Building Context: Using Activity Theory to Teach About Genre in Multi-Major Professional Communication Courses    

Instructors in multi-major professional communication courses are asked to teach students a variety of workplace genres. However, teaching genres apart from their contexts may not result in transfer of knowledge from school to workplace settings. We propose teaching students to research genre use via activity theory as a way of encouraging transfer. We outline theory and research relevant to teaching genre and provide results from a study using activity theory to teach genre in two different professional communication courses.

Kain, Donna and Elizabeth Wardle. Technical Communication Quarterly (2005). Articles>Education>Business Communication>Genre

Change Agents or Followers: Analyzing Genres in the Business Writing Classroom  

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.

Amidon, Stevens R. Association for Business Communication (2004). Articles>Education>Genre>Business Communication