WK 4 DA AND GENRE PDF

4 Discourse and Genre One of the key ways in which people communicate with each other is through the participation in particular communicative events, or genres. A letter to the editor is an example of a genre. Letters to the editors occur in a particular setting such as in newspapers and magazines...

4 Discourse and Genre One of the key ways in which people communicate with each other is through the participation in particular communicative events, or genres. A letter to the editor is an example of a genre. Letters to the editors occur in a particular setting such as in newspapers and magazines. They have distinctive and recognizable patterns of organization and struc- ture. That is, they typically have a heading at the top, the body of the letter and the name of the author of the letter at the end. They are typically fairly short and they usually aim to comment, or present a particular point of view on a topic of current interest to the readers of the newspaper or magazine. Other examples of genres are news reports, business reports, parliamentary speeches, summing up in a court of law and weather reports. Each of these occurs in a particular setting, is organized in a particular way and has a distinctive com- municative function, or purpose. The example in Figure 4.1 of a letter to the editor shows the discourse structures of a sample text. It has a generic structure that is typical of letters to the editor and a rhetorical structure which is typical of argument-type texts (see Section 4.8 below for further discus- sion of generic structures and rhetorical structures). 4.1 What is a genre? What indeed then are genres? Genres are ways in which people ‘get things done’ through their use of spoken and written discourse. In the text shown in Figure 4.1 Sally Sartain chose a letter to the editor to make her point, rather than a phone call to the editor of the newspaper, or indeed a letter or phone call to the reviewer she is complaining about as this is a very typical way of responding in a situation such as this. Genres are activities that people engage in through the use of language. Academic lectures and casual conversations are examples of spoken genres. Newspaper reports and academic essays are examples of written genres. Instances of a genre often share a number of features. They may be spoken or written in typical, and sometimes conventional, ways. They also often have a common function and purpose (or set of functions and purposes). Genres may typically be performed by a particular person  Discourse and Genre 63 aimed at a particular audience, such as an academic lecture being delivered by a lecturer to a group of undergraduate students. There may be certain contexts in which a genre typically occurs, such as a lecture taking place in a university lecture theatre, and certain topics that are typically associated with the use of a genre, such as particular academic course content. Genres change through time. This may, for example, be in response to changes in technologies or it may be as a result of changes in values underlying the use of the particular genre. The office memo is an example of a genre that has changed in response to technological changes. An office meeting may change when a new person takes over chairing the meeting who has a different idea from their predecessor as to how the meeting should be run, what is important to discuss and how this should be discussed. Sender’s address 34 Victoria St Lake’s Entrance 3099 Telephone number Tel – 9380 7787 Date 20 April 1995 Receiver’s address Letters to the Editor The Sunday Age Salutation Dear Sir/Madam Body of the letter I feel compelled to write to you about the appalling way Stephen Thesis statement Downes denigrates restaurants and, in fact, the very food which he is, sadly, in the position of ‘judging’. He has a happy knack of putting the reader completely off by Argument his disgusting descriptions. He also completely disregards the joy that simplicity brings to the customer, who after all are the whole reason for the restaurants in the first place. I do speak with a great deal of knowledge as my husband and Evidence 1 I, until recently, owned and were chefs at our two restaurants, Sartain’s at Metung and Sally’s, Lakes Entrance. Mr Downes’ snide remarks about the entrees at the Pavilion, Evidence 2 St Kilda Beach, just indicate he has absolutely no idea of the wishes of even the most discerning customers. Then, when he mentioned the ‘subtle slime’ to go with the ‘massive scrum’ of yabbies, I felt it was time to act! How dare he describe a dish so badly, then call it a quality product. He insults the chef. The Main Event. Well, I was sad to hear that for $21.50 the Evidence 3 garfish were not boned, but that is the restaurant’s choice and I don’t criticise. He describes two tiny potatoes as being ‘tired’, when obviously it is the receiver who is ‘spoilt’ and ‘tired’ of judging so much food. Don’t let Stephen Downes destroy descriptions of good food. Summing up Having made these derogatory remarks about the restaurant, he then awards them three stars. Very strange. Sign off Yours faithfully Signature Sally Sartain Sender’s name Sally Sartain Figure 4.1 The discourse structure of a letter to the editor (based on Sartain 1995) 64 Discourse Analysis We use language in particular ways according to the content and purpose of the genre, the relationship between us and the person we are speaking to or the audience we are writing for or speaking to. The way we use language in a particular genre also depends on whether the text is written or spoken, and the social and cultural context in which the genre occurs. When we do this, we draw on our previous experience with the genre to know how we should normally do this, as Sally Sartain has clearly done in her letter to the editor. This does not mean, however, that every instance of a genre is the same, nor that genres do not change. Genres, further, vary in terms of their typicality. That is, a text may be a typical example of a genre, or a less typical one, but still be an example of the particular genre. Examples of genre change can be seen in the way the internet has influenced existing forms of communications such as internal office memos, and has introduced new forms of communication such as internet chat rooms, blogs and online discussion forums. The introduction of new technologies can also bring with it new genres, such as the way mobile phones have introduced the new genre of text messaging. Defining genre Martin’s (1984: 25) definition of genre as ‘a staged, goal-oriented, purposeful activity in which speakers engage as members of our culture’ has been extremely influential in the work of the Sydney School of genre analysis. Martin and Rose (2007: 8), elaborating on this definition, add: Social because we participate in genres with other people; goal-oriented because we use genres to get things done; staged because it usually takes us a few steps to reach our goals. Swales (2004: 61) from the field of English for specific purposes says he prefers the notion of ‘metaphor’ for talking about genres, rather than ‘definition’, saying that definitions are often not ‘true in all possible worlds and all possible times’ and can ‘prevent us from seeing newly explored or newly emerging genres for what they really are’. Miller’s (1984) notion of ‘genre as social action’ has been especially important in the area known as rhetorical genre studies (Artemeva 2008, Schryer 2011). In this view, a genre is defined, not in terms of ‘the substance or the form of discourse but on the action it is used to accomplish’ (Miller 1984: 151). This action is recognized by other people and the genre is accepted, over time, as a way of doing something. Genre, thus, is a kind of ‘social agreement’ (Miller and Bazerman 2011) about ways of doing things with language in particular social and cultural settings. Miller also discusses the notion of typification in relation to genre. That is, there are typical forms a genre might take as well as typical content and typical action that the genre performs, all of which we recognize and draw on as we engage with the use of genres.  