This document discusses building interdisciplinary bridges between research genres. It cautions that one must understand where they are starting from and where they want to end up before building a bridge between fields. To build the bridge, one should review the literature from both fields to understand how each writes and the interests, perspectives, methods, and styles considered acceptable. It is also important to determine how open each field is to interdisciplinary work. The document suggests that graduate writing groups across disciplines could facilitate rhetorically savvy writing that bridges fields.

1. Understanding
Research Genres
Building interdisciplinary bridges
Margie Clow Bohan
Dalhousie University
April 10, 2008

2. Background
— My interest
— mixed-presence, inter-professional teams working
through genres
— Informing disciplines
— Writing Studies
— Organizational Behaviour
— of interest: Computer Science (mixed-presence
support), Sociology (interaction), Qualitative methods
research
— My job?
— I run the Writing Centre – so the weight of production
is felt

3. So ...
— How do I take the information (interests, theories,
methods, etc.), use them to understand more fully
my interest, and then contribute to the field?
— Which field? Who will care? Who will see this work
as valid?
— Who will publish it?
Build a bridge

4. Cautions…about bridges
Don t cross the bridge until you have figured the
following things out:
— You have to know where you are standing.
— You have to know what is on the other side.
— You have to know if the bridge can support your
weight.
— You have to know what is in the river – just in case.
— You have to know where you want to go – maybe the
people with whom you want to visit live somewhere
else – you don t need this particular bridge at all.
Think before you cross.

5. You’ve figured out that this is
the right bridge… now what?
— In terms of writing –
— Review the literature from each field. Look at
individual journals – editorial guidelines.
— How are these scholars writing?
— Interests (in people such as users, in events, in
processes such as systems, in policies, in theories or
practical applications)
— Perspectives (qualitative, quantitative, mixed, blended,
innovative – theoretical imperatives (all the isms)
— Methods (what methods does the field or journal find
credible?)

6. Continued…
— Length of work (3-5 pages or 35 pages)
— Components (if any, sections , headings, abstracts, etc)
— Style Considerations
— What is included in each section?
— How is material attributed and to what extent?
— What kind of writing is used (formal, less formal, detailed
or concise)?
— Do they use ideas from other disciplines?
— How do they convince the reader that what they say is
correct?
— On what note do they end?
— What do they include as supporting materials?

7. Big Question
— How open is the field to interdisciplinary interests
and questions?
— Don’t combine physics and rhetoric & composition
and think that physics journals with publish on the
writing preferences of physicists. However, education
and composition journals will.

8. Possibility?
[G]raduate writing groups across the curriculum
make it possible for graduate writers to become
rhetorically-savvy writers and readers both within
and without their disciplinary discourses.
Gradin,S., Pauley-Gose, J., & Stewart, C. (2006). Disciplinary Differences,
Rhetorical Resonances: Graduate Writing Groups Beyond the
Humanities Models for Interdisciplinary Writing Groups at Ohio
University Writing Center Praxis: A Writing Center Journal