An introduction to the construct of genre.

1. Teaching Genre in the
Writing Center: An
Introduction
Ron Martinez, Ph.D.

2. Today:
● A little about me and you
● About our course
● An introduction to “genre”
● Practical activity

4. What about you?

5. About our course

6. About our course
Phase 1 - Genre and Genre Conventions (August 12 - October 28)
Will explore not only the research article (RA) genre (one of the most common genres researchers need to be
versed in), but also complementary ones, including grant writing, conference abstracts/summaries, research
presentations, research reports and even media releases and author bios. Moreover, we will look beyond some of
the more commonly-examined sections in the RA (e.g. the Introduction), to unpack some of the most common
problems in the Method and Discussion sections, for example. Likewise, since the publication process is not limited
to simply the submission of the manuscript per se, other essential genres and practices will be talked about,
including cover letters, and replies to journal reviewers.

7. About our course
Phase 2 - Strategies for Teaching Genre Conventions (November 11 - February 24)
The focus here is not necessarily to prescribe one remedy that will work for all, but to present a number of different
remedial options that exist that can be used by the course participants right away, and/or at a later time as their
writing center becomes further developed and institutionalized in their local contexts. Some of the most important
practices that will be talked about will be teaching and raising awareness of genres by writing center tutors to
various disciplines, tutoring in the writing center (as it pertains the particular WCC profile of users), corrective
feedback and editing, English Department (including student) involvement, use of online tools, the concept and use
of mentor texts, development and use of corpus tools and corpora, workshops and webinars, faculty panel talks,
programmatic partnerships for Writing in the Discipline (WID), writing retreats and ‘bootcamps’, writing circles,
and various types of online help (in conjunction with the parallel project). One general thematic undercurrent of all
the aforementioned will be the development of a kind of ecosystem of research publication/dissemination support
around an institutionalized center, rather than ‘one-off’ solutions.

8. About our course
Phase 3 - Reflective Practice in Action (March 10 - May 26)
Participants in this phase will choose at least one of the interventions covered in Phase 2 to actually implement in
their respective institutional contexts. This may mean, for example, developing and delivering a webinar to
introduce academic staff to a particular aspect of the research article genre, and/or putting together a mediated
faculty panel talk on publication practices, and/or writing online short guides meant to be put online for their
writing center, and/or promoting a one-day research article bootcamp. There will be several options; the important
objective will be to move beyond theory to real contextually-relevant and impactful action, and to promote useful
reflective discussion and sharing of those experiences among the participants, from whom each member will
receive detailed constructive feedback (in addition to that provided by the instructor).
.

9. A comment from you
“Where can I access materials / session recordings
in case I miss a class?”

10. Is academic writing a problem
in Russia? Why? In Russian
too?

11. GENRE

14. The same genre?
Different?
How would you
characterize each?
Where is there
commonality?

15. Definitions of genre
“Typified rhetorical action” - “conventionalized social motives which are found in
recurrent situation‐types” (Carolyn Miller, 1984)
“Recurring or characteristic textual (oral or written) responses to the requirements of the
social context” (Polio & Williams, 2011, p. 496)
“Socially recognized ways of using language” (Hyland, 2002, p. 114)

16. Genre is pedagogically useful
● Perform certain functions;
● Gain legitimacy as a result of recognition;
● Exhibit features that are determined by these functions;
● Contain prototypical and repeated formal conventions;
● Present formal expectations shared within communities
● Often have “genre clusters,” i.e. “spoken and written texts can cluster together in a given social
context” (Hyland, 2009, p. 27)
(Ferris & Hedgcock, 2014)

17. What is the genre represented on
the next slide?

20. ● Perform certain functions;
● Gain legitimacy as a result of recognition;
● Exhibit features that are determined by these functions;
● Contain prototypical and repeated formal conventions;
● Present formal expectations shared within communities
● Often have “genre clusters,” i.e. “spoken and written texts can cluster together in a given social
context” (Hyland, 2009, p. 27)
(Ferris & Hedgcock, 2014)

23. Analyze the genre (individually, then in groups)
1. How is this meme recognizable?
2. What recurring features/conventions can you identify?
3. Find and save at least one “prototypical” example, and one not-so-
good example (e.g. that do not meet the expectations of the genre).