Discourse and Genre 65 The Sydney School of genre analysis The notion of genre is important in the teaching of writing and reading (Martin and Rose 2008, Rose 2012, Rose and Martin 2012) in the work of the Sydney School of genre studies. Here, the term schematic structure is often used to describe the discourse structure of texts. For Martin, the notion of genre corresponds to Malinowski’s (1923, 1935) notion of context of culture and is responsible for the schematic structure of a text. The register (Halliday 1989c) of the text, on the other hand, corresponds to Malinowski’s context of situation and is responsible for the language features of a text. Genres, thus, are culture specific and have particular purposes, stages and linguistic features associated with them, the meanings of which need to be interpreted in relation to the cultural and social contexts in which they occur. Genre analysis and English for specific purposes The approach to genre analysis commonly employed in the teaching of English for spe- cific purposes is based on Swales’ (1981, 1990, 2004) analyses of the discourse structure of research article introductions. Swales use the notion of moves to describe the discourse structure of texts. In his book Genre analysis Swales (1990) argued that communicative purpose was the key factor that leads a person to decide whether a text is an instance of a particular genre or not. He has since, however, revised this view, saying that it is now clear that genres may have multiple purposes and that these may be different for each of the par- ticipants involved (Askehave and Swales 2001). Also, instances of a genre which are similar linguistically and rhetorically may have ‘startling differences in communicative purpose’ in the words of Swales and Rogers (1995: 223). The communicative purpose of a genre, further, may evolve over time. It may change, it may expand or it may shrink (Swales 2004). Communicative purpose, further, can vary across cultures even when texts belong to the same genre category. Rhetorical genre studies Researchers in rhetorical genre studies describe genres as part of the social processes by which knowledge about reality and the world are made. Genres, in this view, both respond to and contribute to the constitution of social contexts, as well as the socialization of indi- viduals. Genres, then, are more than just socially embedded; they are socially constructive. Miller (1984: 165) argues that genres ‘serve as keys to understanding how to participate in the actions of a community’ and that the failure to understand genre as social action turns activities such as writing instruction from ‘what should be a practical art of achieving social ends into an act of making texts that fit formal requirements’, a view that has important implications for genre-based teaching (for further elaboration on Miller’s view of genre see Miller and Bazerman 2011, a set of YouTube questions and answers on genre). 66 Discourse Analysis Choice and constraint in the use of spoken and written genres Drawing on the work of Devitt (1997), Swales (2004) discusses the view of genre in which there are both choices and constraints, regularity and chaos. Genres are dynamic and open to change, but it is not a case of ‘free for all’ or ‘anything goes’. As Devitt (2004: 86) explains, conformity among genre users ‘is a fact of genre, for genres provide an expected way of acting’. As she argues, there are often consequences for violating genre expectations, and these consequences cannot always be predicted. Both constraint and choice, she argues, are necessary and positive components of genres. It is not necessarily the case that choice (or creativity) is good and constraint is bad. Both need to be valued. In Bhatia’s (1998: 25–6) words: Practicing a genre is almost like playing a game, with its own rules and conventions. Established genre participants, both writers and readers, are like skilled players, who succeed by their manipu- lation and exploitation of, rather than a strict compliance with, the rules of the game. It is not simply a matter of learning the language, or even learning the rules of the game, it is more like acquiring the rules of the game in order to be able to exploit and manipulate them to fulfil profes- sional and disciplinary purposes. Assigning a text to a genre category A key issue underlying this discussion is how we define a text as an instance of a particular genre, or in other words, how we assign it to a ‘genre category’. Cook (1989) argues that we draw on many aspects of language and context to do this. We may consider the author (or speaker) of the text and the intended audience of the text. We may also consider the purpose of text, the situation in which the text occurs, the physical form and, in the case of written texts, the title of the text. We may be influenced by a pre-sequence to the text, such as ‘Once upon a time’ as well as the discourse structure of the text. Other factors that might help us decide what genre the text is an instance of may include the content of the text, the level of formality of the text, the style or register of the text and whether it is a spoken or a written text. Some of these may be more important than others in helping us to decide what the genre category is that a text belongs to. Some may also be difficult to determine, such as the purpose (or purposes) of the text. Morton’s (1999) book about Monica Lewinsky, Monica’s Story, provides an interesting example of genre classification. The following conversation between a customer and the sales assistant in a bookstore in Los Angeles tries to get at the question ‘What genre is it?’: Customer: What kind of book would you say this is? Where would you put it on your book- shelves? Sales assistant: Well... I suppose you’d call it a biography because it’s got some of her earlier life in it. It’s not a memoir... I don’t know... It’s not very interesting. She got someone else to help her write it. It should have been in the first person, I only read about half of it... I don’t know... Maybe it’s an exposé...  Discourse and Genre 67 On the cover of the taped version of the book, Monica’s Story is classified as ‘a candid inti- mate biography of a young woman whose life holds some surprising secrets’. In this case, the sales assistant sees the book as an instance of a slightly different genre from that of the publisher, and perhaps even the author. In her case she draws on her expectations for dif- ferent genres and what she already knows about the particular text. She draws on formal features of the genre, such as the use of the third person, the content and bias of the text, the author of the text, the purpose of the text and the physical form and situation in which the text occurs. What to one person, then, may be an instance of a particular genre may, to another person, be more like an instance of another. Linguists such as Hasan (1989a) have suggested that the crucial properties of a genre can be expressed as a range of possible textual structures. Martin (1992), equally, puts forward the view that genres can be defined in terms of similarities and differences in the discourse structures of the texts. While discourse structure is clearly a characterizing feature of some genres, it is not always the case that every instance of a particular genre will have exactly the same discourse structure (nor indeed the same communicative purpose) (Askehave and Swales 2000). An academic essay, for example, may be an ‘explanation’, ‘evaluation’ or ‘argu- ment’ type text, or a combination of these, as indeed may be a summing up in a court of law. Equally, advertisements may serve not only to inform, but also to persuade, cajole, frighten, shock, worry or arouse (Cook 1989). Communicative purpose is an important (although complex) criterion for deciding whether a text is an instance of a particular genre. That is, a text may be presented in an unusual way (for that particular genre) but still have the same communicative aim as other instances of the particular genre. In some cases, the text might be considered a ‘best exam- ple’ of the particular genre, and in others, it might be so atypical as to be considered a ‘problematic’ example of the genre. Shopping lists, responses to letters of recommendation and company brochures, for example, may have more than a single communicative purpose (Askehave and Swales 2000). A book review may describe and evaluate a book but may also ‘promote’ the book. Book introductions which introduce the work may also promote it (Bhatia 1997). The issue of genre identification is, thus, a complex one and requires a flexible rather than a static view of what it is that leads users of a language to recognize a communicative event as an instance of a particular genre. A key factor in this process lies in a perspective on genre based on the notion of prototype (Rosch 1978, 1983) rather than on sets of defining features. Genres are most helpfully seen as ‘resources for meaning’ rather than ‘systems of rules’ (Swales 2002: 25). There may be typical ways in which they are organized at the dis- course level, typical situations in which they occur and typical things they ‘aim to do’. It is not always the case, however, that these will necessarily be the same in every instance, even though they may be in the majority of cases. Assigning a text to a genre category, then, does not necessarily involve an exact match in terms of characteristics or properties. Rather, it involves the notion of ‘sufficient similarity’ 68 Discourse Analysis (Swales 1990) to have a relationship with other examples of the genre in the particular genre category. 