Learning and Teaching Genre

Book excerpt: This collection examines academic genres - types of writing produced by students in secondary school and college - from the perspective of genre as social action. Such a perspective expands the understanding of what students do when they learn new school genres, of what teachers and institutions do to enhance and constrain such learning, and of what all this signifies for conceptions of writing pedagogy. The book begins with an overview of the reconception of genre study. The essays that follow have an interest in genre, particularly those that appear in educational settings as instances of either student reading or writing. Common motifs recur throughout: questions are raised concerning learning and teaching new genres, the ideological power of genres read and written, and the power of the teacher, curriculum planner, or student to invent new genres or to resist and subvert those that exist. Throughout, the contributors give detailed accounts of successful classroom practices. Learning and Teaching Genre brings recent developments in research and thinking about written genres to the attention of high school and college teachers, and illustrates how that work can effectively inform classroom practice.