Part I. The Genre Project

As we start thinking about what it means to compose and communicate in our majors, I’d like to turn us back briefly to the idea of genres. UNC has a great, developing resource to help us think about what types of papers you’ll often be assigned to write in classes for different majors, as well as genres you’ll need to work with professionally. Take a minute to poke around, and briefly respond to the following questions:

• Look up your field; where does it fall – humanities? Social sciences? Etc.
• What are the most commonly assigned genres?
• How does that match up with your experiences in your coursework so far?
• Why do you think those genres are assigned in your major’s courses? What do they do to help you learn to communicate in that specific Discourse community?

Part II. Professional Genres

To keep us thinking about how those academic genres will eventually prepare you for the professional writing you’ll be doing in your fields, I have some examples I’d like us to work with. We’re going to be looking at some professional writing in some of the fields I know you’re all in, and reading them rhetorically/critically.

• Come up to the board, and write your name under the appropriate major; those will be our groups.
• Next, choose the appropriate paper at the front of the room; read it through as a group. (I have just three copies of each one, so you may have to share.)
• Answer the questions in the handout collaboratively.
• Then visualize it: Where on the chart from the video we watched does this piece fall? (Or does it fit under more than one sector, and how/why?)

• Guidelines: Writing in the Disciplines Project
• Exercises 4/11/17

Categories: In Class Writing and Exercises

Tags: exercise, genres, in class writing, wid, writing in the disciplines