Lesson by Erin Cheslow
Description (for Instructors)
This lesson plan and in-class activity use a series of videos; free-write prompts; and analytic, evaluative, and synthesis-minded discussions about business genres to teach students the basics of genre deconstruction and analysis. Although the current prompt asks students to deconstruct and analyze cover letters, this lesson and activity could work with just about any business document.
In this lesson, students approach business writing as problem-solving. By applying metacognitive analysis to diverse examples of business writing (i.e., noticing what other authors have done, why they’ve made those choices, evaluating the effectiveness of said choices for their purpose), students learn to effectively emulate and consciously deviate from novel business writing genres.
In short, the activities outlined below develop students’ practical genre imitation skills. The goal of this lesson is to encourage post-course transfer of professional writing competency across a wide variety of genres, fields, and situations—even those not explicitly covered in the class’s assignment series.
The following lesson/activity should be completed synchronously in class. It is designed to work in conjunction with Erin Cheslow’s BTW 250 Genre Presentation Assignment, in which students do the following:
- Identify 3-5 genres that are standard to your field.
- Identify the affordances and limitations of each genre and map out its conventions, as well as ways you might deviate from those conventions.
- Prepare a 5-8 minute presentation to teach the instructor and the rest of the class how to write in those genres. By the end of your presentation, we should be able to write in at least one of the genres you have introduced.
Materials
Explanation (for Students)
1. Watch Video
As a class, watch the video and/or read the accompanying transcript of “TED’s Secret to Great Public Speaking” by Chris Anderson.
2. Free Write
Take the next 2-4 minutes to free-write to the following prompt:
- Which genre will you teach the class for your Genre Presentation Assignment and what is the value of that genre?
3. Discuss Business Writing as Problem Solving
Read the following quote from Sarah Allen’s Beyond Argument: Essaying as a Practice of (Ex)change:
“The ‘gathering’ of material and the ‘blending’ of it is the reading and rereading and writing about that material in order to bring it into our minds and make something of it, to produce thought, insight, and other material which can, in turn, be digested again by others” (84).
Discuss how Allen’s claim connects to notions of business writing, problem-solving, and learning new genres.
For instructors: During this discussion, emphasize the following:
Writing for business, and generally speaking, is problem-solving. Either we are presented with a problem or we ourselves notice a problem, and it is by communicating with others, working through the problem, learning what others have done, and synthesizing a possible solution that we are able to move forward. Much of the time, though, that problem solving happens in common forms. Some students, in their literacy narratives and memos, have mentioned a desire to solve conflicts through writing or to break out of what is a very efficient but somewhat limited single way of writing. That is where imitation comes in. We can analyze other forms, just as we’ve learned to analyze our own writing, and learn to write in that genre by living with it, noticing what others have done, why they’ve made those choices, and determining how effective they are for our present purpose. Then, too, as Dr. Allen points out, we can convey those ideas to others. And that is the students’ job.
4. Review Prompt
With the class, read the Genre Presentation Prompt aloud.
5. Watch Video
As a class, watch the video of “How to Write Descriptively – Nalo Hopkinson” by Nalo Hopkinson.
6. Free Write
Take five minutes to identify any techniques you noticed. This list will not be comprehensive. It will act, however, as the start of an outline. For each technique that you identify, make a note of how you might imitate it to teach your chosen genre.
7. Deconstruct Cover Letter Examples
Find two examples of cover letters and read them aloud. For examples, you can visit OpenLab at City Tech’s website and search “Cover Letter.” Or, you can use the anonymous student examples provided by your instructor. While reading, deconstruct the affordances and limitations for each:
- What do we like in each example? What do we dislike?
- What elements do we see in each example? Which work and which don’t?
- Which letter do we prefer? Why?
- How do these cover letters differ from an introductory email? What about a portfolio?
- What other materials have you been asked for in your job descriptions? Compare.
For instructors:
The idea of this step is to compare two or three cover letters, deconstruct and engage with them as Allen asks us to do, then create an outline as a class that students can follow.