Genre theory: A bibliography for composition and rhetoric


Rebecca Moore Howard
The Writing Program
Syracuse University


Please note: I'm increasingly using CiteULike and del.icio.us for my bibliographic work. (On both sites you'll need to click on tags of interest.) Browse what's on this page and then check out CiteULike, del.icio.us, CompPile, and the MLA International Bibliography (requires SU ID) for more. A list of all the static bibliographies that I've put online is here.


Please email suggestions, corrections, or additions.


Last updated 7 January 2008

Andrew-Vaughan, Sarah, and Cathy Fleischer. "Creating Possibilities: Embedding Research into Creative Writing." English Journal 95.4 (March 2006).

Bawarshi, Anis.  "The Genre Function."  College English 62.3 (January 2000):  335-360. 

Bawarshi, Anis.  Genre and the Invention of the Writer: Reconsidering the Place of Invention in Composition.  Logan:  Utah State UP, 2003. 

Bazerman, Charles. Shaping Written Knowledge: The Genre and Activity of the Experimental Article in Science. Madison: U Wisconsin P, 1988. Rpt. WAC Clearinghouse Landmark Publications in Writing Studies, 2000.

Bazerman, Charles. "Systems of Genres and the Enactment of Social Intentions." Genre and the New Rhetoric. Ed. Aviva Freedman and Peter Medway. Bristol, PA: Taylor, 1994. 79-101.

Bazerman, Charles,  and Paul A. Prior, eds.  What Writing Does and How It Does It:  An Introduction to Analyzing Texts and Textual Practices.  Mahwah, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum, 2003. 

Beebee, Thomas O.  The Ideology of Genre.  Pennsylvania State UP, 1994. 

Benoit, William L.  "Beyond Genre Theory: The Genesis of Rhetorical Action."  Communication Monographs 67.2 (June 2000). 

Berkenkotter, Carol, and Thomas N. Huckin.  Genre Knowledge in Disciplinary Communication.  Hillsdale, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum, 1994.

Berkenkotter, Carol, and Doris Ravotas.  "Genre as Tool in the Transmission of Practice over Time and across Professional Boundaries." Mind, Culture and Activity 4 (1997):  256-274. 

Berkenkotter, Carol.  "A 'Rhetoric for Naturalistic Inquiry' and the Question of Genre."  Research in the Teaching of English 27.3 (October 1993):  293-304.

Bhatia, Vijay K.  Analysing Genre:  Language in Professional Settings.  London:  Longman, 1993. 

Bishop, Wendy, and Hans Ostrom, eds.  Genre and Writing:  Issues, Arguments, Alternatives.  Portsmouth, NH:  Boynton/Cook, 1997. 

Bitzer, Lloyd F.  "The Rhetorical Situation."  Philosophy and Rhetoric 1 (1968):  1-14.  Rpt. Rhetoric:  Concepts, Definitions, Boundaries.  Ed. William A. Covino and David A. Jolliffe.  Boston:  Allyn & Bacon, 1995.  300-310. 

Bleich, David.  "Genders of Writing."  Journal of Advanced Composition 9.1-2 (1989):  10-25. 

Bleich, David.  Know and Tell:  A Writing Pedagogy of Disclosure, Genre, and Membership.  Westport, CT:  Boynton/Cook, 1998. 

Brown, Vivienne.  "The Moral Self and Ethical Dialogism:  Three Genres."  Philosophy and Rhetoric 28.4 (1995):  276-99. 

Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs, and Kathleen Hall Jamieson.  "Form and Genre in Rhetorical Criticism."  Form and Genre:  Shaping Rhetorical Action.  Ed. Karlyn Kohrs Compbell and Kathleen Hall Jamieson.  Falls Church, VA:  Speech Communication Association, 1978.  9-32. 

Chapman, Marilyn L.  "The Emergence of Genres:  Some Findings from an Examination of First-Grade Writing."  Written Communication 11.3 (July 1994):  348-80.

Charney, Davida H., and Richard A. Carlson.  "Learning to Write in a Genre:  What Student Writers Take from Model Texts."  Research in the Teaching of English 29.1 (February 1995):  88-125. 

Christie, Frances, and J.R. Martin.  Genres and Institutions.  London:  Cassell, 1997.

Clark, Irene L.  "Genre."  Concepts in Composition:  Theory and Practice in the Teaching of Writing.  Ed. Irene L. Clark.  Mahwah, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum, 2003. 

