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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 587

Part of Session 108: Negotiating communicative practices in school (Other abstracts in this session)

Transforming our teaching of disciplinary writing: The role that microgenres can play in facilitating student learning within and across schools or colleges of Engineering

Authors: Evans, Rick
Submitted by: Evans, Rick (Cornell University, United States of America)

Undergraduate writing instruction in engineering has generally focused on that collection of traditional genres most apparent in the table of contents of any technical communication textbook: proposals, progress and technical reports, journal articles, instructions, manuals. However, each of these genres is actually made up of a number of more “elemental genres” or “short genres” such as classifying and compositional descriptions; sequential, consequential, and conditional explanations; various kinds of procedures  – operating, conditional, and technical – and procedural recounts (Christie, 2002; Martin and Rose, 2008). Indeed, it is the presence of these microgenres as important “markers” that give traditional genres their identity (Coutinho and Miranda, 2010). For example, most methods sections in experimental journal articles include at least two of the microgenres listed above: a compositional description or a description of experimental apparatus and materials; and a procedural recount or a presentation through time of the experimental process. That these microgenres exist has been strongly suggested in the research of the “Sydney School” and includes explorations of genres in a range of institutions and contexts (Christie and Martin, 1997). Further, Martin and Rose (2008) claim that access to genres, and perhaps more importantly then to microgenres because of their status as markers, plays a crucial role in the ability to participate in disciplinary and/or field culture. 

In cooperation with faculty in the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering (BEE) at Cornell University and with faculty teaching selected courses in other departments across the engineering curriculum, I have begun a two-year long study into the occurrence and the schematic structure of these microgenres. There are two specific research questions. First, given the inherent variability and mutability in the realized examples of traditional genres, can I identify distinct microgenres in a way that is both valid, i.e. each exhibiting a recurring schematic structure, and reliable, i.e. a structure that remains consistent within examples of different traditional genres? And second, can I identify enough of these microgenres to be able to propose a systematic and generalizable approach to teaching and assessing students’ performance of those traditional genres?

In my paper, I introduce the concept of microgenres, offer a brief overview of the near-term and the long-term research project, and briefly locate the project within the well-established and increasingly international field of genre studies (Bawarshi and Reiff, 2010). I then present the promising early results of the analyses of one microgenre, compositional description, extant in examples of student writing across different genres within a single course. These results strongly indicate that we can identify microgenres in ways that are both valid and reliable. Finally, I suggest how, if I can identify a sufficient  number and range of these microgenres, they might then be useful for integrating and coordinating writing instruction within and across the engineering curriculum and can be used to assess students’ readiness to participate in disciplinary and/or field culture.