Genre is any form or type of communication in any mode with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage,it normally describes a category of literature,music,or other forms of art or entertainment,whether written or spoken,audio or visual,based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres can be aesthetic,rhetorical,communicative,or functional. Genres form by conventions that change over time as cultures invent new genres and discontinue the use of old ones. Often,works fit into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions. Stand-alone texts,works,or pieces of communication may have individual styles,but genres are amalgams of these texts based on agreed-upon or socially inferred conventions. Some genres may have rigid,strictly adhered-to guidelines,while others may show great flexibility.
Intertextuality is the shaping of a text's meaning by another text,either through deliberate compositional strategies such as quotation,allusion,calque,plagiarism,translation,pastiche or parody,or by interconnections between similar or related works perceived by an audience or reader of the text. These references are sometimes made deliberately and depend on a reader's prior knowledge and understanding of the referent,but the effect of intertextuality is not always intentional and is sometimes inadvertent. Often associated with strategies employed by writers working in imaginative registers,intertextuality may now be understood as intrinsic to any text.
Genre studies is an academic subject which studies genre theory as a branch of general critical theory in several different fields,including art,literature,linguistics,rhetoric and composition studies.
Computers and writing is a sub-field of college English studies about how computers and digital technologies affect literacy and the writing process. The range of inquiry in this field is broad including discussions on ethics when using computers in writing programs,how discourse can be produced through technologies,software development,and computer-aided literacy instruction. Some topics include hypertext theory,visual rhetoric,multimedia authoring,distance learning,digital rhetoric,usability studies,the patterns of online communities,how various media change reading and writing practices,textual conventions,and genres. Other topics examine social or critical issues in computer technology and literacy,such as the issues of the "digital divide",equitable access to computer-writing resources,and critical technological literacies. Many study by scientist such have shown that writing on computer is better than writing in a book
Academic writing or scholarly writing is nonfiction writing produced as part of academic work in accordance with the standards and disciplines of each academic subject,including:
Digital rhetoric can be generally defined as communication that exists in the digital sphere. As such,digital rhetoric can be expressed in many different forms,including text,images,videos,and software. Due to the increasingly mediated nature of our contemporary society,there are no longer clear distinctions between digital and non-digital environments. This has expanded the scope of digital rhetoric to account for the increased fluidity with which humans interact with technology.
A writing process describes a sequence of physical and mental actions that people take as they produce any kind of text. These actions nearly universally involve tools for physical or digital inscription:e.g.,chisels,pencils,brushes,chalk,dies,keyboards,touchscreens,etc.;these tools all have particular affordances that shape writers' processes. Writing processes are highly individuated and task-specific;they often involve other kinds of activities that are not usually thought of as writing per se.
Composition studies is the professional field of writing,research,and instruction,focusing especially on writing at the college level in the United States.
First-year composition is an introductory core curriculum writing course in US colleges and universities. This course focuses on improving students' abilities to write in a university setting and introduces students to writing practices in the disciplines and professions. These courses are traditionally required of incoming students,thus the previous name,"Freshman Composition." Scholars working within the field of composition studies often have teaching first-year composition (FYC) courses as the practical focus of their scholarly work.
Recontextualisation is a process that extracts text,signs or meaning from its original context (decontextualisation) and reuses it in another context. Since the meaning of texts,signs and content is dependent on its context,recontextualisation implies a change of meaning and redefinition. The linguist Per Linell defines recontextualisation as:
the dynamic transfer-and-transformation of something from one discourse/text-in-context ... to another.
Feminist theory in composition studies examines how gender,language,and cultural studies affect the teaching and practice of writing. It challenges the traditional assumptions and methods of composition studies and proposes alternative approaches that are informed by feminist perspectives. Feminist theory in composition studies covers a range of topics,such as the history and development of women’s writing,the role of gender in rhetorical situations,the representation and identity of writers,and the pedagogical implications of feminist theory for writing instruction. Feminist theory in composition studies also explores how writing can be used as a tool for empowerment,resistance,and social change. Feminist theory in composition studies emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a response to the male-dominated field of composition and rhetoric. It has been influenced by various feminist movements and disciplines,such as second-wave feminism,poststructuralism,psychoanalysis,critical race theory,and queer theory. Feminist theory in composition studies has contributed to the revision of traditional rhetorical concepts,the recognition of diverse voices and genres,the promotion of collaborative and ethical communication,and the integration of personal and political issues in writing.
