About the Author

Chloe Stiggelbout is a junior biology major and marine biology minor at the University of Washington. She plans on applying to medical school in 2014 with the ultimate goal of becoming a pediatrician. Along with her studies, Chloe competes as a long jump and triple jump athlete for the University of Washington track and field team.

Contents

Abstract and Introduction

Methodology

Data

Discussion

Implications and Final Thoughts

Works Cited

Abstract

Because recognizing genre is such a useful tool in the writing process, scholars are becoming increasingly interested in the topic of genre and how different genres can best be taught. For example, Amy Devitt (1993) argues that genre is a social construct, rather than a classification, and that genre awareness is the best way to teach students knowledge about writing that will transfer from situation to situation and genre to genre. There are ongoing studies on how well genre awareness works, and case studies that focus on how students learn to write or teachers teach in specific genres. This paper will focus on a particular genre, the genre of the medical school cover letter. Through a quantitative and qualitative study, I will research how medical school applicants learn to write a successful cover letter. This entails a survey of multiple medical students asking what kinds of methods they used to achieve success in the genre, an interview of one medical student detailing the process she used to write her letter, and a text analysis of a few cover letters so that I can define the genre and the important elements that it entails.

Introduction

Composition scholars have become increasingly interested in how students learn to write in particular genres, and how students recognize the unique features of a genre and then apply them effectively to their writing. Multiple methods have been researched and assessed to see which is most effective. However a general study is not always a useful approach to learning a specific genre. In-depth studies of different genres are necessary to gain the knowledge and perfect the learning of every genre.

My research delves into writing the genre of the medical school cover letter and how students learn to write in this context. In this article I will argue that genre is flexible. In order to make this argument I will draw on past research, and correlate it to the findings of my study. Through a qualitative and quantitative study including a survey of multiple people in the medical field and an interview of a first-year medical student, I will examine the styles and features necessary to write a successful medical school cover letter. I will end with a discussion of the elements and techniques used to write a medical school cover letter, and then talk about the importance of situation in genre.

How Genres are Learned

In composition studies, the question “How do people learn to write in different genres?” has been a prominent one. Previous studies (e.g., Bawarshi & Reiff, 2010; Ford, 2004; Freedman, 1987; Haas, 1994; Rounsaville, Goldberg, & Bawarshi, 2008; Wardle, 2007) have been conducted that try to answer questions that deal with what past experiences and what learned traits will transfer from genre to genre. For example, Amy Devitt (2004) argued in Writing Genres that ‘‘the historical evidence suggests that people use familiar genres to act within new situations . . . and existing genres serve as powerful antecedents in shaping newly emerging genres’’ (p. 204). In other words, people rely on what they believe are the rules of existing genres to deal with new situations.

People repeatedly encounter these new situations, which call for particular writing styles, and this leads to the surfacing of new genres. Devitt (1993) argues in “Generalizing About Genre: New Conceptions of an Old Concept” that “Genre and situation are so linked as to be inseparable, but it is genre that determines situation as well as situation that determines genre” (p. 578). According to Devitt, genre is a social construct rather than a classification. The understanding of genre is shifting away from just layout, format, and other visual cues that mark a type of writing. And now, the writer must account for style, content, and most importantly audience because genre is embedded in the social constructs of writing.Some scholars have disagreed with Devitt’s approach to learning about genre by claiming that genres are better learned through explicit teaching rather than situational experience in the field. For example, Michael Carter (2004) did a case study on the genre of the laboratory report. He was trying to determine whether genre writing is something that can be taught or whether it simply comes with practice in a certain field.  He found that the students who participated in LabWrite, a genre teaching program, scored significantly higher in the scientific concept, scientific reading, and had a more positive attitude towards lab reports overall. This implies that genre can be successfully taught with explicit teaching rather than considering the ability to learn from experience.

