Memorandum

To: English 424 Class, Winter '06
From: Professor Benninghoff
Date: 9 March 2006

Re: Context & Genre Analysis Request for Proposals

Overview: Studying & Documenting How Writing Works Situationally
The Context-Genre Analysis (CGA) is a research report that applies what you've learned about how writing is rhetorical -- that is, situation dependant -- to a "context" of experience from your past. This memo is the Request for Proposals (RFP, also sometime CFP, Call for Proposals) for that project. While there likely will be issues not included in this document, and you should reference the proposal handouts from class to guide you as well, this document will explain in basics some of the key questions for the assignment.

Purposes of the Report: Writing-to-Context, Context-to-Writing Influences
At its most basic, the purposes of this report are to document and describe the writing practices of a given context, and then to make a set of arguments about how those practices create, or are created by, the context. This is something of a chicken-and-the-egg problem--influence happens both ways. But vital realizations that inform the project are that 1) writing is, at least, the result of an analytical and information design process, even when such things are not in the contents of the document, and 2) writing happens inside social (interpersonal) contexts, which have lots of more and less personal dimensions. So, to recap, the big purposes are to do an in-depth description of the "culture" and "practices" of  a context and to analyze how these things interact. Another purpose of the project is to learn and work with the genre of the technical report. 

Characteristics of a viable Context: Who Where When What How
Some of the characteristics of a viable context to study can just be listed in a simple form:

• In the past -- this is "reflective" research
• Multiple roles, multiple people filling roles
• A variety of "genres" in play
• Discernable culture
• Access to materials and/or people

But while we can state these in simple terms, all of them are somewhat flexible. You need to be aware of attitudes towards jobs, towards other people, towards the system of the work, etc.

Conclusion: Teach Yourself, Teach Others
The real key to doing successful research is to see it as an opportunity to re-think re-imagine re-analyze what writing is and means, and how it works. Take the concepts we've explored in the readings and class activities and apply them to your own experience. Being able to bridge contexts and apply concepts across them is what technical communication is all about. Everyone's research can be interesting -- but only you can recognize how yours can be, by recognizing unique or unusual features, culturally or practice-wise, and analyzing them.