Change Agents or Followers: Analyzing Genres in the Business Writing Classroom
http://businesscommunication.org/conventions/Proceedings/2004/PDFs/13ABC04.PDF

Amidon, Stevens R.
Association for Business Communication
2004

Abstract:

Asking business students to perform a rhetorical analysis of generic conventions may help students gain the confidence to modify those conventions. Research shows that while generic conventions impose constraints, experienced writers also learn they have the agency to modify those conventions to meet the exigency of the rhetorical situation. The article reviews both traditional conceptions of the nature of genre as well as recent research, and describes an assignment which uses genre analysis as a means of teaching students the social nature of generic structures.