Embedded Genres

The concept of the embedded genre is of crucial importance if we want to understand the way genres interact, within any given text, within any given genre, and in forming larger genre patterns. By discussing a tentative distinction between three kinds of embedding, “recontextualized embedding” (from Bakhtin), “contextualized embedding” (from Orlikowski & Yates), and “element genre” (from Swales and Martin), the present study initiates an unraveling of some of the intricacies involved in genre embedding. This demonstrates why genre research as well as studies of written communication can profit from integrating an expanded understanding of genre embedding in its theoretical deliberations and analytical work.

An A to W of Academic Literacy: Key Concepts and Practices for Graduate Students. Mary Jane Curry, Fangzhi He, Weijia Li, Ting Zhang, Yanhoung Zuo, Mahmoud Altalouli, & Jihan Ayesh. University of Michigan Press, 2021.

In the 2018-2019 academic year, the number of international students registered at Canadian universities rose to over 318,000 (Government of Canada, 2020). Hailing from diverse linguistic and socioeconomic backgrounds, these students face unique challenges when starting academic studies in Canada. But it is not just international students, and not just graduate students, who can benefit from Mary Jane Curry’s An A to W of Academic Literacy: Key Concepts and Practices for Graduate Students. Any first-generation academics, undergraduates in writing-heavy programs, and instructors will find this text useful, too.

PhD Students Learning the Process of Academic Writing: The Role of the Rhetorical Rectangle

PhD students are enculturated into scholarly writing through relationships with their supervisors and other faculty. As part of a doctoral writing group, we explored students’ experiences that affected their writing, both cognitively and affectively, and how these experiences made them feel about themselves as academic writers. Six first and second year doctoral students participated in formal group discussions, using Edward de Bono’s (1985/1992) Six Thinking Hats to guide the discussions. In addition, the students wrote personal narratives about their writing experiences. Data were analyzed according to the rhetorical rectangle of logos, ethos, pathos, and kairos. Analysis revealed that students were having struggles with their identities as academic writers, not feeling as confident as they had before their programs, and questioning some of the pedagogy of teaching academic writing.

Developing disciplinary discourse in a first-year engineering course: The DELNA initiative

First-year students in higher education settings tend to face ongoing challenges with variations in discursive practices and genres within their discipline. Within this context, a Diagnostic English Language Needs Assessment (DELNA) was administered to first-year engineering students to assess the strengths and needs of their ability to navigate academic language. The purpose of this paper is to report on our initiative to support student’s development of academic literacy, specifically their disciplinary language proficiency through the implementation of pedagogical support activities.

Unruly rhetorics: Protest, persuasion, and publics. Jonathan Alexander, Susan C. Jarratt, & Nancy Welch (Eds.). University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018.

None: this is a book review

A Genre Analysis of Social Change: Uptake of the Housing-First Solution to Homelessness in Canada

This is a book review so there is no abstract.

Genre Constituents in “Reflections on Genre as Social Action” – in the Light of 1980s’ Genre Research?

The article comments upon a special issue on genre in cjsdw, focusing what may be key components or constituents of genre as a general concept. The search for key aspects in these texts are seen in the light of descriptions of genre from the 1980s by Frow (1980), Miller (1984), Bakhtin (1986), and Freadman (1987). Three issues are covered, aspects, levels, and processes, and in addition the challenge of applying concepts coined in a (sub-)field when discussing genre as an overarching, interdisciplinary, semiotic concept. The inquiry leads up to five constitutive aspects, form, content, act, time, and space. It is argued that this set defines the levels utterance and genre. Different processes are discussed. The article ends modelling aspects, levels, and processes in a basic conceptual framework.

Genre-specific conventions of the Engineering Notebook.

First-year engineering students not only have to grapple with academic discursive practices specific to their discipline, but they also have to learn genre-specific conventions. The engineering notebook is one such genre common in the field of engineering. This article describes specific teaching strategies employed in the delivery of a workshop designed specifically for first-year engineers. The purpose of the workshop was to equip novice engineers with engineering notebook conventions that constitute a major literacy practice in their respective discourse community.