However, most scholars agree that explicit teaching of genres is not the most effective way to learn genre. Freedman (1993) argues in her article “Show and Tell? The role of Explicit Teaching in the Learning of New Genres” that “explicit teaching may even be harmful since students may misapply what they learn and misdirect their own intuitions and inclinations for effective writing” (p. 193). Teaching students explicitly can open the door to negative transfer, similar to how the five-paragraph essay is being transferred. Many elementary-level writers are taught the five-paragraph essay as a building block for writing all essays. However, that format is incorrect for many genres of writing. When this format is transferred over to an irrelevant genre, the term used is "negative transfer." Freedman reports in her study that school children represent narrative structure without ever being taught explicitly. Agreeing with Devitt, Freedman believes that people will learn genre on their own through being in the situation rather than explicit teaching.

Although composition scholars have done studies on how genre is taught and learned, more research is needed on how students learn to write specific genres. Scholars, like Devitt, show the necessity for delving into particular genres and how they are formed. In this paper, I will explore the genre of the medical school cover letter in order to be able to add to the conversation about how genres are learned.

About the Author

Jennifer Heater is an undergraduate at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, MO. She is working towards her Bachelors in English with a Technical Writing concentration and is minoring in Communications. She anticipates graduating in Spring 2014 and then continuing her education seeking her Masters in Technical Communication. Although Jennifer is fairly new to the Technical Communication field, she is excited about her research and hopes to continue it throughout her Masters.

Contents

Introduction

Goals of Typology

Metafunctions

Tables

Conclusion

Works Cited

Introduction

When choosing visual media to accompany text in an article, technical communicators need to consider many factors. With the increasing advancement in technology, humans have access to a vast variety of different visuals that were not as easily accessible in the past. With advancements in the internet, Smartphones, and multiple options for capturing photographs and sharing them virtually instantly, anyone can publish visuals instantly. Technical communicators need to be aware of technology’s steady increase in today’s society which allows humans to have easier access to visual media.

Visual media can reach around the world in the matter of seconds, as noted by Marketing Vox: “Facebook boasts 15 billion images and 300,000 accesses per second” (qtd. in Gurri, Denny, and Harms 101). Visual media can be transmitted through many different outlets and has no limitation on the possibilities of the viewer’s perceptions. In today’s advancing society, it is important to consider visual rhetoric and its impact on the way a document is perceived. Although there is no concrete definition for visual rhetoric, an understanding that there is a persuasive factor to media is an important factor that needs to be considered. According to the Marguerite Helmers and Charles Hill “simply applying methods and concepts designed specifically for verbal language to persuasive images is not the most productive or accurate way to develop methodology for the study of visual rhetoric; doing so often results in misleading (or something simply useless) assertions about the way in which persuasive images work” (2004). A document that has uncomplimentary visuals can be hard for a reader to comprehend and could lead to a reader not putting effort into trying to understand the meaning of the words. The viewers of the visual media are left to make their own interpretations as they see fit. At times, the intended meaning is not easily seen by the reader and the visual media chosen can complicate it as well. This can cause visual media to be misleading or perceived incorrectly, which could lead to misunderstanding from the reader and could jeopardize the ethics of the technical communicator. As technical communicators, we try to persuade readers that our messages are credible, meaningful, and useful. Communicators need to ensure that they place an emphasis on visual rhetoric when they incorporate visuals while considering the meaning of the accompanying text.

The elements in visual media give meaning to the image and can blur the lines between an image and reality. As stated in an article by Martin Gurri et al., “with visual media, however, the illusion is created that we are gazing out of a window at the real world” (102). Visual media opens windows of possibilities that images might have the same effects as real life on the reader; it is important for technical communicators to make certain that the images within text compliment the message being written. In this article, I will discuss and evaluate visual media used in multimodal documents and the effects that they can have on the perception of the reader and the ethics of the writer while suggesting that educators stress the significance of visual rhetoric at the classroom level.

