from a perspective similar to Miller's (1984) theoretical

model that genres are not simple classification devices, but functional language that has a strong

influence on the social and cultural context (Fahnestock, 1993, p. 268). Classical rhetoric became

a conventional discipline between the first century B.C. and the first century A.D., so that during

the New Age "rhetorical education had evolved a set of hierarchically-ordered written exercises,

each practicing a distinct genre" (Fahnestock, 1993, p. 268). The outstanding intelligence of such

an approach was that "the earlier exercises were meant to isolate and practice the compositional

skills that were later combined into a full performance" (Fahnestock, 1993, p. 268).

Freedman (1993) had argued that the knowledge to differentiate between genres does not

have to be taught in an explicit manner because it is learned through exposure to different genres

in the same way in which people learn crafts. She had affirmed that "control of craftsmanship, or


techne, does not necessarily entail conscious learning of explicit formulation of rules" (p.236), as

the trade can be learned through the apprentice observation and cooperation with his master. The

"rules governing the intended form need never be articulated in language at all" (p. 236) believes

Freedman (1993), and, in fact, neither the apprentice nor the master knows them (p. 236).

The comparison seems to be appropriate, states Fahnestock (1993), but the actual facts do

not support the conclusion that all crafts are learned without language communication. She states

that Freedman's (1993) description of craft learning appears odd:

I take exception to Freedman's assertion that any craft is ever taught without a conscious

awareness of technique (p. 236). Freedman seems to imagine a silent blacksmith who

passes on tactile knowledge to a watching apprentice without ever verbalizing a rationale

for what is going on; nothing conscious need even occur in head, master or pupil. (p. 269)

Fahnestock (1993) believes that a better example of craft learning could be "the training of

an auto mechanic, or of a surgeon, or of a chef," in which the tactile knowledge is mixed with

explanations and precise procedural instructions (p. 269). In the college classroom, students can

acquire the knowledge about genres which would help them develop their writing skills through

structured exposure to different genres and their contextual configurations. Most students appear

to have trouble writing arguments because their critical thinking is not developed enough, while

their exposure to argumentative writing has been random. The solution seems to be an extensive

exposure to various genres, and the application of the students' knowledge to the recognition and

classification of various generic structures in context (Fahnestock, 1993, pp. 269-270).

For the apprentice, learning a craft means that both he and the master will be engaged in a

sequence of activities that will result in some kind of product. The sequence of activities is not an

option, but an indispensable aspect of their work, and their failure to engage in that sequence will


have various consequences among which the most severe will be the failure to create the product,

and the failure to learn the craft. Prince (1989) mentions research which shows that a comparable

rule applies when students acquire writing skills, because "certain writing tasks (e.g. description,

listing, inner monologue) are cognitively prior to others (e.g. definition, analysis, argument)," and

following a particular order "attempts to replicate psychological stages with modes of discourse,"

and results in faster learning which later becomes routine for the students (p. 730).

The first phase of this writing acquisition sequence comprises the gap between the known

and the unknown about the generic structure of different texts. Students know certain genres, and

their generic lexicons, and learning new genres will be easier if the old and the new genres prove

to have similar features, or if the instructor is able to provide "mediating links" between previous

and recent information. Such genre mediation was common among most English writers who

lived in the 18th century. Instead of using formal, academic genres, those thinkers used dialogue,

letters, and essays to acquaint the common people with scientific, sociological, and philosophical

issues. The application of this didactic principle in college is the use of certain generic structures

familiar to students, such as letters and essays, in the practice of writing (Prince, 1989, p. 733).

The knowledge stage is also relevant for those students engaged in the process of learning

to write, as the largest number of the students "will not be motivated to read or write if they have

no content knowledge of the issues" (Prince, 1989, p. 737). Failure to relate their past knowledge

to the new one will cause students to feel confused and detached from classroom instruction. The

same situation occurs when students have to perform classroom activities which make little or no

sense to them. States Prince: "Certain kinds of institutional activity frequently debilitate students

and render them inert, no matter how full their storehouse of nouns may be" (1989, p. 738).