4.2 Relationships between genres A recent development in genre theory has been the notions of genre networks, genre chains, genre sets and repertoires of genres (Tardy 2003, Devitt 2004, Swales 2004). A key issue here is the way the use of one genre may assume or depend on the use of a number of other interrelated genres. An example of this is the academic essay which may draw from and cite a number of other genres such as academic lectures, specialist academic texts and journal articles. Academic essays also interrelate closely with assignment guidelines, statements of assessment criteria, tutorial discussions and teacher–student consultations. Uhrig (2012) carried out a study in which he examined the relationship between gen- res that graduate law and MBA students at a major US university engaged in as they worked towards meeting the assessment requirements for their courses. He found these genres differed for each of the students he looked at, as well as across the two areas of study. He also found the ways in which they prepared for their assessments were quite different. In law, for example, he found informal study group sessions and hornbooks (summaries of legal cases) were especially important, whereas for MBA students class discussions and oral presentations of business cases made important contributions to their assessment outcomes. Uhrig argues that in order to assist students in these situa- tions it is not sufficient to examine just the final assessments that are required of them. We also need to find out more about the genres they take part in as they prepare for these assessments. Cope (2009) carried out an analysis of the genres that students need to interact with in order to apply for admission to vocational colleges. She found that the application process was much more complicated than she has expected. The students had to engage in a range of spoken and written genres each of which was interconnected with the other, as well as have almost an insider’s understanding of how to stand the greatest chance of being admit- ted to their preferred course of study. Some of the courses, she found, had ‘walk-in’ enrol- ment where students are allocated a place on a first-come, first-served basis. The students she spoke to told her that in order to get into these courses they had to be in the queue early in the morning, at 6 am or so, or they stood no chance of being admitted to the course, no matter how well they had read the course guide, how well they had sought advice from the student counsellor or how well they had completed the application form. A further example of the interrelatedness of genres can be seen in the job interview which interacts with a number of other genres in a particular genre network which includes the job advertisement, the position description, the letter of application and the resumé. The  Discourse and Genre 69 job interview may then be followed by an offer of appointment and, perhaps, a negotiation of offer, each of which interrelate closely with the genres which precede them. The typical sequence for these genres is shown in Figure 4.2. Job Position Letter of Resumé Job interview Offer of Negotiation advertisement description application appointment of offer Figure 4.2 A genre chain: Applying for a job At times people may draw on a repertoire of genres to carry out a particular task. A com- pany may, for example, seek further information on a job applicant by means of a telephone call, an email, a letter, a fax or (in some circumstances) a casual conversation. Further infor- mation may also be sought by asking a question in passing at lunch or dinner, over a drink, or in a casual corridor conversation with the applicant. In some countries the genre network for job applications may be more complex than this. When applying for certain jobs in Italy, for example, it is often helpful to have someone who knows you who can ‘put in a word for you’ when you apply for the position; that is, what in Italian is called a ‘raccomandazione’. Some public positions in Italy, including very senior ones, also require the applicant to take part in a public written examination, or ‘concorso’, something which occurs much less often in English-speaking job application settings. Knowledge about genres, thus, includes an understanding of ‘the totality of genres avail- able in the particular sector’ (Swales 2004: 22), how these genres interact with each other, which genres a person might choose to perform a particular task and what the typical sequence and hierarchy of these genres might be; that is, which genres might have the most value in the particular setting. In Italy, for example, a ‘raccomandazione’ may have higher value than a letter of recommendation, or public examination, in the job application proc- ess. In other cultures, someone ‘putting in a word’ for a job applicant may have much less influence or, indeed, a negative effect. An example of a genre chain: Letters to the editor Letters to the editor provide a useful example of genre chains in that they often refer to and assume a knowledge of other genres and other preceding events. They may refer to another instance of the same genre – that is, a previous letter to the editor – or to a range of dif- ferent genres (and other knowledges). The letter to the editor from the beginning of this chapter (see Figure 4.1) is an example of this. In this letter, Sally Sartain refers to a review of a restaurant published in a previous edition of the same newspaper (Downes 1995). A sub- sequent newspaper article (Walker 1997) about the particular food reviewer provides more background to this particular situation. In this article, the reporter writes about an occasion where the reviewer was refused entry to a restaurant he had come to review because of his reputation for giving damning reviews. He returned a month later with his company lawyer 70 Discourse Analysis and was again refused entry. The restaurant owner told him ‘You’re welcome to eat, but not to write’. The letter to the editor, then, is clearly more than just a reaction to a single text. It is a reaction to a number of previous texts and previous events. Each of these texts interacts with each other within their own particular genre network. Looking at the texts in isolation removes them from this context as well as removes much of the information needed to more fully interpret the texts and to make a judgement about them. An example of a genre network Figure 4.3 is an example of a genre network based on the genres research students at US universities need to be familiar with. This network shows genres outside of the typical ones research students might assume they need to be able to take part in in order to succeed in (and beyond) their university studies. The sequence in which they take part in these gen- res may vary, and may not be necessarily the same for every student, but they are part of a typical repertoire of genre needs for many research students. A further issue for students Open Genres Conference talks and other talks Research Conference abstracts articles and short communications Book chapters Conference posters Theses and Books and dissertations monographs Book reviews Grant proposals and reviewer comments Curricula vitae Cover letters Job applications, Biostatements interviews and talks Thesis and Teaching dissertation philosophies proposals Research article reviews and responses Supporting Genres to reviews Figure 4.3 A genre network for graduate research students (Swales and Feak 2011: x)  Discourse and Genre 71 in this kind of setting is that many of the genres they need to be able to participate in are what Swales (1996) terms occluded or supporting genres (Swales and Feak 2000, 2011), that is, genres which are ‘closed’, not public in nature and often difficult to access examples of. Swales and Feak contrast these with open genres, that is, genres that are public, are often published, and are easily visible or audible. As they point