Many scholars who have researched visual rhetoric and ethical issues agree that visual media and text work together to portray overall meaning of a document. According to Paul Lester, “The most powerful, meaningful, and culturally important messages are those that combine words and pictures equally and respectfully” (qtd. in Gurri et al. 102). As students and professionals we might not have thought about the meaning of visual rhetoric and modes. It is vital that technical communicators understand that images in an article are an equal part of a document. A multimodal document needs to be understood by the writer as well as the reader. Gunther Kress and Theo Van Leeuwen’s explanation of mode is as follows, “Modes can be understood as ways of representing information, or the semiotic channels we use to compose a text” (qtd. in Lauer 227). Using multimode documents can present many challenges to writers. Technical communicators have a responsibility to the reader to honestly and effectively pass on information without confusing or misleading the reader. In an article by Nancy Allen, she reasserts that point by stating, “Technical communicators want their documents to be attractive and persuasive to their readers, but they also need to remain true to their informative purpose” (88).

There are several different ethical issues that can arise while working in the technical communication field. When a technical communicator deceives a reader, it is unethical and could expose the writer to scrutiny and diminish the credibility of their work. This is an issue that needs to be addressed while preparing technical communicators for the work force. As a student of technical communication, I can see the importance and value of understanding visual rhetoric and its potential effects on the ethics of the writer. Ethical issues and visual rhetoric should be included in the course work required for technical communicators throughout their programs to ensure that there is a standard or expectation placed in the field on communicators. Gurri et al’s. article reasserts this by stating, “People are taught to read words but are never taught to read pictures” (qtd. in Lester viii). It would be beneficial for technical communicators to educate themselves on a few key factors when choosing an image, which would help support the goal of the document without compromising the perception of the reader and the ethics of the writer. Several scholars agree that education of visual rhetoric could help clear up any misunderstanding or misperceptions that may arise with visual media. This is not a new concept to the field. There is an immense amount of research that supports the importance of properly evaluating visual media before placing it in documentation. That is not the argument. The argument is how to give technical communicators the knowledge to help them write effective documents. Kress stresses “an ‘outcome-based curriculum’ or, to use a better formulation, a curriculum which focuses on skill, disposition, essential processes, and understanding of resources for representing and communicating, may be what all of ‘us’ in the anglophone and ever more globalizing world will need to consider urgently” (qtd. in Handa 52). One way we can do this is to make visual rhetoric a part of the technical communicator’s education and to teach how to properly integrate visuals and explain the effects of visual rhetoric by taking a look at visual semiotics. Visual semiotics is defined by Carey Jewitt and Rumiko Ovama as “the description of semiotic resources, what can be said and done with images … and how the things people say and do with images can be interpreted” (136). In this article we will take a deeper look at visual semiotics and the key factors involved in choosing appropriate visual media to place in multimodal texts and understanding visual rhetoric.

By learning the basics of visual semiotics and typology students can have a solid starting point to understanding the effects of visual rhetoric on a reader. Visual semiotics break down images according to the different attributes that interpret meaning. An image should be chosen to highlight the message that the writer wants to portray. Wang Qiuye agrees by stating, “Visually heavier than words, pictures are usually used for emphasis” (557). Images placed in articles are intended to appeal to the reader by fitting into a typology. Understanding typologies is a key point to communicators developing an awareness of what images can do to a reader. This theory was introduced in the 19th century by philosopher Charles S. Peirce (1839-1914). Peirce outlined a three-part typology to define specific purposes when analyzing images for documents. Allen Manning and Nicole Amare explain Peirce’s theory on three-part typologies. The typology that Peirce suggests includes three rhetorical goals: decorative, indicatives, and informative. The next section will take a more in-depth look at Peirce’s theory on typology.