Charles Bazerman is an American educator and scholar. He was born and raised in New York. He has contributed significantly to the establishment of writing as a research field,as evidenced by the collection of essays written by international scholars in Writing as A Human Activity:Implications and Applications of the Work of Charles Bazerman. Best known for his work on genre studies and the rhetoric of science,he is a Professor of Education at the University of California,Santa Barbara,where he also served as Chair of the Program in Education for eight years. He served as Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication,delivering the 2009 CCCC Chair's Address,"The Wonders of Writing," in San Francisco,California. He is the author of over 18 books,including Shaping Written Knowledge,Constructing Experiences,The Languages of Edison’s Light,A Theory of Literate Action,and a Rhetoric of Literate Action. He also edited over 20 volumes,including Textual Dynamics of the Profession,Writing Selves/Writing Societies,What Writing Does and How it Does It,as well as the Handbook of Research on Writing and the two series Rhetoric,Knowledge and Society and Reference Guides to Rhetoric and Composition. He also wrote textbooks supporting the integration of reading and writing that have appeared in over 30 editions and versions including The informed writer:Using sources in the disciplines,The Informed Reader,and the English Skills Handbook.
Multiliteracy is an approach to literacy theory and pedagogy coined in the mid-1990s by the New London Group. The approach is characterized by two key aspects of literacy - linguistic diversity and multimodal forms of linguistic expressions and representation. It was coined in response to two major changes in the globalized environment. One such change was the growing linguistic and cultural diversity due to increased transnational migration. The second major change was the proliferation of new mediums of communication due to advancement in communication technologies e.g the internet,multimedia,and digital media. As a scholarly approach,multiliteracy focuses on the new "literacy" that is developing in response to the changes in the way people communicate globally due to technological shifts and the interplay between different cultures and languages.
The Rhetoric Society of America (RSA) is an academic organization for the study of rhetoric.
Assemblage refers to a text "built primarily and explicitly from existing texts to solve a writing or communication problem in a new context". The concept was first proposed by Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart Selber in the journal Computers &Composition in 2007. The notion of assemblages builds on remix and remix practices,which blur distinctions between invented and borrowed work. This idea predates modernism,with the quote by Edgar Allan Poe,"There is no greater mistake than the supposition that a true originality is a mere matter of impulse or inspiration. To originate,is carefully,patiently,and understandingly to combine."
Theories of rhetoric and composition pedagogy encompass a wide range of interdisciplinary fields centered on the instruction of writing. Noteworthy to the discipline is the influence of classical Ancient Greece and its treatment of rhetoric as a persuasive tool. Derived from the Greek work for public speaking,rhetoric's original concern dealt primarily with the spoken word. In the treatise Rhetoric, Aristotle identifies five Canons of the field of rhetoric:invention,arrangement,style,memory,and delivery. Since its inception in the spoken word,theories of rhetoric and composition have focused primarily on writing
The study and practice of visual rhetoric took a more prominent role in the field of composition studies towards the end of the twentieth century and onward. Proponents of its inclusion in composition typically point to the increasingly visual nature of society,and the increasing presence of visual texts. Literacy,they argue,can no longer be limited only to written text and must also include an understanding of the visual.
Writing assessment refers to an area of study that contains theories and practices that guide the evaluation of a writer's performance or potential through a writing task. Writing assessment can be considered a combination of scholarship from composition studies and measurement theory within educational assessment. Writing assessment can also refer to the technologies and practices used to evaluate student writing and learning. An important consequence of writing assessment is that the type and manner of assessment may impact writing instruction,with consequences for the character and quality of that instruction.
Feminist rhetoric emphasizes the narratives of all demographics,including women and other marginalized groups,into the consideration or practice of rhetoric. Feminist rhetoric does not focus exclusively on the rhetoric of women or feminists,but instead prioritizes the feminist principles of inclusivity,community,and equality over the classic,patriarchal model of persuasion that ultimately separates people from their own experience. Seen as the act of producing or the study of feminist discourses,feminist rhetoric emphasizes and supports the lived experiences and histories of all human beings in all manner of experiences. It also redefines traditional delivery sites to include non-traditional locations such as demonstrations,letter writing,and digital processes,and alternative practices such as rhetorical listening and productive silence. According to author and rhetorical feminist Cheryl Glenn in her book Rhetorical Feminism and This Thing Called Hope (2018),"rhetorical feminism is a set of tactics that multiplies rhetorical opportunities in terms of who counts as a rhetor,who can inhabit an audience,and what those audiences can do." Rhetorical feminism is a strategy that counters traditional forms of rhetoric,favoring dialogue over monologue and seeking to redefine the way audiences view rhetorical appeals.
Carolyn Rae Miller is SAS Institute Distinguished Professor of Rhetoric and Technical Communication Emerita at North Carolina State University. In 2006 she won the Rigo Award for Lifetime Achievement in Communication Design from the ACM-SIGDOC and in 2016 the Cheryl Geisler Award for Outstanding Mentor,the Rhetoric Society of America. She is a Fellow of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (1995) and of the Rhetoric Society of America (2010). Her “groundbreaking and influential article”on “Genre as Social Action”is foundational for Rhetorical Genre Studies. Three of her articles have been identified as essential works in Technical Communication.
