Different text genres help doctoral students reach new readers

An academic abstract, a blog post and a public outreach article all place different demands on the writer. Readers’ prior knowledge varies, as does the purpose of the text, and what needs explaining. Mastering one kind of text therefore does not automatically mean being able to write another.

“We cannot teach every writing task that a doctoral student will encounter. Teaching therefore needs to help them understand how to approach an unfamiliar text type by developing rhetorical agility,” says Peter Wingrove, a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Communication and Learning in Science at Chalmers and lead author of the article.

The same research, different ways of writing

In the study, the researchers trialled a teaching approach in which eight doctoral students worked with three different text genres during a single workshop. Participants first analysed an academic abstract and discussed its intended audience, purpose and structure. They then worked in groups to turn a research blog post into an academic abstract and compared different ways of presenting the content.

Finally, they wrote an abstract of their own research and reworked it into a short popular science article. Participants were given examples to study, but no step-by-step guidance on how to complete the final task. The researchers analysed participants’ texts, recorded group discussions, and conducted interviews about how they had approached the tasks.

Explaining can take more space

The analysis showed how participants transferred both language and structure to the new writing task. Some placed key findings early in the text. Others used storytelling or questions to engage the reader. Participants also made different choices about technical terms in consideration of the new audience.

The interviews and group discussions also revealed how participants reasoned about their choices: which existing knowledge they could draw on, what needed to change, and what they needed to learn more about. The researchers term the approach Multi-Genre Pedagogy. Its aim is to develop flexible writing skills and a deeper awareness of genres by allowing participants to compare and move between different texts.

“Making research accessible can mean developing ideas in greater detail and explaining things that specialists take for granted. It is about understanding what readers need to follow the discussion,” says Raffaella Negretti, Professor at Chalmers and co-author of the study.