Written and spoken genres are powerful social agents of change which have an extended

influence in the lives of the language users. Knowledge of a certain language implies knowledge

of the culture of a social group, and in most cases indicates that the speaker or the writer belongs

to that group—ethnic or national. Language or dialectal differences between individuals translate

into social differences, and have a dual effect, which is, unite the individuals who are users of the

same language or dialect into a social or political group, and distinguish the group from the other

groups around them. When individuals adopt a certain language they implicitly adopt the culture

of the group who speaks and writes that language through a process known as acculturation. The

implications in the academic world are that when students are required to adopt a new pattern in

their language use they have to adopt also the culture which had produced those patterns through a

process similar to acculturation (Prince, 1989, p. 740). Because all students belong to different

social groups with cultural patterns that may be similar or different from those of their educators,

it follows that "the acquisition of essayist literacy for certain students may be tantamount to the

[acculturation] experience of passing from one country to a very different one, and of constantly

renegotiating of such border crossings" (Prince, 1989, p. 740).

The transition from one socio-cultural and linguistic context to a different could be aided

through mediation. Instructors should use conversion genres, or discourse structures with clusters

of features that could bridge the difference between the generic structures that the students know,

and those generic structure which are new to them (Prince, 1989, p. 740). This teaching approach

could reduce the pains of adjustment and integration into a new writing culture, and help students

to avoid those adjustment failures which could result also in academic failures (p. 741).

Included in the process of acculturation is another social movement which students must

implement, that of decontextualization. In their colloquial language use, students negotiate social


relationships and knowledge exchange through informal language, while in the academic context

they are required to use formal, academic language. Most students have a difficult time accepting

such a shift and adapting to it. While informal language includes casual genres, and an informal

lexicon, with rhetorical formats that use "home-based conversational discourse strategies, which

depend on multi-level linguistic inference" (Prince, 1989, p. 742), that is, diverse communication

channels, academic writing occurs as formal discourse which is defined thought precise structure

and content rules. The shift from the casual or informal discourse to the academic discourse is an

issue with which students struggle, and many of them cannot negotiate the change (Prince, 1989,

p. 742). The solution seems to be, again, in mediation, and "several researchers in developmental

literacy have argued that teachers should make fuller use of genres that mediate between familiar

(conversational discourse) and more difficult institutional forms" (Prince, 1989, p. 742).

Prince (1989) proposes a course outline for an English composition course for beginners

which integrates the essential elements of his instructional perspective: (1) a sequential structure

in which information is distributed to students in a gradual and progressive fashion; (2) the idea

that progress from high school writing to college writing involves "a constant matter of undoing

and doing" (p. 744); (3) the need for the instructor to disrupt the deep-rooted habits with which

students come to college from high school in order to produce the growth environment required

for the development of college writing skills; (4) revoking some of the writing directives which

have been imposed on the students in high school, such as writing the thesis as a deduction, not

using the personal pronouns, etc., and (5) instructing students that the use of specific and explicit

rhetorical modes in writing is not always indicated or useful (pp. 743-745).

Writing, as social action, is a mutual, sociocognitive process that takes place between the

members of a social group. People learn language through exposure, and through participation in


transactional and interactional sociolinguistic processes. This situation also applies to the written

language, as students learn through involvement in educated environments, through observations

of other language users, and through personal discoveries in language (Chapman, 1995, p. 164).

The process is known as socialization, encompasses all areas of human existence, and happens as

an active dialogue between the individuals who pass on to the next generation the social tradition

and customs and those who receive the inheritance. Language socialization should not be seen as a

linear donor-receiver process, but as a continuous interaction between actors who participate in

social reconstruction on the foundation of their language heritage (Chapman, 1995, pp. 164-165).

