Genre, Transfer, and Social Action

Course Description (fall 2023)

This course explores the relationship between genre and transfer as social action. Rhetorical approaches to genre analyze how texts emerge from and shape recurring social situations. Theories of transfer explore how writers’ literate knowledge moves (or doesn’t) across social situations. So how, then, are genres implicated in the transfer of writing knowledge? How might rhetorical genres and writing transfer work together to shape writers’ attempts at social action or transformation? The course will explore these questions by considering theoretical work in and empirical studies on rhetorical genre studies, activity theory, the teaching of writing, and the transfer of writing knowledge.

Course Assignments

Class Presentation: Book Review or Pedagogy Profile (1000 words), 25%

You have two options for this assignment; both aim to circulate among the class more insights into genre and transfer than we have time to attend to on our course calendar.

• Book Review. Read a book of your choice from our course bibliography. Prepare an informal 10-minute presentation on how the book extends or complicates our course discussions. The review is due the day you present. If you review a book published in the last 3 years, you could treat the assignment as a rough draft for pubilcation. For models and potential publication opportunities, see the journals Composition Studies or Composition Forum.

• Pedagogy Profile. Read a book or set of articles (2-4) of your choice that argue for a pedagogical approach based on genre or transfer research. Prepare an informal 10-minute presentation on how the pedagogy concretizes or puts into action our course discussions. The profile is due on the day you present.

Conference Proposal (250-500 words), 10%

Write a proposal for a conference presentation that responds to the question: In a writing context that is meaningful to you (work, communities, school), how do genre or transfer create or cause social action? Your presentation should use the readings from class (and beyond if you wish) that best support your response.

Conference Presentation (notes and slides), 20%

Share your conference presentation as part of an in-class panel with course colleagues during the last two weeks of class.

Conference Paper (3000-3500 words), 30%

Revise your presentation into a (slightly longer than) conference-length paper based on the feedback you received on your presentation.

Reading, notes, participation, 15%

Please attend our class meetings prepared to discuss the readings listed for that day. You can prepare by taking notes as you read, tracking important assertions made within each reading and noting points of connection and tension among each piece. These notes are informal and just for you, but you should create a note-taking system for yourself that will help you keep track of our conversation as it builds over the semester.

Prompts to explore as you read before class:

During class or afterward:

• What are the commonalities in your and classmates’ responses? Where do they differ?
• How would you describe the conversation the readings are having with each other?
• What central take aways—questions, reactions—from discussion can you distill for yourself?

Participating and Attendance

In order for a small course like this one to work, you need to come to each class meeting prepared and be an active participant when you’re here. Speaking up during class isn’t natural or easy for everyone, but in this class there will be a variety of opportunities to participate in different modes and in differently sized groups. Research suggests that the instructor is not always the best responder for student ideas and writing, so writing for a variety of readers that aren’t me helps your thinking and writing grow. That means you need to cultivate good intellectual relations—respectful and open, adhering to UMass’ Code of Conduct—with your classmates, and you need to be present to do so. Being “present” may mean a variety of things as we continue to navigate tumultuous semesters, so know that I will always foreground well-being when considering the different ways we show up. 

Resources

Your success in this class is important to me. I invite you to come talk with me about any concerns or questions, especially as you prepare to give your presentations or plan your assignments. If you have a particular circumstance that may have an impact on your work, please contact me early in the semester so that we can work together to adapt the course to meet your needs. If you have thoughts on how particular class activities or assignments might more effectively foster your learning, I welcome your input. You can visit my office hours or email me with your question and availability in order to arrange a meeting. Students at UMass Amherst also have many resources: Our wonderful Writing Center offers a space where you can get individualized feedback on your writing at any stage in your process. The Office of Disability Services can help make our course accessible for students with registered disabilities.

