Keywords
teaching academic genres, mentor texts in writing instruction, genre-specific scaffolding, challenges of writing in new genres
Preview
Writing in a new genre can be tricky. When we teach students a new genre, we often begin by exposing them to the genre by reading multiple mentor texts and helping them identify the salient features. This is a practice supported by many current writers in our field today, including Gallagher & Kittle (2018), Dean (2017), and Marchetti & O’Dell (2015), among others. When we teach academic genres (the kinds of writing common in schools such as research papers, literary analysis, and reports), we often provide additional help by providing students with more specific directions or scaffolds, such as forms for thesis statements or short lists of ways to write an introduction. Sometimes, though, even all these helpful scaffolds don’t help writers produce successful texts. These practices may bring writers closer to the genre they are attempting to write, but it isn’t quite there. You know the feeling? Two personal examples prompted me to consider this teaching puzzle more closely.
Recommended Citation
Dean, Deborah
(2018)
"Genres: Moving Toward Authenticity,"
The Utah English Journal: Vol. 46, Article 2.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/uej/vol46/iss1/2