"Writing to Acceptance: How Students Learn to Write The Medical School Cover Letter"
About the AuthorChloe 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 |
DiscussionRecently, genre is a growing topic among composition scholars. Qualitative, quantitative, and case studies have been used to delve deeper into genre theory and how students learn to write in specific genres. My study involved quantitative and qualitative evidence about how students learn to write in the genre of the medical school cover letter, and confirmed the findings of many other genre scholars. There were four main findings in my study: 1) Students had a variety of mentors review their essays and give feedback on how they could be improved. 2) Seeing examples is a major way students learn to write. 3) The genre “medical school cover letter” has key elements and features that are recognizable. 4) Genre is flexible. As my research points out, having many different people peer review the letter is essential to writing in this genre. Different people catch and notice different things when reading a piece of writing. It was common to have a close family member or friend look over the writing to see if it really sounds like the applicant’s voice. Also, applicants had a mentor in the medical field check the letter to see if it is directed at the right audience. Having a doctor or medical student read the letter before it is submitted places the writing in the hands of the intended audience. This is a way of letting the general expected audience see the letter before it is complete and offer suggestions to tailor the letter in way that makes it more fitting. Genre is so closely linked to audience and this is a major way that a student could learn to write for a specific audience. The next finding I had was that many students look at examples of the genre and analyze the piece to determine what make it “good,” and fit into that genre. Three people used “How To” books, and said they were helpful in the sense that they were able to see examples of cover letters before they needed to write their own. Seeing examples is a major way students learn to write. Even as I am writing this essay, I have examples next to me to see how this genre is supposed to be written, what the audience wants to see. Having common characteristics across a genre helps writers determine what goes into the genre. Scholars have advocated for the use of genre analysis as a teaching aid to help students learn how to approach unfamiliar genres. Through my text analysis of the four medical school cover letters, three key elements were pulled out and used repeatedly throughout the text: 1) Inferences about how the applicant possesses key qualities of a doctor 2) Applicants' motivation for medical school 3) Applicants' experiences in the medical field Showing that they portrayed the key qualities of a doctor was clearly the most prominent. This suggests that students wanted to fit the mold of what the schools were looking for, and it becomes difficult to fit the mold and stand out at the same time. As argued by Devitt (1993), genres are always evolving based on the situation of their use. The situation of a piece of writing is the reason that people are writing. In the case of the medical school cover letter, the situation remains constant, but the writers are different and can adapt the genre in order to convey their purpose to the intended audience. All of the applicants are writing because they want to be accepted to medical school. However, the genre is flexible. There are over 4,000 applicants to the University of Washington Medical School each year and they accept just over 200. Applicants must stand out in some way. This poses a tricky question: how can someone fit the mold of “doctor” but still remain unique from the rest of the applicant pool? The answer lies in the flexibility of the genre and the interpretation of the situation. The interviewee referred to above talked about both fitting the mold and standing out as an applicant during the interview. As she was rejected the first time, she knew there was something that went wrong in her first cover letter. The acceptance board member with whom she met told her that her first letter was too vague and that she needed to narrow her topic down to her true passion. By saying her letter was too vague, the acceptance board member meant that the interviewee probably did not fully understand the audience and situation she was writing for. At first she used “How To” books to write her cover letter. Although this gave her a better sense of what the genre constituted, it didn’t establish a sense of who the reader was for her and may not have shown her the flexibility allowed within the genre. This study found many techniques to writing the genre and elements that are unique to the medical school cover letter. Furthermore, it emphasized the point made by Amy Devitt and other scholars that genre is flexible. Genre will always be evolving and writers must learn to adjust to the new situations through a number of different writing pedagogies. For the medical school cover letter, genre awareness and in turn genre analysis were particularly prominent. |