The Dissertation as Multi-Genre: Many Readers, Many Readings

Par�, Anthony; Stärke-Meyerring, Doreen; McAlpine, Lynn

doi:10.37514/per-b.2009.2324.2.09

Cited by 31 publications

(22 citation statements)

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“…While the designers of the scales in this corpus likely feel that an overt acknowledgment of the contingency of the traits they are mandated to assess would constitute a validity threat to an “objective” appraisal of writing, writers’ experience of shifting standards and rationales for the many appraisals they have already received by the time they enter FYC has likely convinced them of the subjectivity of reader response already. More to the point, this contingency will simply be a fact of life in writing in the disciplines (Abasi, Akbari, & Graves, 2006; Russell & Yanez, 2003), postgraduate writing (Paré, Starke-Meyerring, & McAlpine, 2009), and workplaces (Dias, Freedman, Medway, & Paré, 1999) to come. Scales that rhetorically construct trait descriptions and performance categories in ways that are consistent with (rather than in defiance of) the fact that any reader’s appraisal is embedded in cultural and material contexts could help furnish postsecondary writers with more robust constructs of “writing” for the contradictions and transitions to come.…”

Section: Discussion: the Contemporary Theoretical Construct Of Writinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scaling Writing Ability

Dryer

2013

Written Communication

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This analysis of 83 scoring rubrics and grade definitions from writing programs at U.S. public research universities captures the current state of the struggle to define and measure specific writing traits, and it enables an induction of the underlying theoretical construct of “academic writing” present at these writing programs. Findings suggest that writing specialists have managed to permeate U.S. first-year writing assessment with certain progressive assumptions about writing and writing instruction, but they also indicate critical areas for revision, given such documents’ critical gatekeeping role at postsecondary institutions. The study also raises a broader question about the difficulties of rhetorically constructing “writing ability” in a way that is consistent with the contextualist paradigm dominant in contemporary writing studies.

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Section: Discussion: the Contemporary Theoretical Construct Of Writinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scaling Writing Ability

Dryer

2013

Written Communication

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“…Typically, in the context of elt, undergraduate or masters' students write their theses for a very small audience and under the guidance of a supervisor. However, the practices that occur around the genre development are occluded (Autrey & Carter, 2015;Swales, 1996); and it is difficult to know exactly how this genre is learned and taught (Paré et al, 2009). However, it is to be expected, as Coffin et al (2003) point out, that the relationship between the supervisor and supervisees exerts some influence on the way writing takes place in higher education, particularly in a crucial document such as the thesis.…”

Section: Master Thesis Writing As a Social Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of MA Students’ Writing in English Language Teaching: A Systemic Functional Linguistic Approach

Pinzón

2021

Profile: Issues Teach. Prof. Dev.

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This study explores the ways in which master thesis writers position their research in the field of English language teaching in a context where academic literacies are still a developing field. From a social semiotic perspective, this paper aims to identify the resources writers use to represent their object of study and provide a context and justification for research. The analysis focuses on the ideational and textual metafunctions to account for patterns of meanings in seven introductory chapters of master theses in English teacher education. The results reveal a set of interconnected genres—descriptions of the object of study, definitions, and personal exemplum—that build a shared experience with the reader as well as the persuasive purpose of the text.

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“…Dissertation-related genres, and the dissertation itself, also invoke the complexity of hybrid genres (Swales, 2004). The dissertation is a genre that might be read by multiple audiences, generating a “multiplicity” of “rhetorical demands” (Paré, Starke-Meyerring, & McAlpine, 2009), which is notable when genre hybridization occurs in the case of integrated or article-based dissertations. In these dissertations, one might find reference to dissertation chapters while the text in the “chapters” (which are in fact articles) refers to the “paper” or other term indicating the manuscripts status as article (Swales, 2004, pp.…”

Section: Final Remarksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Registered Reports: Genre Evolution and the Research Article

Mehlenbacher

2018

Written Communication

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The research article is a staple genre in the economy of scientific research, and although research articles have received considerable treatment in genre scholarship, little attention has been given to the important development of Registered Reports. Registered Reports are an emerging, hybrid genre that proceeds through a two-stage model of peer review. This article charts the emergence of Registered Reports and explores how this new form intervenes in the evolution of the research article genre by replacing the central topoi of novelty with methodological rigor. Specifically, I investigate this discursive and publishing phenomenon by describing current conversations about challenges in replicating research studies, the rhetorical exigence those conversations create, and how Registered Reports respond to this exigence. Then, to better understand this emerging form, I present an empirical study of the genre itself by closely examining four articles published under the Registered Report model from the journal Royal Society Open Science and then investigating the genre hybridity by examining 32 protocols (Stage 1 Registered Reports) and 77 completed (Stage 2 Registered Reports) from a range of journals in the life and psychological sciences. Findings from this study suggest Registered Reports mark a notable intervention in the research article genre for life and psychological sciences, centering the reporting of science in serious methodological debates.

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The Dissertation as Multi-Genre: Many Readers, Many Readings

Cited by 31 publications

References 0 publications

Scaling Writing Ability

Scaling Writing Ability

Analysis of MA Students’ Writing in English Language Teaching: A Systemic Functional Linguistic Approach

Registered Reports: Genre Evolution and the Research Article

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