The educational implications which derive from the phenomenon of socialization in general, and

language socialization in particular are that socialization is a rather slow process that takes place

in stages. As students acquire more information concerning language use through the immersion

and explicit instruction on genre, their genre repertoire increases, and their lexical data improves,

too. Educators can stimulate and guide this process of development through: (1) providing some

adequate samples of different genres to the students; (2) allowing students time to investigate and

explore language on their own; (3) participating in an active manner in the classroom work; (4)

providing ample time for writing exercises and helping students to articulate their perspectives in

writing, and, (5) planning writing workshops in which the students will be able to share opinions

and experience on writing (Chapman, 1995, p. 188).

Specific approaches are required when students need to be acquainted with narratives and

information genres. Simple narratives are easier to write at the beginner's writing level; therefore,

those students who have little or no writing experience are encouraged to begin the improvement

of their writing skills through practice in the writing of narratives. The process will provide those

students who are still struggling with content and form the chance to practice on linear structures


and acquire a deeper comprehension of the way genres work (Donovan, 2001, p. 400). Writing is

a never-ending process; development of writing knowledge is seen as "emerging from an initial

starting place, the observation comment," and then growing through intermediate stages through

guiding instruction towards more advanced and sophisticated narrative structures (p. 400). This

perception of writing as a spiral, and ascendant process of assimilation of generic structures and

content could be exploited in composition classes in order to provide an adequate learning forum

for students. Comments Donovan:

Perhaps what is needed is a shift in current views of writing assessment and instruction.

Educators could approach the study of writing as they approach the study of reading, using

developmental information to guide and tailor instruction. This writing instruction, like

reading instruction, could be focused at a level that would give children support and

guidance on areas specific to their developmental needs. (2001, p. 439)

Human beings are averse to change, and college students are no exception to this regular

situation. In the first year composition classes, resistance to change seems to be connected to the

students' need to reposition their identities during acquisition of written, spoken, or social genres.

Learning the new genres which will mediate their integration into the new social group is crucial

to their progress in college, but the fact that they have to behave academically in ways that seem

at first quite strange to them produces an identity crisis which they have to resolve (Kill, 2006, p.

216). In fact, learning new lexical registers, new document structures, new rhetorical appliances,

and new social purposes for their papers is a "shift in practices," which is "experienced as a shift

in genres," and which changes their habits and worldviews (Kill, 2006, p. 216).

The new identities that students assume are assembled through the integration of the new

generic structures which define activities in a different, academic, socio-cultural context, into the


previous socio-cultural background which has been constructed through exposure to the previous

generic structures, social actions, and rhetorical functions. This integration stage is indispensable

to the students' progress because "it is by engaging in the generic actions and interactions that are

valued in particular communities that we perform and develop identities appropriate to the places

and spaces we want to occupy" (Kill, 2006, p. 217). The new generic structures and social modes

which the students are assuming serve as mediating agents between themselves and the new, and

threatening social context, and allows them to find their new social spaces (2006, p. 217).

Such changes in the students' academic perspectives and actions have a relevant influence

on their progress as academic writers because of the consequences which these changes will have

on their growth in the composition course. Instructors should be aware of these facts and mediate

the restructuring of students' identities through apposite genres, and help students overcome their

difficulties in the process. States Kill:

As has long been acknowledged, the acquisition of these new ways of being and

communicating is neither easy nor problematic. As David Bartholomae has famously

pointed out, there are "difficult, and often violent accommodations that occur when

students locate themselves in a discourse that is not 'naturally' or immediately theirs"

(147)." (2006, pp. 217-218)

Kill recommends that instructors should organize the classroom activities and provide the

kinds of reading and writing exercises that would make possible the development of the students'

transitions to the new generic structures and rhetorical functions without the negative and intense

reactions which might be expected from different students. This would mean an adequate answer

to the needs of the students based on a thorough knowledge of various genres, of the associations

between them, and of those genres' interactions with one another. The students and their teachers


would have to be working as a team, in a process called uptake, or the "exchange that takes place

in all speech acts" between both parties of the discourse, and in which "a speaker's utterance sets

the stage for the interlocutor's response." (pp. 218-219). As an elucidation of the term uptake Kill

notes that "Freedman uses an analogy to tennis to illustrate this point, explaining that each return

shot must account for and make use of the characteristics of the shot it returns" (2006, p.219).

