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CARS Model of Research Introductions for

Genre Analysis

Move 1: Establishing a Territory

1. Claiming Centrality

In the last 30 years, researchers studying genre in both academic and workplace

contexts have come to some agreement that we should see genre as more than

formal categories or types (Miller, Berkenkotter & Hucken, Devitt, Bawarshi &

Reiff).

2. Making Topic Generalizations

While much of this work stems from an understanding of genres as typified

responses to recurring situations (Bitzer), recent scholarship also urges us to

recognize that genres,

3. Reviewing Previous Items of Research (Synthesis)

as Carolyn Miller points outs, accomplish social actions in our everyday lives.

Genres are not simply ways of achieving specific aims, they represent what ends

we may have the socio-material structures that govern our lives and co-constitute

our social realities. Millers work has been fundamental to the work of later

researchers, especially Carol Berkenkotter and Thomas Huckins article Rethinking

Genre From a Sociocognitive Perspective which describe genres as subject to

constant change, situated in specific social dynamics, and both reflecting and

creating social norms, ideologies, and epistemologies of particular (discourse)

communitieswhether they are academic or vocational. The relationship of genre

to discourse community is further explored by Devitt, Bawarshi, & Reiff who, in an

analysis genres such as the Patient Medical History Form (PMHF) and juryinstructions, demonstrate that genres may often have different implications for the

different communities and groups of people involved. Extending the research of

Miller by providing specific examples and analysis, Devitt, Bawarshi, & Reiff also

emphasize the material consequences genres have on individual lives. The attention

to the interplay of discourse community and genre is also something emphasized by

Beaufort, who analyzes the acquisition of different workplace genres by worker-

writers. One of Beauforts ultimate findings is that writers need to be both immersed

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in the discourse community as well be trained in number of complex rhetorical and

lexical features to completely master a genre.

Move 2: Establishing a Niche

Indicating a Gap / Continuing a Tradition

While much has been learned about the implications of genre within professional

communities in recent years, further opportunities remain for the study of genre as

situated (Berkenkotter & Hucken) social action (Miller).

Move 3: Occupying a Niche

State Purpose; forecast analysis, findings, implications

In the following , I analyze two specific genres primary school teachers use often in

order to be successful in the workplace: the grant proposal and syllabus. My analysis

of these genres seeks to contextualize them within specific social dynamics common

to situations many public school teachers face. In performing this analysis, I hope to

provide further evidence of Millers theories on genres as social action, while also

providing a more in-depth look at specific textual features (and their purposes) of

these genres.

Preview ultimate findings/structure of the essay (In other words, you need to come

back to this point)