out supporting genres often pose particular problems for graduate students and people who are beginning to carry out research. An example of genre sets Figure 4.4 shows the genre chains and genre sets around the writing of Swales’ (1998) book Other Floors, Other Voices. It shows the relationship between his original book proposal and the other genres that he was involved in, and which influenced the production of the final text of his book. Other genres not included here would no doubt include the interviews that were conducted for the study the book is based on (most by Swales, but in the case of his own case study, the interview with Swales by Tony Dudley-Evans), the other data that was 1994 proposal Penn State talk 1994 draft chapters lowa State talk 1996 reviews U. Illinois talk 1996 editorial correspondence Hong Kong talk 1997 OTHER FLOORS 1998 Reviews Citaions Cornell talk Dijon talk Dressen & Swales 1999 2000 2000 Figure 4.4 Genre chains and genre sets for the writing of Swales’ (1998) Other Floors, Other Voices (Swales 2004: 24) 72 Discourse Analysis examined for the writing of the book, the publisher’s contract, any permissions or ethics application that were required for carrying out the research and publication of the book and any other conversations that may have taken place between the author and the study participants in the process of carrying out the study the book is based on. 4.3 Written genres across cultures The area of research known as contrastive rhetoric (Connor 1996) or more recently intercul- tural rhetoric (Connor 2004) which looks at the use of genres across cultures also has impli- cations for discussions of genre. Many studies in the area of contrastive and intercultural rhetoric have focused on the discourse structure of academic writing in different languages and cultures. Contrastive rhetoric has its origins in the work of Kaplan (1966) who examined differ- ent patterns in the academic essays of students from a number of different languages and cultures. Although Kaplan has since revised his strong claim that differences in academic writing in different languages are the result of culturally different ways of thinking, many studies have found important differences in the discourse structure of academic texts in different languages and cultures. Other studies, however, have found important similarities in the discourse structure of academic writing across cultures. Cahill (2003), for example, argues that in Chinese and Japanese essay writing, for example, the discourse structure is not always as different from English essay writing as is sometimes supposed. Some Western teachers, he argues, influenced by contrastive rhetoric discussions may expect to see ‘Asian ways of writing’ in their Asians students’ essays ‘when they are in fact not there at all’ (Cahill 2003: 187). Kubota (1997) argues that just as Japanese expository writing has more than one typical discourse structure so too does English, and that it is misleading to try to reduce discourse types to the one single norm and to overgeneralize the cultural characteristics of academic writing from a few specific examples. Leki (1997) argues that many stylistic and discourse devices that are said to be typical of Chinese, Japanese and Thai writing, for example, also occur in certain contexts in English. Equally, features that are said to be typical of English writing appear, on occasion, in other languages as well. Contrastive rhetoric, she argues, can most usefully be seen, not as the study of culture-specific thought patterns, but as the study of ‘the differences or preferences in the pragmatic and strategic choices that writers make in response to external demands and cultural histories’ (244). Canagarajah (2002: 68) argues that contrastive rhetoric research needs ‘to develop more complex types of explanation for textual difference’ if it is to enjoy continued usefulness in the teaching of academic writing. Genre analysis, he suggests, is able to help provide some of this explanation, as long as it keeps away from normative, rule-governed and ‘value-free’ descriptions of genre-specific discourse patterns. This call has been taken up by Connor,  Discourse and Genre 73 Nagelhout and Rozycki (2008) in their book Contrastive Rhetoric: Reaching to Intercultural Rhetoric where they draw on theories in composition studies, cultural anthropology, trans- lation studies and text linguistics to address this issue. Pedagogical implications of this are outlined in Connor’s (2011) Intercultural Rhetoric in the Writing Classroom. Wang (2007), in his book Genre across Languages and Cultures, also, makes a case for further complexifying contrastive genre studies. By drawing together research in intercultural rhetoric, rhetori- cal genre studies, the systemic functional view of genre and critical discourse analysis, he examines the relationship between texts and the sociocultural contexts in which they are produced in order to gain an understanding of why the texts have been written as they are (see Paltridge and Wang 2010, 2011 for further discussion of this work). 4.4 Spoken genres across cultures Much less attention has been given, however, to differences in spoken genres across cul- tures. One interesting study that does do this is Nakanishi’s (1998) examination of ‘going on a first date’ in Japanese, which in his study meant mostly having dinner with someone for the purpose of getting to know them better. Nakanishi collected data from 61 Japanese women and 67 Japanese men. He then compared his findings with similar research carried out in the United States. Nakanishi was interested in the typical sequence of events in the lead up to, the carrying out and the closing of this genre in Japanese. He was also interested in how Japanese men and women acted during, and at the end of, the first date. He found the way men and women conceptualized this genre in Japanese was very similar. He found, however, gender specific behaviour in the performance of this genre such as the Japanese women avoiding silence during the date and asking a lot of questions to find out more about their dating partner. The Japanese women were also much less hesitant in expressing their ideas and feelings on a first date than they would be in many other genres in Japanese. This was especially interesting as in other genres silence and reticence are perfectly acceptable in Japanese and, indeed, quite normal. If the Japanese women had been silent he found, they often thought the date had not been a success. What is especially interesting about this study is that the women in Nakanishi’s study behaved in a way during the date that is not typical of what someone familiar with Japanese culture and communication styles might expect. In the US study, the men took proactive roles in setting up the date and deciding where it would be, as they did in the Japanese study. The men in both sets of data were also more proactive and the women more reactive in the closing of the date. The role of conversation in the two sets of data differed remarkably however. In the US data the women saw their role as following their dating partner’s lead in the conversation, and helping to keeping the conversation going, whereas the Japanese women much more often initiated the conver- sation and the choice of topics in the conversation. There was also an important role for 74 Discourse Analysis non-verbal behaviour during the date in the Japanese data that was quite different from the US data. The Japanese women observed their dating partner’s behaviour as a way of finding out more about them. They looked at the way the men ate (my Japanese students tell me they can tell a lot about a person’s upbringing from the way they eat) and their use of eye contact. The American women commented more on what the men physically did, or did not do on the date, saying things such as ‘He lost points for not opening my car door’ and ‘He never touched me the whole night... I began to wonder about him’ (my Japanese female students tell me they would be horrified if a boy touched them on the first date). The role of conversa- tion and non-verbal behaviour in the two settings, thus, was quite different. It is important to remember, then, that while there may be ways of performing the same genre across cul- tures that are quite similar, there may also be parts of the genre that are significantly (and importantly) quite different. 