While Carroll (2002) sees the objective of first-year composition courses as providing the

transition which most students need from the high school environment to the college context, and

introducing the students to the demands of the academia through mediating generic structures (p.

119), Lu (2004) has a wider perspective on the matter. Her perception is that composition classes

form the foundation of the students' future academic work and careers because in that "space" the

students take time to examine their past, present, and future, and "think, reflect on, and revise the

tacit goals, values and understandings prescribed by the discourse of flexible accumulations" (p

44). This moment in their academic pursuits might also be a moment "when reading and writing in

English can have a long-term effect on the future of all languages, all users of English, and the

order of the world we share" (Lu, 2004, p. 44).

English composition as an academic discipline appears to be even more significant when

one learns the facts that "three of every four students in the 4th, 8th, and 12th grades demonstrate

only partial mastery of the writing skills and knowledge needed at their respective grade levels,"

and that "almost one in every five first-year college students require a remedial writing class, and

more than one half of new college students are unable to write a paper relatively free of errors"

(Harris, Graham, & Mason, 2006, p. 296). Given such low performance in the students, teaching

good English writing skills in college becomes a matter of national interest, while the recognition

of the most effective methods and approaches for the teaching of English expands into a research


project (Harris, Graham, & Mason, 2006, p. 296). Part of the research covers the best approaches

or "genre-specific planning strategies" for writing improvement (p. 298).

Genre-based approaches to narrative writing include theme selection, identification of the

most essential characteristics of the generic structures, recognition of the socio-cultural rhetorical

functions of the narrative, inclusion of the narrative elements into an outline, sequencing the time

elements of the narrative, organizing all the information into a paper, and ending the document in

a persuasive conclusion (Harris, Graham, & Mason, 2006, pp. 297-298). The writing skills which

had been acquired through the writing of a narrative could be then used for learning a new genre,

the argument, which is based on a different generic structure, and which requires critical thinking

and evidence. The students' lexicon also needs to be augmented with words which can be used in

the argument and persuasion context (p.298).

The acquisition of rhetorical modes based on various generic structures is a complex and

intense learning process, which includes, in general, the following steps: (1) development of the

background knowledge required for the writing process; (2) subject invention, and review of the

structural, or generic features of the future document; (3) modeling the form and content that are

characteristic to the specific rhetorical mode; (4) supervised student-directed practice workshops

in groups, and (5) application of the obtained knowledge and skills through independent writing

(Harris, Graham & Mason, 2006, pp. 307-309).

Collaborative writing, or peer support, is imperative during all five phases of the learning

process, and students should be encouraged to assist one another in the identification of different

genres and generic and rhetorical features, recognition of background, the context of culture, and

the context of situation, and the organization of their papers through different writing approaches

(Harris, Graham & Mason, 2006, p.310). Students could then proceed to engage in research work


on their own using their knowledge of the acquired generic structures and rhetorical functions to

develop their personal and distinctive writing individualities. Affirm Harris, Graham and Mason:

The writing performance and knowledge of young struggling writers can be improved

substantially by teaching them general and genre-specific strategies for planning in

conjunction with the knowledge and self-regulatory procedures needed to use these

strategies effectively. These findings provide further verification that explicit and

systematic strategy instruction can enhance students' writing performance. (2006, p. 335)

One application of the genre-based approach to instruction is student preparation to write a

problem-solution project report which needs to be submitted at the end of the school year. The

instructional approach that Flowerdew (2000) uses in this specific situation is determined by the

structure and content of the report, and the "communicative purpose of the discourse community

participants" (p. 370). The researcher begins with the examination of the generic structure of the

project, continues with the problem-solution pattern, and considers the different approaches that

the students are taking to complete the project. The classroom exercises planned for the students

are: (1) the reconstruction of a text from various paragraphs through team work,: (2) comparison

of various texts written in different genres; (3) context identification; (4) connections evaluation

between different texts; (5) identification of the problem-solving pattern in text; (6) the creation or

invention of topics for discussion, and (7) the examination of the grammatical structure of the

various text which compose the project (Flowerdew, 2000, pp. 370-375).