Commitment to Linguistic Inclusivity                                                 

The ability to communicate in multiple languages or varieties of English is a valuable intellectual asset. In this course, you are encouraged to draw on your varied linguistic and cultural resources to meet your own communication goals. Although we will generally employ English(es) in class discussion and writing, you may call on your other languages, dialects, and rhetorical practices at any point. Definitions of effective writing and communication differ depending on culture, experience, and background. Therefore, in this class, you’re invited to explore, reflect on, and use your full repertoire of personal, familial, professional, and academic language skills.

Course Calendar

Our calendar is subject to change, and things may be altered to better facilitate your learning. Assignments listed on a given day should be completed for discussion on that day.

Writing Studies Foundations for Genre and Transfer

Week 1	9/11	Introduction to course and to one another Wardle & Adler-Kassner NWWK Concepts together in class
Week 2 activity theory	9/18	Russell, “Activity Theory and Its Implications for Writing Instruction” Prior & Shipka, “Chronotopic Lamination” Bazerman, “Speech Acts, Genres, and Activity Systems” Prior, “From Speech Genres to Mediated Multimodal Genre Systems”

Foundations to Tensions

Week 3 genre	9/25	Miller, “Genre as Social Action” Freadman, “Anyone for Tennis?” Schryer, “Investigating Texts in Their Social Contexts” Tardy et al., “Teaching and Researching Genre Knowledge”
Week 4 transfer	10/2	Perkins & Salmon, “Teaching for Transfer” Beaufort, “The Question of University Writing Instruction” Wardle, “Mutt Genres and the Goal of FYC” Reiff & Bawarshi, “Tracing Discursive Resources” Wang, “Tracing Connections and Disconnections”

Tensions

Week 5 ideology and power	10/10	Luke, “Genres of Power?” Paré, “Genre and Identity” Coe “The New Rhetoric of Genre” Kynard “Getting on the Right Side of It” Wardle & Clement, “Double Binds and Consequential Transitions”
Week 6 situated and general	10/16	Lave & Wenger, from Situated Learning Anson & Forsberg, “Moving Beyond the Academic Community” Parks, “Moving from School to the Workplace” Rounsaville, “Selecting Genres for Transfer” Goldschmidt, “Promoting Cross-Disciplinary Transfer”
Week 7 local and linked	10/23	Bazerman, “Systems of Genres and Enactment of Social Intentions” Spinuzzi, “Using Genre Ecologies to Study Textual Artifacts” Carter, “Ways of Knowing, Doing, and Writing in the Disciplines” Lindenman, “Inventing Metagenres”
Week 8 actor-oriented	10/30	Due: Conference Proposals Sommers & Saltz, “The Novice as Expert” Lobato, “The Actor-Oriented Transfer Perspective” Rounsaville, “Situating Transnational Genre Knowledge” LeMesurier, “Triggering Bodily Uptake Through Movement” Cozart et al., “Negotiating Multiple Identities in SL or FL Writing”
Week 9 development is cognition	11/6	Bazerman, “Genre and Cognitive Development” Gentil, “A Biliteracy Agenda for Genre Research” Martin & Schwartz, “Conceptual Innovation and Transfer” Gorzelsky et al., “Cultivating Constructive Metacognition”
Week 10 development is time	11/13	Lemke, “Across the Scales of Time” Nemirovsky, “Episodic Feelings and Transfer of Learning” Michaud, “The ‘Reverse Commute’” Driscoll & Zhang, “Mapping Long-Term Writing Experiences”
Week 11 development is awareness	11/20	Cheng, “Transferring Generic Features” Artemeva & Fox, “Awareness Versus Production” Negretti, “Metacognition in Student Academic Writing” VanKooten, “Identifying Components of Meta-Awareness”

Tensions to Social Action?

Week 12 Transformation	11/27	Conference Presentations 1 Donahue, “Writing and Global Transfer Narratives” Baird & Dilger, “Metaphors for Writing Transfer” Miller, “Genre Formation and Differentiation in New Media”
Week 13	12/4	Conference Presentations 2 Course wrap-up
	12/11	Due: Final Conference Paper