4.5 Genre and academic writing The notion of genre is especially important for the teaching of academic writing. This has been taken up, however, in different ways in different parts of the world. In Britain and the United States, for example, English for specific purposes genre work has focused mostly on second language graduate student writing (see Paltridge 2001, forthcoming, Hyland 2004a, Bawarshi and Reiff 2010 for reviews of this work). Work in rhetorical genre studies has focused on first language academic and professional writing in North American colleges and universities (although, increasingly, beyond) (see e.g. Artemeva and Freedman 2008, Bazerman et al. 2009). Genre-based teaching in Australia, on the other hand, has had a rather different focus. This, in part, draws from the underlying concern in the Australian work with empowering underprivileged members of the community and providing them with the nec- essary resources for academic success. While initially focusing on writing in elementary and secondary school settings, the Australian genre work (often known as the ‘Sydney School’) has now moved to writing in higher education as well (Humphrey et al. 2010). Discourse and academic writing Many of the analyses of the discourse structure of academic texts have been based on Swales’ (1981, 1990) work in this area. These studies have examined, for example, the discourse structures of research articles, master’s theses and doctoral dissertations, job application and sales promotion letters, legislative documents, the graduate seminar, academic lectures, poster session discussions and the texts that students read in university courses. One model that has had a particular impact in this area is what has come to be known as the CARS (Create a research space) framework (see Feak and Swales 2011). This framework describes the typical discourse structure of the Introduction section of research articles. Swales shows how in this section of research article introductions authors establish the territory for their  Discourse and Genre 75 research by showing how it is important and relevant in some way, indicate the gap in previ- ous research that the study aims to address and how the study being described will fill the gap that the earlier sections of the Introduction have identified. This model has since been applied to the Introduction section of other genres such as theses and dissertations (see e.g. Bunton 2002; Paltridge and Starfield 2007). Other analyses have focused on how micro- genres (Martin and Rose 2008), or rhetorical types, such as arguments and descriptions, etc. come together in the writing of academic genres such as student assignments and essays, etc. (see Paltridge 1996, 2002a, Paltridge et al. 2009; also Section 4.8 below on the discourse structure of genres). Language and academic writing There have been a number of views on the nature of genre-specific language. Hutchinson and Waters (1987), for example, made a distinction between the language of an area of spe- cialization and the language of the genres found in these particular areas. They argued that the main way in which language varied between areas of specialization was in the use of technical and specialized vocabulary rather than in its use of genre-specific language. More recent developments in the area of corpus studies, however, have disputed this view. Biber (1988), for example, in an important study found a wide range of linguistic vari- ation within the particular genres that he examined, some of which he describes as sur- prising and contrary to popular expectation. His conclusion is that different kinds of texts are complex in different ways and that many earlier conclusions that have been reached about specific purpose language reflect our incomplete understanding of the linguistic characteristics of discourse complexity (Biber 1992). In his view, there clearly are language differences between genres. These differences, however, can only be revealed through the examination of actual texts rather than through any intuitions we may have about them. This is an area where genre studies have already devoted a great amount of attention, from early frequency studies through to more recent corpus-based studies of the language of aca- demic genres. Biber’s (2006) University Language and Hyland’s (2009a) Academic Discourse provide reviews of much of this work. Charles, Pecorari and Hunston (2009) in their book Academic Writing explore the inter- face between corpus studies and discourse analysis in the analysis of academic writing. They argue that these two approaches are complementary in that discourse analysis is more ‘top- down’ while corpus-based analyses are more ‘bottom-up’. Studies, such as Koutsantoni’s (2009) examination of rhetorical patterns in research funding proposals are an example of corpus-assisted discourse studies while studies such as Hyland’s (2009b) study of the ways in which student writers establish the presence of their readers in their texts is an example of corpus informed discourse analysis. By using interview data to supplement the corpus com- ponent of his study, Hyland shows how each approach can ‘inform and enrich each other, thereby leading to more insightful analyses of language use’ (Hyland 2009b, 110). 76 Discourse Analysis Academic writing and metadiscourse The term metadiscourse was first coined by the linguist Zellig Harris (1959) to describe the way in which a writer or speaker tries to guide their audience’s perception of their text (Hyland 2005b). As Hyland points out, however, different people have defined this term differently. Williams (1981), for example, describes metadiscourse as ‘writing about writ- ing’ while Crismore (1983, 1989) describes metadiscourse as ‘discourse about discourse’, defining the term as ‘the author’s intrusion into the discourse, either explicitly or inexplic- itly’ (Crismore 1983: 2). Hyland (1998a) describes metadiscourse as ‘aspects of a text which explicitly refer to the organization of the writer’s stance towards either its content or the reader’ (438). This includes interactive rhetorical features which reflect the writer’s aware- ness of their audience, its interests and expectations and interactional rhetorical features which include the ways in which authors convey judgements and align themselves with their readers (Hyland 2005b). Interactive rhetorical resources Interactive metadiscourse resources, then, help guide readers through a text. This includes ways of expressing relations between clauses, the stages of the text, information that is in other parts of the text, information that has been drawn from other texts and ways of elabo- rating on meanings in the text. These resources aim to lead readers to the author’s preferred interpretation of their text. Examples of interactive rhetorical resources and their functions are shown in Table 4.1. Table 4.1 Interactive metadiscourse resources in academic writing (Hyland 2005b: 49) Category Function Examples Interactive Help to guide the reader through the text Resources Transitions Express relations between main clauses in addition; but; thus; and Frame markers Refer to discourse acts, sequences or stages finally; to conclude; my purpose is Endophoric markers Refer to information in other parts of the text noted above; see Fig; in Section 4.2 Evidentials Refer to information from other texts according to x; z states Code glosses Elaborate propositional meanings namely; e.g.; such as; in other words Interactional rhetorical resources Interactional metadiscourse resources include the ways in which writers express their stance towards what they are saying as well as how they explicitly engage with or address their readers in their texts (Hyland 2005b). Stance is the ways in which writers present themselves and convey their judgements, opinions and commitments to their own and other people’s work. In doing this a writer may either ‘intrude to stamp their personal authority onto their arguments, or step back and disguise their involvement’ (176). Engagement is the strategy  Discourse and Genre 77 writers use to acknowledge and recognize the presence of their readers, ‘pulling them along with their argument, focusing their attention, acknowledging their uncertainties, including them as discourse participants and guiding them to interpretations’ (Hyland 2005b: 176). The key ways in which academic writers do this are shown in Table 4.2. Table 4.2 Interactional metadiscourse resources in academic writing (Hyland 2005b: 49) Category Function Examples Interactional Involve the reader in the text Resources Hedges withhold commitment and open dialogue might; possibly; about Boosters emphasize certainty or close dialogue in fact; definitely; it is clear that Attitude markers express