Where Do Genres Come From?

1. Where Do Genres Come From? Week 4, Session 2 Teaching and Learning New Genres Carolyn R. Miller

2. Class schedule Final papers are due Friday 10 August. I will return second papers by tonight.

3. Today’s agenda • follow-up on plagiarism discussion • discussion of teaching issues with new genres (Brooks and Palmquist) • break • work time for final assignment • questions about final assignment

4. Plagiarism and originality teaching strategies • make it a topic • talk about context-specific practices • specify the relationship between the old and the new, tradition and “work to be added” for each assignment

5. Plagiarism detection services • New comparison just published by EDUCAUSE • “a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology” • http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/SER07017B.pdf

6. Teaching & learning new genres • new issues for students • difficulties and resistance by students • role of genres

7. Brooks: rationale • goal of teaching hypertext is to encourage associative and visual thinking (349) • hypertext writing emphasizes structures (mirrorworld, sieve) • genre is appropriate for teaching hypertext because of the remediation of print in the new media • genre in teaching avoids “paralysis of open spaces” (345)

8. Brooks: strategies • Have students understand that all texts, including hypertexts, are rooted in one or more genres. • Have students choose a genre that will meet their communicative needs. • Encourage students to reinvent genres, to play with conventions, and to play with one or two texts as a way to engage a genre.

9. Brooks • genres are familiar, hypertext is unfamiliar

10. Brooks • genres are familiar, hypertext is unfamiliar is it ever the case that … • hypertext is familiar, genres are unfamiliar?

11. Brooks Genres as … • assemblages • hybrids • remediations • bending, blending, blurring • multimedia

12. Activity theory • “An activity system is any ongoing, object-directed, historically conditioned, dialogically structured, tool-mediated human interaction” (346). • genres as flexible tools • genres in historical and social contexts

13. Intertextuality and imitation • Brooks: “paralysis of open spaces” • objectification of new technique: going through the motions, act as an end • internalization of technique • appropriation: using the motions to achieve something else; act as a means • transcendence: ability to modify

14. Palmquist: issues for teachers • new technologies, expanded choices, and changing landscape of web have worked against creation of stable genres (221, 224, 226) • conventions of page design are emerging (224) • lack of genre conventions both liberating and confusing for students (243) • emphasize emergence to challenge students

15. Palmquist: student learning • students had little sense of genre: “website” • students did have sense of effectiveness (231) • students learned from models, both print and internet • borrowed: code, style sheets, illustrations • incorporated strategies from antecedents and models: table of contents, book cover, etc.

16. Palmquist: new for students • structure • linear, interlinked, hierarchical, combined • navigation tools: access, surprise, direction • illustration, multimedia • page design

17. Break

18. Final assignment Propose a research study or a teaching unit focusing on the emergence of a new genre—oral, written, visual, or any combination. Draw on your knowledge developed in this course as well as in your prior studies to delineate the research or teaching issue you wish to focus on.

19. Research study proposal 1. Research problem What is the research question? Why is it important and to whom? 2. Background (brief literature review) What is already known about this research question or areas related to it? What previous research will you draw on in answering the question? How will the answer to the question fill a knowledge gap or continue a research tradition? 3. Research methods What data must be gathered? How will it be gathered? What analysis must be done? What concepts or theories will organize or inform the analysis? 4. Benefits What will the project contribute to existing knowledge about genres? What are the benefits of answering this question? October 1, 2014

20. Teaching unit proposal 1. Instructional objective What is the goal or objective for this teaching unit? Why is it important and to whom? 2. Instructional context (rhetorical situation of the teacher: exigence, audience, and constraints) What are the needs of the students? What is their level of knowledge and their interests and goals? What institutional and curricular constraints and resources exist? 3. Teaching strategies What information must be given to the students? What materials and resources must be available? How will they be motivated? What activities will they engage in? How will they be evaluated? 4. Benefits What will be the benefits for the students engaging in this instructional process? How will the instruction benefit the school, the curriculum, or Brazilian society? October 1, 2014

21. Thank you and good-bye! Obrigada e tchau!