Because genre is social action (Miller, 1984), connected with all the other genres through

"the larger scale of the cultural context of the various genres" (Beghtol, 2000, p. 19), the students

should be provided with the "opportunities to write about their cultural heritages and identities to

make them feel more comfortable writing in a college setting" (Corkery, 2005, p. 48). The social


background which is part of their individualities must combine with their college experience and

define their distinctive writing and speaking identities or "academic voices" (p. 49). The practice

of writing personal narratives is a good approach to achieve such results, and the students will be

less threatened in their effort to adjust to the college writing if instructors would use the narrative

assignment to mediate the students' transition to standard academic genres (2005, p.49).

Learning good writing skills implies that the students recognize certain writing standards,

and that they abide by those standards in their document composition. One approach which some

instructors use to teach their students good written English is to expose them to text samples that

exemplify good language. Students examine the samples, and adopt those words and expressions

which would make their writing better. The method is called imitation, and offers the apprentices

in writing the occasion to see how great writers use language, and then attempt to reproduce their

styles (Corkery, 2005, p. 53). Comments Corkery: "Bringing imitation down from the theoretical

realm and into the classroom practices can assist students in numerous ways" (2005, p. 53).Some

instructors do not find imitation appropriate for teaching writing and refuse to adopt it, but many

instructors find the approach motivating and effective for students in the process of acquiring the

basic elements of diverse generic structures and rhetorical functions and enhancing them through

the emulation of those writers with advanced or superior writing skills (Corkery, 2005, p. 57).

Sometimes genres are taught best through team or collaborative teaching. Team teaching

is the method in which "two or more instructors share the delivery of a single course to the same

set of students," while the collaborative teaching occurs when "two or more instructors cooperate

in the planning and delivery of a course" (Beck, 2004, p. 390). The difference between these two

methods does not seem large, but those instructors who have used both methods in the classroom

prefer the first method because it appears to provide more instructional options. Beck shares with


her article readers the experience of a group of instructors who had to teach their students the lab

report genre with all its complexities, as "first-and-second year students were struggling with this

'basic' genre" at her college (Beck, 2004, p. 389).

In order to accomplish the task, a team of teachers at the college collaborated to ascertain

the specific educational needs of their students, and decided that the students needed exposure to

actual lab reports in order to become familiar with the characteristics of the genre, and needed to

be taught by a team of instructors with expertise in both engineering and technical writing (Beck,

2004, p. 389). The students were also going to be taught how to perform genre analysis, in order

to become used to "the important rhetorical moves and linguistic markers of those reports so they

could re-create them" (Beck, 2004, pp. 389-390).

ESL students can also benefit from genre-based approaches to instruction. Reppen (1995)

describes a course she designed in which content was taught in an ascending spiral. Writing tasks

were assigned specific content, and were linked with explicit instructions on the generic structure

and rhetorical functions of the written text (p. 32). Content was improved at a constant pace, and

the students were assigned different practice exercises for each content item. The writing process

was monitored through scaffolding or apprenticeship, in which the teacher's role is central during

the first part of the course, and diminishes to observation towards its end, while the students' role

starts with observation and light participation, and ends with complete independence (p.32). This

course also placed increased import on explicit teaching about "how different ways of organizing

information in writing interacts with the purpose of the text" (Reppen, 1995, p. 32). Instruction in

the classroom was centered on discussions concerning the structure of various texts, the language

registers connected with different generic structures, and the rhetorical effects caused through the

choice of form and content. This kind of knowledge and practice enabled the students to examine


their own writing and be more aware of their own problems, and to become more efficient during

peer reviews (Reppen, 1995, p. 32).