writer’s attitude to proposition unfortunately; I agree; surprisingly Self mentions explicit reference to author(s) I; we; my; me; our Engagement markers explicitly build relationship with reader consider; note; you can see that 4.6 Steps in genre analysis Bhatia (1993) and Bawarshi and Reiff (2010) present steps for carrying out the analysis of genres, in their case written genres. It is not necessary to go through all the stages that they list, nor in the order in which they are presented. For example, we may decide to take a ‘text-first’ or a ‘context-first’ approach to the analysis of a particular genre (Flowerdew 2002, 2011). That is, we may decide to start by looking at typical discourse patterns in the texts we are interested in (a text-first approach), or we may decide to start with an examination of the context of the texts we want to investigate (a context-first approach). The steps, then, should be used flexibly and selectively depending on the starting point of the analysis, the purpose of the analysis, the aspect of the genre that we want to focus on and the level of prior knowledge we already have of the particular genre. The first step, however, is to collect samples of the genre you are interested in. Bhatia suggests taking a few randomly chosen texts for exploratory investigation, a single typical text for detailed analysis, or a larger sample of texts if we wish to investigate a few specified features. Clearly, the more samples you can collect of the genre, however, the better you will be able to identify typical features of the genre. The next step is to consider what is already known about the particular genre. This includes knowledge of the setting in which it occurs as well as any conventions that are typically associated with the genre. For information on this, we can go to existing literature such as guide books and manuals as well as seek practitioner advice on the particular genre. It is also helpful to look at what analyses have already have been carried out of the particular genre, or other related genres, by looking at research articles or books on the topic. We next need to refine the analysis by defining the speaker or writer of the text, the audience of the text and their relationship with each other. That is, who uses the genre, who 78 Discourse Analysis writes in the genre, who reads the genre and what roles the readers perform as they read the text. We also need to consider the goal, or purpose, of the texts. That is, why do writers write this genre, why do readers read it and what purpose does the genre have for the people who use it? A further important consideration is typical discourse patterns for the genre. That is, how are the texts typically organized, how are they typically presented in terms of layout and format and what are some language features that typically re-occur in the particular genre? Equally, what do people need to know to take part in the genre, and what view of the world does the text assume of its readers? That is, what values, beliefs and assumptions are assumed or revealed by the particular genre (Bawarshi and Reiff 2010)? We should also think about the networks of texts that surround the genre (see Section 4.2 above) and to what extent knowledge of these is important in order be able to write or make sense of a particular genre. 4.7 The social and cultural context of genres An important stage in genre analysis, then, is an examination of the social and cultural context in which the genre is used. In the case of a written text, factors that might be con- sidered include: the setting of the text; the focus and perspective of the text; the purpose(s) of the text; the intended audience for the text, their role and purpose in reading the text; the relationship between writers and readers of the text; expectations, conventions and requirements for the text; the background knowledge, values and understandings it is assumed the writer shares with their readers, including what is important to the reader and what is not; the relationship the text has with other texts. These aspects of a genre, of course, are not as distinct as they appear in this kind a listing. As Yates and Orlikowski (2007) point out, they are deeply intertwined and each, in its way, has an impact on what a writer writes, and the way they write it. A context analysis of theses and dissertations Figure 4.5 is an analysis of the social and cultural context of theses and dissertations. It shows the range of factors that impact on how the text is written, how it will be read and, importantly, how it will be assessed.  Discourse and Genre 79 Setting of the text The kind of university and level of study, the kind of degree (e.g. honours, master’s or doctoral, research or professional) Study carried out in a ‘hard’ or ‘soft’, pure or applied, convergent or divergent area of study (Becher and Trowler 2001) Focus and Quantitative, qualitative or mixed method research perspective of the Claims that can be made, claims that cannot be made text Faculty views on what is ‘good’ research Purpose of the text To answer a question, to solve a problem, to prove something, to contribute to knowledge, to display knowledge and understanding, to demonstrate particular skills, to convince a reader, to gain admission to a particular area of study Audience, role and To judge the quality of the research purpose in reading Primary readership of one or more examiners, secondary readership of the supervisor and the text anyone else the student shows their work to How readers will react to what they read, the criteria they will use for assessing the text, who counts the most in judging the quality of the text Relationship Students writing for experts, for admission to an area of study (the primary readership), between writers and students writing for peers, for advice (the secondary readership) readers of the text Expectations, An understanding and critical appraisal of relevant literature conventions and A clearly defined and comprehensive investigation of the research topic requirements for Appropriate use of research methods and techniques for the research question the text Ability to interpret results, develop conclusions and link them to previous research Level of critical analysis, originality and contribution to knowledge expected Literary quality and standard of presentation expected Level of grammatical accuracy required How the text is typically organized, how the text might vary for a particular research topic, area of study, kind of study and research perspective What is typically contained in each chapter The amount of variation allowed in what should be addressed and how it should be addressed The university’s formal submission requirements in terms of format, procedures and timing Background The background knowledge, values and understandings it is assumed students will share with knowledge, values their readers – what is important to their readers, what is not important to their readers and understandings How much knowledge students are expected to display, the extent to which students should show what they know, what issues students should address, what boundaries students can cross Relationship the text How to show the relationship between the present research and other people’s research has with other texts on the topic, what counts as valid previous research, acceptable and unacceptable textual borrowings, differences between reporting and plagiarizing Figure 4.5 The social and cultural context of theses and dissertations It is crucial, then, not just to analyse the discourse structure of texts, but also to gain an understanding of the socially situated nature of texts and the role they are playing in their particular setting. Lillis (2008: 353), in her discussion of strategies for ‘closing the gap between text and context’ suggests ways in which researchers may contextualize their 80 Discourse Analysis research as a way of ‘adding value’ to their studies. These include what she terms ‘ethnogra- phy as method’, ‘ethnography as methodology’ and ethnography as ‘deep theorizing’. An example of ethnography as method is ‘talk around text’. Talk around texts aims to get writers’ perspectives on texts they have produced. Often this involves carrying out text- based interviews or using survey data to supplement the textual analysis. Peng (2010) did just this when she combined text analysis with talk around text in her genre study of Chinese PhD students’ acknowledgements texts. She carried out an analysis of 80 acknowledgements sections from PhDs submitted at a major Chinese university in the areas