Rethinking Graduate School Research Genres: Communicating With Industry, Writing to Learn

Autor: Julie Watts
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Technical Writing and Communication. 51:313-337
ISSN: 1541-3780
0047-2816
DOI: 10.1177/0047281620981568
Popis: Technical and professional communication master’s students work with a faculty advisor to complete a three-credit independent research (IR) project, featuring original research. Stakeholders recommended the IR thesis be revised to better communicate IR to industry. Using a writing, activity theory, and genre theory lens, I analyzed what contradictions emerged between academic and workplace activity systems as stakeholders recommended genre revisions. I analyzed faculty and professional advisory board meeting transcripts, alumni and student surveys, and a Graduate School director and thesis examiner interview. Results indicated the thesis’ spectrum of functions, from its strengths encouraging students’ research proficiency to the limiting way it showcases IR as a product, not a process. Stakeholders suggested no thesis changes but recommended IR genre system modifications. As agents of change, students are uniquely positioned to use the IR genre system to address workplace communication problems and help mend our discipline’s academia-industry divide.
Databáze: OpenAIRE