Becoming educated in an academic discipline or professional subject requires individuals

to be familiar both with the theoretical matters that belong to the certain discipline or sphere, and

with his or her socio-cultural environment. Among the things that one must know are theoretical

topics and their concepts and formulations, inquiry approaches, and the most appropriate means of

communication in each discipline or field (Wollman-Bosilla, 2000, p 36). This basic principle

applies also to knowledge and experience acquisition in science. The learning process happens in

a scientific environment, among scientists or teachers specialized in a certain discipline, and who

are engaged in a specific kind of scientific discourse (p. 36). Here, as in any other education area,

there is need for the students to become familiar with definite generic structures, and with certain

rhetorical features of the discourse. In Wollman-Bosilla’s (2000) perspective, the “scientists who

adhere to Western views of science interpret the world, think, and write in discipline-defined

ways” (p. 36), and college students who want to pursue a certain scientific path need to learn that

learning such information is not just acquiring a jargon, but learning to communicate and reason,

organize information, and perform inquiries (Wollman-Bosilla, 2000, pp. 36-37).

Because form follows content, that is, because the generic structures of all scientific texts

reflect their content, examination of a scientific text shows that "the language of science models

the discipline's conceptual structure," and "scientific reasoning is a linguistic process" that means

to represent the distinct taxonomies and structures universal in science. In consequence, all those

students who want to learn science must also learn the language and genre of science, from those

terms and expressions which define the usual scientific discourse to complex research documents

(Wollman-Bosilla, 2000, p. 37).


In her document, Wollman-Bosilla (2000) illustrates the use of "assignments and related

instruction intended to elicit science writing," in two main academic areas, "science and health"

(p. 39). The texts used for genre instruction are genuine language samples, and the learning takes

place in the context of the particular scientific domain, "guided by the concept of genre as social

action realized through specific text structures and linguistic patterns" (p. 39). The actual process

of writing occurs as a science dialogue from student to student in an authentic context, while the

generic features of the texts are recognized and approached from a flexible, adaptive perspective

(Wollman-Bosilla, 2000, p. 40).

In the paper Teaching Genre to English First-Language Adults, Carter, Ferzli and Wiebe

(2004), report on genre-based approaches to teaching the document genre structure in the biology

lab. The instructional method is "staged pedagogical activities leading to independent application

of the genre," and "through the guided analysis of generic conventions" (p. 397). Evidence of the

students' acquisition of the genre comes from their independent work in the generation of reports

which conform to the standard format for a biology lab (p. 397). The purpose of the writing tasks

is to combine the theory in the biology lab with practice, and the learning has an educational aim,

as not too many students will have to write actual lab research papers in their careers. During the

process of learning the lab report genre students also acquire a scientific perspective about issues

related to the biological world in which we live. In this sense, the biology lab report genre serves

as a mediator between the students and science, introducing scientific principles in the classroom

and helping students make sense of their world (Carter, Ferzli and Wiebe, 2004, p. 398).

Learning the legal language lexicon and the diverse genres of the legal documents can be

made much less tedious when students investigate the generic structures of such documents with


their specific features and rhetorical function through concordancing. Flowerdew (1996) defines

concordancing as:

A means of accessing a corpus of text to show how any given word or phrase in the text is

used in the immediate contexts in which it appears. By grouping the uses of a particular

word or phrase on the computer screen or in printed form, the concordancer shows the

patterns in which the given word or phrase is typically used. (p. 97)

Weber (2001) describes how concordancing has been used as an instructional device in a

law course at the University Centre, Luxembourg. The 20 students were enrolled in a course that

taught introductory English legal language. All students were advanced in English, and had good

reading, speaking, and listening skills, but had problems writing general academic papers (p. 14).

The usual teaching approaches used in the classroom were planned to develop critical thinking in

the students, legal reasoning, and professional writing skills. Because these instructional methods

did not seem to produce the best results, it was decided that the students needed more teaching in

the English language composition, and that a concordance and genre-informed lessons approach

would be the best for them (Weber, 2001, p. 15).