of classic Chinese, computer science, genetic engineering and world economics. She examined how the writers drew on their genre knowledge of acknowledgements texts and the disciplinary community in which they were writing to accommodate their audience’s expectations. In order to find out reasons for the textual choices that the students made, she interviewed students, their supervisors, as well as the other people that were referred to in the texts. Ethnography as methodology involves using multiple data sources as well as a period of sustained involvement in the context in which the texts are produced to try to gain an understanding of the ‘dynamic and complex situated meanings and practices that are con- stituted in and by the writing’ (Lillis 2008: 355). Curry and Lillis’ (2010) book Academic writing in a global context where they employed text analysis, interviews, observations, document analysis, written correspondence, reviewers’ and editors’ comments to examine second language writers’ experiences of getting published in English is an example of this. A further example of the use of multiple data sources is the study by Paltridge et al. (2011a, 2011b) into doctoral writing in the visual and performing arts. Here, text analysis was com- bined with surveys, text-based interviews with students and their supervisors, the examina- tion of university prospectuses, published advice to students, previous research into visual arts PhD examination, books and journals on visual and performing arts research, analysis of in-house art school publications and attendance at students’ exhibition openings. Ethnography as deep theorizing takes these approaches a step further by considering how the use of language and orientation of the texts index and connect to certain social structures, values and relations in the same way that particular ways of speaking may point to, or index, a person’s gender, social class or ethnic identity. Starfield (2002, 2011) does this, for example, in her examination of first year students’ writing in a former whites-only university in South Africa, as do Lillis and Curry (2010) in their study of second language scholars negotiating the peer-review and writing for publication process. These studies parallel what Berkenkotter (2009: 18) calls a context-based, rhetorically ori- ented, ‘wide-angle’ approach to genre analysis that moves beyond solely text-based analysis to explore factors that influence the creation and reception of genres in particular social, cultural and political settings. Indeed, as Devitt (2009) argues, the forms of genres are only meaningful within their social, cultural (and individual) contexts. That is, forms in genres ‘take their meaning from who uses them, in what ways, with what motives and expectations’ (35) (see Paltridge and Wang 2011 for further discussions of contextualized genre studies, Bucholtz 2011 for examples of ethnographically situated spoken discourse studies).  Discourse and Genre 81 4.8 The discourse structure of genres There are a number of ways in which the discourse structure of genres can be analysed. One of these is by identifying its generic structure based on its genre category membership such as letter to the editor, doctoral dissertation, etc. Another is to examine its rhetorical struc- ture by looking at rhetorical types such as argument, description and problem–solution that occur within the text. The letter to the editor in Figure 4.1 for example shows the generic structure of the text as an instance of a letter to the editor, and the rhetorical type that occurs simultaneously in the text, that of an argument type text. The text shown in Figure 4.6 of the abstract section of an experimental research report is analysed in terms of both its generic structure and as an instance of a problem–solution rhetorical type text. Generic Rhetorical Structure structure Title Composing letters with a simulated listening typewriter Situation Background With a listening typewriter, what an author says would be automatically Situation recognized and displayed in front of him or her. However, speech rec- ognition is not yet advanced enough to provide people with a reliable listening typewriter. Aim of the study An aim of our experiments was to determine if an imperfect listening Problem typewriter would be useful for composing letters. Methods Participants dictated letters, either in isolated words or in consecutive Solution word speech. They did this with simulations of listening typewriters that recognized either a limited vocabulary or an unlimited vocabulary. Results Results indicated that some versions, even upon first using them, were at least as good as traditional methods of handwriting and dictating. Conclusion Isolated word speech with large vocabularies may provide the basis of a Evaluation useful listening typewriter. Figure 4.6 Abstract of an experimental research report/problem–solution text (based on Gould, Conti and Hovanyecz 1983: 295) Two different perspectives, thus, can be offered on the structure of texts: one that identifies the text’s generic structure based on its genre category and another that describes its rhe- torical structure based on its patternings of rhetorical organization. These rhetorical types together make up larger, more complex texts. An example: The discourse structure of theses and dissertations Figure 4.7 is an analysis of the typical generic structure of theses and dissertations. This analysis comes from a study (Paltridge 2002b) that examined theses and dissertations writ- ten in a range of different study areas. The texts were collected and analysed in terms of the 82 Discourse Analysis Traditional: simple Topic-based Introduction Introduction Literature review Topic 1 Materials and methods Topic 2 Results Topic 3, etc. Discussion Conclusions Conclusions Traditional: complex Compilation of research articles Introduction Introduction Background to the study and review Background to the study of the literature Research article 1 (Background theory) Introduction (General methods) Literature review Study 1 Materials and methods Introduction Results Methods Discussion Results Conclusions Discussion and conclusions Research article 2 Study 2 Introduction Introduction Literature review Methods Materials and methods Results Results Discussion and conclusions Discussion Study 3, etc. Conclusions Introduction Research article 3, etc. Methods Introduction Results Literature review Discussion and conclusions Materials and methods Discussion Results Conclusions Discussion Conclusions Discussion Conclusions Figure 4.7 The discourse structure of theses and dissertations (Paltridge 2002b: 135) overall organizational structure of each of the texts. A comparison was then made between the texts in order to see if there was a recurring pattern of structural organization across the set of texts. The study showed that, rather than there being just the one single type of discourse pattern that is typical for theses and dissertations, there are at least four different types of pattern that writers typically choose from depending on the focus and orientation of their thesis or dissertation. Following previous research on the topic, these four thesis and dissertation types were labelled ‘simple traditional’, ‘complex traditional’, ‘topic-based’ and ‘compilations of research articles’. The four types are shown in Figure 4.8. The sequence of items in the chart shows the typical sequence in the sections of the texts. The sections in brackets are ‘optional’ in the texts. That is, they occurred in some instances of the genre, but not in all of them.  