Clark, Irene L.  "A Genre Approach to Writing Assignments."  Composition Forum 14.2 (Fall 2005).

Clark, Irene L.  "Reconsideration of Genre."  Visions and Revisions:  Continuity and Change in Rhetoric and Composition.  Ed. James D. Williams.  Carbondale:  Southern Illinois UP, 2002.  89-108. 

Clements, Peter.  "Re-Placing the Sentence:  Approaching Style Through Genre." Refiguring Prose Style:  Possibilities for Writing Pedagogy.  Ed. T.R. Johnson and Tom Pace.  Logan:  Utah State UP, 2005.  198-214. 

Coe, Richard, Lorelei Lingard, and Tatiana Teslenko, eds.  The Rhetoric and Ideology of Genre.  Cresskill, NJ:  Hampton P, 2001. 

Cope, Bill, and Mary Kalantzis.  "The Power of Literacy and the Literacy of Power."  The Powers of Literacy:  A Genre Approach to Teaching Writing.  Ed. Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis.  London:  The Falmer Press, 1993.  63-89. 

Deans, Thomas. "Genre Analysis and the Community Writing Course." Reflections 5.1-2 (Spring 2006): 7-26.

Derrida, Jacques.  "The Law of Genre."  Glyph 7 (Spring 1980).  Rpt. Critical Inquiry 7 (Autumn 1980):  55-81. 

Devitt, Amy J.  "The Developing Discipline of Composition:  From Text Linguistics to Genre Theory."  History, Reflection, and Narrative: The Professionalization of Composition 1963-1983. Eds. Mary Rosner, Beth Boehm, and Debra Journet.  Greenwich, CT: Ablex, 1998.  177-186. 

Devitt, Amy J.  "Generalizing about Genre:  New Conceptions of an Old Concept."  College Composition and Communication 44.4 (December 1993):  573-86.

Devitt, Amy J.  "Genre, Genres, and the Teaching of Genre."  College Composition and Communication 47.4 (December 1996):  605-15. 

Devitt, Amy J.  "Intertextuality in Tax Accounting:  Generic, Referential, and Functional."  Textual Dynamics of the Professions:  Historical and Contemporary Studies of Writing in Professional Communities.  Ed. Charles Bazerman and James Paradis.  Madison:  U Wisconsin P, 1991.  335-357. 

Devitt, Amy J., Anis Bawarshi, and Mary Jo Reiff.  "Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities."  College English 65.5 (May 2003):  541-558. 

Devitt, Amy J., Mary Jo Reiff, and Anis Bawarshi.  Strategies for Composing with Genres.  New York:  Longman, 2004. 

Devitt, Amy J.  Writing Genres.  Carbondale:  Southern Illinois UP, 2004. 

Dubrow, Heather.  Genre.  London:  Methune, 1982. 

Edwards, Brent Hayes. "The Genres of Postcolonialism." Social Text 22.1 (Spring 2004).

Fahnestock, Jeanne.  "Genre and Rhetorical Craft."  Research in the Teaching of English 27.3 (October 1993): 265-71.

Fishelove, David.  Metaphors of Genre:  The Role of Analogies in Genre Theory.  Pennsylvania UP, 1993. 

Folsom, Ed. "Database as Genre: The Epic Transformation of Archives." PMLA 122.5 (Oct. 2007): 1571-1579.

Freedman, Aviva.  "Genres of Argument and Arguments as Genres."  Perspectives on Written Argument.  Ed. Deborah P. Berrill.  Cresskill, NJ:  Hampton, 1996. 

Freedman, Aviva.  "Show and Tell?  The Role of Explicit Teaching in the Learning of New Genres."  Research in the Teaching of English 27.3 (October 1993):  222-51.

Freedman, Aviva.  "Situating Genre:  A Rejoinder."  Research in the Teaching of English 27.3 (October 1993):  272-81.

Freedman, Aviva, Christine Adam, and Graham Smart.  "Wearing Suits to Class:  Simulating Genres and Simulations as Genre."  Written Communication 11.3 (July 1994):  193-226.

Freedman, Aviva, and Peter Medway, eds.  Genre and the New Rhetoric.  Bristol, PA:  Taylor & Francis, 1994. 

Freedman, Aviva, and Peter Medway, eds.  Learning and Teaching Genre.  Portsmouth, NH:  Boynton/Cook, 1994. 