Mattew Hertogs

Matthew Hertogs is a sophomore at the University of Washington, and he is currently pursuing a degree in computer science with a minor in mathematics.  When he is not too busy with schoolwork, he enjoys writing and recording music, playing soccer, and watching his favorite television shows. Along with his interest in computer science, he has a strong passion for education and he hopes to pursue a career where he can combine his computational knowledge and his affinity for teaching to help benefit education worldwide.

Contents 

Introduction

Methodology

Data

Discussion

Works Cited

Appendix

Introduction

The utilization of laptops in a college environment has become a widely accepted practice due to the increasingly technological nature of our society. Essays, papers, and notes that were previously handwritten are now being written with the aid of word processors on computers and laptops. While this trend of technologically-based writing has been accelerating due to positive feedback from students who prefer writing on a word processor to handwriting (Burnett, 1984), researchers are continually studying whether word processors actually benefit students’ writing. Some researchers have found improvements in the writing quality of students who used word processors (Oliver and Kerr, 1993; Louth and McAllister, 1988; Owsten, Murphy, and Wideman, 1989) while others have concluded that there was no statistically significant difference between handwriting and word processing (Teichman and Porris, 1989). However, although these studies have attempted to address the efficacy of word processing for expository compositions, there is a dearth of research on whether typing notes or handwriting notes for class lectures is more beneficial for students.  Therefore, this study will analyze the differences between the handwritten and typed notes of two college students to assess the effectiveness of each method of notetaking and to gain a further understanding of why students may prefer one method over another.

Although there are few studies specifically about typed versus handwritten notes, there are a large number of studies about typed versus handwritten compositions in general. While these studies may seem inconclusive due to varying results as shown in the previous paragraph, Reay and Dunn believe that the inconsistency of these experiments can be attributed to the negligence of the researchers to the disparate transcription speeds of typing versus handwriting; they found that the writing of those who were more proficient at typing benefited from the use of word processing. In a university full of technologically savvy college students, it makes sense that the inclusion of word processing would have a beneficial impact on the quality of writing for college students as certain studies have discovered (Bernhardt, Wojahn, and Edwards, 1988).

While researchers have extensively studied the effects of word processing on composition to determine whether the utilization of computers in an educational environment is appropriate, there has been less focus on the topic of notetaking, which is arguably the most commonplace activity within college classes; according to Palmatier and Bennett, 99% of all college students take notes and 96% of students believed notetaking is crucial to their success in college. Large portions of students use their laptops to take notes, but it is unclear whether word processed notetaking is more beneficial than handwritten notetaking. Consequently, there are many varying opinions on whether laptops should be present in the classroom.

Some critics of laptops in the classroom, such as D’Agostino, believe that laptops provide too many opportunities for distraction to be a productive tool; she claims that students spend about half their time on social networking sites instead of taking notes when they use their laptop. However, other studies on notetaking strategies may point to some of the benefits of electronic notes. For instance, according to Eggerts and Williams, students who reviewed their notes were most likely to achieve at a higher level than their peers. Therefore, the organizational benefits of computerized notes may serve as a significant asset for students. Another major source on the efficacy of different notetaking strategies is Stahl, King, and Henk, who devised a quantitative system to analyze the effectiveness of a particular individual’s notes. Utilizing a wide array of research on notetaking strategies, Stahl, King, and Henk created NOTES, a coding system which assigns a point value to certain criteria that previous studies have deemed conducive to beneficial notetaking. Positive traits like legibility, accessibility, organization, proper spacing, heading, utilization of examples, and summarization are all assigned point values. Whenever a sheet of notes is determined to possess a certain positive trait, it is given more points – the more points a sheet of notes has, the more beneficial it is for the student.

In general, there are inconclusive results regarding the effectiveness of competing transcription methods for expository compositions and virtually no results on transcription methods for notetaking. However, by synthesizing what other researchers have found to be beneficial notetaking strategies–higher transcription speed, accessible storage, organization, etc. – with data I collected from two university students, this study will fill the gap in the research by assessing the effectiveness of each method of transcription for notetaking.