The approach implementation began with a collection of standard samples of legal papers

"from the University of London LLB Examinations, and written by native speakers," which was

supposed to function as a corpus of texts for concordancing. The students collected the data from

the corpus, and compared it with their personal papers. Their research produced the identification

of four common features among the papers in the text corpus: (1) the legal principle in each case;

(2) similar cases in the past; (3) application of judicial precedents, and (4) formulating the most

appropriate legal solution for the case (Weber, 2001, p. 15).


Students then marked the incidence of each of the features in the papers, and attempted to

link the four generic features with lexical structures in the same papers, establishing concordance

in the occurrence of the generic features and the lexical structures. Among the most frequent and

evident recurring patterns, the students noticed that case delimiting preceded principle definition,

and that even those patterns showed irregularities (Weber, 2001, pp. 16-18). The projects ended

with writing exercises during which the students wrote papers in which they integrated the most

persistent generic patterns encountered with the co-occurring lexical patterns. The written papers

were then peer reviewed, instructor reviewed, and discussed. This concordance and genre-based

approach had a good effect on the students' writing which became more structured, showed more

lexical variety, and contained less grammar errors (Weber, 2001, pp. 18-21).

Genre-based methods can be also be used in English for General Purposes (EGP) courses,

an area which includes (1) product promotion, (2) publishing and broadcasting, (3) customer care

and liaison, (4) public relations, (5) human resources, (6) office management, and (7) tourism. In

all these fields there is a strong need for professionals to know well the genre of their professions

in order to discharge with expertise their duties (Flowerdew, 1993, pp. 305-306). Work in certain

fields requires even knowledge of several genres, as is the case with people who deal with public

relations, and who need to be versed in "customer-client interviews, oral presentations, publicity

brochures, press conference, press release, and business report" (p. 306). In these cases emphasis

is not on training in specific genres, but in education about various genres, a process in which the

goal is to develop the linguistic abilities of genre recognition through analysis, and identification

of the most significant characteristics of each genre (Flowerdew, 1993, p. 306).

Communication courses which are designed to introduce students to multiple professional

fields seem to be some of the most demanding academic challenges, especially because "research


over the last decade has questioned in particular whether teaching communication in a classroom

setting can adequately present (or even represent) the rhetorical and practical realities of complex

professional communication situations" (Kain & Wardle, 2005, p. 113). While classroom context

is rather inert and uneventful because it has been planned by the instructor who is monitoring and

organizing students' participation, workplace communication is natural, unplanned, and flexible,

and characterized by unforeseen events and situations (p. 113). In order to reduce the differences,

colleges are designing "writing-in-the-disciplines and writing-across-the curriculum" courses that

link various theoretical disciplines with communications, and place an increased emphasis on the

generic and rhetorical functions of language (Kain & Wardle, 2005, p. 114).

Kain and Wardle (2005) describe in their article the process of teaching genre through the

activity theory perspective. This method entails understanding the true nature of genres as "social

action" or "rhetorical actions" which are responses to contexts of culture and contexts of situation

(Miller, 1984), and not static textual elements. Failure to perceive the active socio-cultural nature

of genre leads to "mismatches between school and workplace expectations and ways of learning,

and students' inability to transfer what they learn in academic settings to workplace settings," and

they will not be able to find their places in the contexts of their professions, (Kain & Wardle,

2005, p. 115). In order to facilitate the transfer from one context of situation to the other

instructors must (1) provide students with opportunities for extensive practice on genre, (2) teach

them to extract the principles from a socio-cultural situation, (3) train the students to be alert to the

activities in which they are engaged, (4) teach them to examine themselves, and their

circumstances, and (5) teach them to use metaphors and analogies in order to transfer their

academic knowledge to their workplaces (Kain & Wardle, 2005, pp. 116-119).


