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Analysis of "Genre Research in Workplace and Professional Contexts"
October 20, 2016|Catie Willett
Within an article titled "Genre Research in Workplace and Professional Contexts," authors Bawarshi and Reiff analyze and differentiate the genres of academia and the workplace. As two separate working genres, these two concepts are seen as being “worlds apart” because of the various goals and structures of each situation. More specifically, the goal of the academic genre is to learning material and gear the work toward a smaller audience, usually just the professor (p. 133). Comparatively, the goal of the workplace genre is more focused on action and policy, and your writing is often read by numerous individuals, such as a boss, a team, or clients (p. 134). There has been extensive research done on genre, which is explicitly analyzed in this study. Specifically, learning in the workplace, constructing and negotiating genre in the workplace, and the history of such genre are, in my opinion, some of the most important aspects of Bawarshi and Reiff’s work.
Research on Genre Learning in the Work Place
The first research analyzed was Anne Beaufort’s work regarding acquisition vs. explicit teaching of genre. Within her research, she studied the genre of press releases, grant proposals, and letters of request, and found that “content and procedural knowledge worked together, that depth of genre knowledge grew over time, and that genre knowledge was based on participation in the community” (p. 135). Therefore, in order to learn genre, one must be immersed in the situation and have some instruction.
Additionally, research on the medical apprenticeships of 12 medical students showed that, although medical experience appears beneficial through genuine instruction, the instruction were often given without context and thus not beneficial to their understanding of their workplace genre. In other words, they lacked “genre awareness,” which is teaching genre in a genuine context and explicitly saying the causation between the situated practice and the context of the situation (p. 135). Through this development, research has shown that individuals can develop a proper understanding of the workplace culture and help shape professional identities (p. 136).
Research on Constructing and Negotiating Workplace Genre Knowledge
According to research, genre has an important role in how we create our expectations and, therefore, influence how knowledge is produced (p. 136). Through research done by Anthony Pare on social workers experience with predisposition reports (PDR), he found that the genre of the report “both reflected and reinforced the knowledge, beliefs (that adolescents fit a particular profile), and expectations (of delinquency) of the social work community” (p. 137). Therefore, the genre of a “bad boy” comes to mind whenever a young man enters a social worker’s office for a PDR, regardless of their prior history.
Furthermore, how genre shapes communal knowledge. Through the interaction of many genres, it can illustrate the complexity of policy making and works to distribute the work using the interwoven genres (p. 138).
History Studies of Professional Genres
Barwarshi and Reiff also look into the research surrounding the history of genres in the professional field. They look into a few fields: science, economics, law, and business. Specifically, one of the studies about business revealed that there was a distinct relationship between communicative genres and how management functioned (p. 141). As company functionality shifts and changes, new genres are created and adapt to work with the new system. Thus the relationship between genres and communication ultimately impact the functionality of a company.
There are several other references to important research in the field of genre studies; however, the top three categories I have listed here, I find, to be the most pertinent to the field of technical communication. Obtaining a basic understanding of genre as they build relationships, help define community, build self-identity, and construct how people behave, can help students prepare for the real world and working in professional settings.
An interesting claim within the work of Bawarshi and Reiff is when they mention how crucial it is to “understanding the social action the genre represents within the discourse community” (p. 134). Often times, professors feel a great deal of frustration when a student asks, “Why are we doing this?” When in reality, this question should often be asked and considered as it is an important aspect in creating a more productive genre system. Understanding why we are doing something, and the way in which we should do it, is exactly what the authors of this piece work to explain. Because, once you understand these two aspects, you can begin to develop a working genre knowledge.
I am currently involved in a class called “Genre Studies” where we spend a great deal of time reading some of the authors mentioned in this piece, including Barwarshi. Within this course, we actually studied similar notions in which were brought up in this article. However, we are more predominately focused on how genre relates to memorials and how the genre of memorials coordinates to our behaviors. These same questions can be applied to what is brought up in this article, though. How the genre of the workplace is constructed, through papers, meetings, and assignments, it constructs how we act in certain situations and how we respond to certain individuals.
I found this article to be very interesting, however, I also struggled with understanding its purpose. There was an astronomical amount of research referenced, which at some points did not make me feel as though the authors were more credible; instead, it made me feel like they weren’t actually participating in any real research as much as they were just combining relevant research all in one paper. Furthermore, if I did not have a general understanding of genre from my class, I’m not sure I would have understood all of these concepts because there was little context about this particular article; which seems ironic as the article stresses the importance of context and how it relates to certain situations and behaviors.
Overall, though, I do agree that understanding genre in an academic context versus a professional one is very important. Students learn very quickly that the real world is not like a classroom, there are no professors there to give you clear guidelines, nor do they host office hours for further assistance. Unlike in a professional setting, learning the genre of the workplace is mostly up to you. Therefore, this piece of literature, although dense and difficult to read through, has important content that could be simplified and more enthusiastically delivered in order to express this important message.
References
Bawarshi, A., & Reiff M. J. (n.d.) "Genre Research in Workplace and Professional Contexts." Genre: An Introduction to History, Theory, Research, and Pedagogy. P. 132 - 150.