Genre and Second Language Writing

7. Doing Genre Analysis

Chapter 7 Doing Genre Analysis Previous chapters have focused on areas of theoretical and practical relevance to teachers interested in what genre approaches have to offer writing instruction: outlining what genre is, why it is useful, and how it has been applied in second language writing classrooms. We have not yet, however, looked in detail at how teachers, students, and researchers go about analyzing texts—that is, how we come to understand the ways genres are constructed and used. The identification and analysis of text features have not typically figured in second language writing instruction , and only recently have they started to appear in teacher-education courses. For these reasons, I have left them to the end of this book. Teachers may believe that they have enough to do already without adding text analysis as well, and they may even feel apprehensive at the prospect of it. But while analysis is often regarded as “research” and as removed from the everyday business of “teaching,” it is, in fact, a very practical activity that is central to an awareness of how texts work and to bringing language into the teaching of writing. This chapter, therefore, turns to look at texts more directly, to offer something of a practical guide for teachers on ways to research texts and contexts in order to help students gain greater control over their writing. First, I outline some basic features of genre analysis and then look briefly at how texts and their contexts can be analyzed and at some ways of using corpus tools in genre analysis. 194 What Is Genre Analysis? Genre analysis is a branch of discourse analysis that explores specific uses of language. It is driven by a desire to understand the communicative character of discourse by looking at how individuals use language to engage in particular communicative situations. It then seeks to employ this knowledge to support language education. Just as Chapter 2 showed that genre is understood and applied to teaching in different ways, there are also numerous ways to approach genre analysis. Some of these ways focus exclusively on text structure; some give greater attention to sociocultural factors; some closely examine the practices of writers; and others explore the expectations of readers (e.g., Hyland, 2002). Whatever the orientation, however, all genre analysts see language as a key feature of writing and as the way we create social contexts. Ultimately, all approaches share the same goal of adding to a model of language use that is rich in social, cultural , and institutional explanation; that links language to contexts ; and that has practical relevance for teachers by offering useful ways of handling conventionalized aspects of texts. Genre analysis is therefore a powerful tool to help teachers uncover connections between language and types of texts and between forms and functions, enabling us to offer students information and activities that raise their awareness of genres and perhaps make them better writers. But while we need to look at texts to understand how they work, genres are much more than texts. As Swales (1990) points out, focusing exclusively on the printed page does not tell us why genres have come to acquire certain features and not others. Genre analysts , therefore, look in various places to discover how private intentions have a public face, not only examining texts but also interviewing those who routinely use the genre and observing the ways texts are used. In sum, genre analysis seeks to: • Identify how texts are structured in terms of functional stages or moves Doing Genre Analysis 195 196 Genre and Second Language Writing 1. Select a text that seems representative of the genre you intend to teach. 2. Place the text in a situational context—i.e., use your background knowledge and text clues to understand intuitively where the genre is used, who uses it, and why it is written the way it is. 3. Search the research literature or textbooks for ideas and insights into the working of the genre and the way it is conventionally structured and written. 4. Refine the situational analysis on the basis of this reading to more clearly identify users’ goals, who the writers and readers are, the network of surrounding texts, and the context in which the genre is used. 5. Compare the text with other similar texts to ensure that it broadly represents the genre. 6. Study the institutional context in which the genre is used...