Students need to understand the connection between their activities, contexts of situation,

people's motives for their actions, and the complex socio-historical and cultural contexts which

define their existence (Kain & Wardle, 2005, p. 120). All humans live in specific environments

known as activity systems, or "ongoing, object-directed, historically conditioned, dialectically

structured, tool-mediated human interaction[s]" (p. 120). Within these activity systems, humans

develop various genres—social actions or rhetorical actions—which are fluid activity structures,

and change with the context of situation and the context of culture ( 2005, p. 121).

In the classroom, activity theory can be connected with genres and the rhetorical analyses

of texts to help students understand different activities or events. For instance, a clear perspective

on the multitude of websites which populate the Internet can be obtained through a previous look

at their different genres in order to "assess what the architecture, functionality, and content reveal

about the communities they serve and the activities they facilitate" (Kain & Wardle, 2005, p. 122).

As the students examine those websites, they perceive what mediating work the sites perform in

the social context, and understand that the form and content of the sites are defined and

constrained by their rhetorical functions. Instructors can take things even further, and ask the

students to talk to the people who have created those websites in order to have an understanding

of the purposes for which those websites were designed (Kain & Wardle, 2005, pp. 1220-123).

Some scholars think that the time which instructors and students can dedicate on matters

related to genre is not enough for a good grasp of this complex notion, and that a classroom does

not offer the best environment for the examination of generic structures as an integral part of the

context of situation and the context of culture. There seems to be a better approach to instruction

in genre, and Blakeslee (2001) states concerning this matter: "In recent years, rhetorical scholars


have shown how newcomers to a domain learn its genres through immersion and participation in

the activities of the domain" (p. 169). Immersion appears to be more beneficial than the standard

instructional approach which is based on two assignments, “case studies” and “client projects” in

order to simulate workplace conditions. These two assignments do not seem to provide adequate

writing practice which would prepare the students for authentic professional work (pp. 169-170).

Blakeslee (2001) states that rather often, instructors who teach technical and professional

writing to students think that their "efforts to simulate workplace writing and to teach workplace

genres in our classroom are at best unreliable and at worst futile," and that the students complete

the course, and leave the classroom still unprepared for the business world (p. 170). The solution

she recommends is student exposure to effective work, or “client assignments that involve actual

workplace projects” (p. 170). When students perform actual business writing, they become used to

specific business requirements and expectations, and learn to do the same kind of work which

would be part of the assigned schedule at their workplace. The difference between the classroom

and the business is reduced to a minimum, and students understand much better their obligations

(Blakeslee, 2001, p. 170).

Classroom-workplace collaboration, while it cannot provide authentic workplace context,

can produce an environment as close as possible to an actual workplace, and provide exposure to

specific writing documents and their generic structures. The students can imitate and emulate the

form, structure, and content of those documents, and perfect their writing skills (Blakeslee, 2001,

p. 170). One other issue that must be considered when students are taught generic structures and

their application in the writing of work documents is whether or not students perceive their work

as authentic or not. The perception of authenticity about their work inspires the students because

they feel that what they are doing is not a useless exercise whose significance and value will end


at the end of the semester, but products which have a business value, and which make a concrete,

positive contribution to various companies (Blakeslee, 2001, p. 171).

Conclusion

Generic structures constitute the language framework, the manifestation of content in the

form which articulates the communicative acts of the language users. Genre does not function as a

mere classification device, but is language in action, that is, social, and rhetorical action, and it

represents the individual and collective consciousness of the members of a social, political, and

cultural group. Learning genre in college setting does not have only an instructional significance

for the students, but prepares them for the real world. It is important, therefore, that genre should

be introduced and explained to students as more than a classification tool with a limited function,

but part of social action. The mediating role of some genres should be used to lessen the distance

between the academic context of situation and culture, and the business environment into which

students are venturing after completing their studies, so that students will be prepared to perceive

the professional world in the right manner, and will be prepared to embrace their new challenges.


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Teaching Genre in College Basic Draft