Discourse and Genre 83 Generic Rhetorical Structure Structure Title of the Newspaper commentaries on terrorism in China and Australia: Situation dissertation A contrastive genre study Sub-section of Abstract the dissertation Overview of the This dissertation is a contrastive genre study which explores newspaper Situation study commentaries on terrorism in Chinese and Australian newspapers. The study Problem not only examines the textual organization of the Australian and Chinese commentaries, it also explores interpersonal and intertextual features as well as considers possible contextual factors which contribute to the formation of the commentaries in the two cultures and languages. Methodology To explore the textual, intertextual and contextual aspects of the texts, the Response used in the study study draws on theories from systemic functional linguistics, new rhetoric genre studies, critical discourse analysis, and other discussions of the role of the mass media. Results of the The study reveals that Chinese writers often use explanatory rather than Solution study argumentative expositions in their newspaper commentaries. They seem to distance themselves from outside sources and seldom indicate endorsement to these sources. Australian writers, on the other hand, predominantly use argumentative expositions to argue their points of view. They integrate and manipulate outside sources in various ways to establish and provide support for the views they express. These textual and intertextual practices are closely related to contextual factors, especially the roles of the media and opinion discourse in contemporary China and Australia. Aims of the study The study, thus, aims to provide both a textual and contextual view of the Problem genre under investigation in these two cultures and languages. Reasons for the In doing so, it aims to establish a framework for contrastive rhetoric Evaluation study research which moves beyond the text into the context of production and interpretation of the text as a way of exploring reasons for linguistic and rhetorical choices made in the two sets of texts. Figure 4.8 An analysis of an abstract for a doctoral dissertation (based on Wang 2006b) Figure 4.8 is an analysis of an abstract from a doctoral dissertation in terms of both its generic and rhetorical structures. In this example, the text follows the typical generic struc- ture for a dissertation abstract (Paltridge and Starfield 2007, Swales and Feak 2009). It is also an example of a problem–solution text (Hoey 1983, 2001). 4.9 Applications of genre analysis Writers such as Hammond and Macken-Horarick (1999) argue that genre-based teaching can help students gain access to texts and discourses which will, hopefully, help them par- ticipate more successfully in second language spoken and written interactions. Other writ- ers, such as Luke (1996), argue that teaching ‘genres of power’ (such as academic essays 84 Discourse Analysis or dissertations) leads to uncritical reproduction of the status quo and does not necessar- ily provide the kind of access we hope it might provide for our learners. Others, such as Christie (1993) and Martin (1993) argue that not teaching genres of power is socially irre- sponsible in that it is the already disadvantaged students who are especially disadvantaged by programmes that do not address these issues. Other issues that have been raised include the extent to which the teaching and learning of genres might limit student expression if this is done through the use of model texts and a focus on audience expectations. This is clearly something teachers need to keep in mind in genre-based teaching. Teachers equally need to think about how they can help students bring their own individual voices into their use of particular genres (Swales 2000). Students also need to be careful not to overgeneralize what they have learnt about one genre and apply it inappropriately to their use of other genres (Hyon 2001, Johns 2008). As Devitt (2004) points out, the ways in which students draw on prior genre knowledge to create a further instance of the particular genre are not at all straightforward and may take place in a number of different ways (see Reiff and Bawarshi 2011 for further discussion of this). Kay and Dudley-Evans (1998) discuss teachers’ views on genre and its use in second lan- guage classrooms. Some of the teachers Kay and Dudley-Evans spoke to were concerned that a genre-based approach may become too prescriptive. The teachers pointed to the need to highlight the kind of variation that occurs in particular genres as well as consider why this might be. Care, then, needs to be taken to avoid a reductive view of genres and the tex- tual information that is given to students about them. The teachers Kay and Dudley-Evans spoke to also stressed the importance of contextual- izing genres in the classroom by discussing purpose, audience and underlying beliefs and values before moving on to focus on the language features of a text. They said learners should be exposed to a wide range of sample texts and that these should be both authentic and suit- able for the learners. They also felt a genre-based approach should be used in combination with other approaches, such as process and communicative approaches to language teaching and learning. They said, however, they thought a genre-based approach was especially suit- able for beginner and intermediate level students in that the use of model texts gave them confidence as well as something to fall back on. They concluded that genre provided a useful framework for language teaching and learning as long as it was made clear that the examples of genres they presented with were just possible models and not rigid sets of patterns. Scott and Groom (1999) present a similar view, saying that genres are not fixed codes but just one of the resources students need for the expression and communication of meaning. The teaching of generic forms, for Scott and Groom, does not discount the use of models, but rather sees models as part of a of wider repertoire of resources that students can draw on and adapt, as appropriate, to support their meaning making. Tardy (2006) examines the research into genre-based teaching, in both first and second language contexts. As she points out, genre theory has gone beyond looking at genres as just ‘text types’ to considerations of genre as ‘a more social construct which shapes and is shaped  Discourse and Genre 85 by human activity’ (79). The work of Cheng (2006a, 2006b, 2007, 2008a, 2008b) is especially important in discussions of genre-based teaching and learning. Cheng (2008a) discusses how his students found genre ‘a supportive, explicit tool of learning’ (68) which he felt helped address other researchers’ concerns about the product-oriented nature of ESP genre-based teaching. Dressen-Hammouda’s (2008) study of a geology student’s experiences in learning to write showed how he benefitted from a focus on genre, especially in relation to the acquisi- tion of disciplinary identity. She argues, along with others, that the teaching of genres should include more than just linguistic and rhetorical features of genres. It should also focus on the disciplinary community’s ways of perceiving, interpreting and behaving; that is, the ‘ways of being, seeing and acting’ (238) that are particular to the student’s disciplinary community. Other research that has examined genre-based teaching include Bax’s (2006) examina- tion of the role of genre in language syllabus design in a secondary school in Bahrain and Kongpetch’s (2003, 2006) examination of genre-based writing teaching in a Thai university. Kongpetch found that the genre-based approach she employed had a significant impact on the quality of her students’ writing. While she was only looking at a single case, her study does suggest that this approach can have many benefits for students. Johns (2008) points out, however, that in all this students need to develop both genre awareness and rhetorical flexibility. That is, they need to learn the expectations of particular genres in particular set- tings, as well as remain flexible when applying this knowledge to the requirements of the particular text they are producing. Genres, then, provide a frame (Swales 2004) which enables people to take part in, and interpret, particular communicative events. Making this genre knowledge explicit can provide learners with the knowledge and skills they need to communicate successfully in particular situations. It can also provide learners with access to socially powerful forms of language. 4.10 Summary This chapter has provided definitions of as well as examples of genre analysis. It has out- lined features of Sydney School, English for specific purposes and rhetorical genre studies analysis. It has discussed the issue of choice and constraint in the use of spoken and written genres and the complex issue of assigning a text to a genre category. It has argued that genre identification is complex one and requires a flexible, rather than a static view of what it is that leads users of a language to recognize a text as an instance of a particular genre. The chapter has also argued that genre is an extremely useful notion of pedagogic purposes. It has cautioned, however, against using descriptions of genre in the classroom simply as rules that need to be followed; that is, being careful not to mistake the ‘stabilized for now’ (Schryer 1993) nature of the genre, as a template that needs to be adopted in order for a text to be considered a successful instance of a particular genre.