Praxis: A Writing Center Journal • Vol 11, No 2 (2014)
BEYOND GENERALIST VS. SPECIALIST: MAKING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN GENRE THEORY AND WRITING CENTER PEDAGOGY Layne M. P. Gordon University of Louisville lmport06@louisville.edu Following the trend in composition scholarship of the 1980s and 90s toward theorizing about genre as a social and rhetorical construct, several colleges and universities across the nation have worked to implement genre-based curricula in their writing courses. From first-year writing classes to writing across the curriculum programs, instructors have steadily recognized the benefits of genre pedagogies and asked their student writers to compose in a variety of genres. However, while genre theory has found a home in several college classrooms, very little attention has been paid to the potential application of genre theory to writing center pedagogy. I suggest that other scholars have shied away from discussing how writing tutoring can employ genre due to anxieties about such strategies devolving into "directive tutoring" methods. Talking about genre explicitly may be associated with prescribing rules for writing or lecturing students rather than conversing with them—two pitfalls that many writing centers work hard to avoid. While these concerns are certainly valid, I argue instead that genre is a powerful concept that has a place in the writing center because of the opportunities it affords regarding the teaching of writing as well as its social implications. The writing center is a place where students can meet with peer tutors and receive direct feedback on their writing. Students can also ask questions that they might not feel comfortable asking their professors. The writing center, furthermore, offers students more exposure to the academic community while giving writing tutors the chance to augment students' sense of agency in this academic community. These opportunities make writing centers unique services on college campuses and exemplify how genre theory can help us reach our pedagogical and social objectives in the writing center. This essay offers a theoretical framework for understanding genre theory, which can shape and enhance writing center pedagogy and help writing tutors better conduct their tutoring sessions.
Theorizing Genre for the Writing Center In order to understand how we might apply genre theory to writing center pedagogy, it is first necessary to define genre and describe what it can do for writers. One of the foremost voices in contemporary genre theory is that of Carolyn Miller. In her seminal essay “Genre as Social Action,” Miller explores how genre should be conceptualized, grounding it in a social and rhetorical understanding of language. She claims that genre is "a typified rhetorical action based in recurrent situations” (Miller 159), and argues that: …what we learn when we learn a genre is not just a pattern of forms or even a method of achieving our own ends. We learn, more importantly, what ends we may have: we learn that we may eulogize, apologize, recommend one person to another …. We learn to understand better the situations in which we find ourselves and the potentials for failure and success in acting together. (Miller 165) For Miller and the scholars who support her claims, genre is a way of making meaning out of our social situations. This definition implies that genre is also a locus of power. In other words, when we learn a genre, we learn what power we have as actors in a social setting. We learn not only what ends are in our grasp, but also the power that our communications may have. Therefore, within the context of the writing center, educating students about the power behind a given genre would also bolster their sense of agency as writers and their interest in the project of writing. By helping student writers learn specific genres, a writing tutor helps them understand the situation in which they are being asked to write as well as their power within that situation. Miller's theory illustrates the potential that genre theory holds for increasing students' sense of ownership over their writing and improving their understanding of the conventions expected in academic discourse. Jeanne Marie Rose explains this point in reference to a first year composition course in her article “Teaching Students What They Already Know: Student Writers as Genre Theorists.” Rose argues that "composition courses serve students best