Frow, John. "'Reproducibles, Rubrics, and Everything You Need': Genre Theory Today." PMLA 122.5 (Oct. 2007): 1626-1635.

Grumet, Madeleine R.  "Autobiography:  The Mixed Genre of Public and Private."  Personal Effects:  The Social Character of Scholarly Writing.  Ed. Deborah H. Holdstein and David Bleich.  Logan:  Utah State UP, 2001.  165-177. 

Gunner, Jeanne. "Ideology, Theory, and the Genre of Writing Programs." The Writing Program Administrator as Theorist. Ed. Shirley K. Rose and Irwin Weiser. Westport, CT: Heinemann Boynton/Cook, 2002.  7-18. 

Harpham, Geoffrey Galt. "Genre and the Institution of Research: Three American Instances." PMLA 122.5 (Oct. 2007): 1635-1643.

Hawlin, Stefan. "Epistemes and Imitations: Thom Gunn on Ben Jonson." PMLA 122.5 (Oct. 2007): 1516-1530.

Herrington, Anne, and Charles Moran, eds. Genre Across the Curriculum. Logan: Utah State UP, 2005.

Holdstein, Deborah H.  "Power, Genre, and Technology."  College Composition and Communication 47.2 (May 1996):  279-83. 

Hyland, Ken.  "Genre-Based Pedagogies: A Social Response to Process." Journal of Second Language Writing 12.1 (February 2003):  17-29.  

Jameson, Daphne A. "The Ethics of Plagiarism: How Genre Affects Writers' Use of Source Materials. The Bulletin of the Association for Business Communication 56.2 (1993): 18-27.

Jamieson, Kathleen M.  "Antecedent Genre as Rhetorical Constraint."  Quarterly Journal of Speech 61 (December 1975):  406-415. 

Johns, Ann, ed.  Genres in the Classroom:  Theories, Research, and Practice.  Mahwah, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum, 2000. 

Johnson, Cheryl L., and Jayne A. Moneysmith. Multiple Genres, Multiple Voices: Teaching Argument in Composition and Literature. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 2005.

Jolliffe, David A.  "Writing Across the Curriculum and Service Learning:  Kairos, Genre, and Collaboration."  WAC for the New Millennium : Strategies for Continuing Writing-Across-The-Curriculum-Programs.  Ed. Susan H. McLeod, et al.  Urbana, IL:  National Council of Teachers of English, 2001.  86-108. 

Journet, Debra.  "Writing Within (and Between) Disciplinary Genres:  The 'Adaptive Landscape' as a Case Study in Interdisciplinary Rhetoric."  Post-Process Theory:  Beyond the Writing-Process Paradigm.  Ed. Thomas Kent.  Carbondale:  Southern Illinois UP, 1999.  96-115. 

Juzwik, Mary M. "The Dialogization of Genres in Teaching Narrative: Theorizing Hybrid Genres in Classroom Discourse." Across the Disciplines 1 (2004).

Linton, Patricia, Robert Madigan, and Susan Johnson.  "Introducing Students to Disciplinary Genres:  The Role of the General Composition Course."  Language and Learning Across the Disciplines 1.2 (October 1994):  63-78.

Lovett, Carl R., and Art Young.  "Rethinking Genre in the First-Year Composition Course:  Helping Student Writers Get Things Done."  Profession 1997:  113-125. 

Luke, Allan.  "Genres of Power?  Literacy Education and the Production of Capital."  Literacy in Society.  Ed. Ruqaiya Hasan and Geoff Williams.  New York:  Longman, 1998.  308-338.  [file Pedagogy]

Miller, Carolyn.  "Genre as Social Action."  Quarterly Journal of Speech 70 (1984):  151-67. 

Owen, Stephen. "Genres in Motion." PMLA 122.5 (Oct. 2007): 1389-1393.

Paretti, Marie C.  "Intertextuality, Genre, and Beginning Writers:  Mining Your Own Texts."  Teaching Academic Literacy:  The Uses of Teacher-Research in Developing a Writing Program.  Ed. Katherine L. Weese, Stephen L. Fox, and Stuart Greene.  Mahwah, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum, 1999.  119-134. 

Pecorari, Diane. "Visible and Occluded Citation Features in Postgraduate Second-Language Writing." English for Specific Purposes 25 (2006): 4-29.

Perloff, Marjorie, ed.  Postmodern Genres.  Norman:  U Oklahoma P, 1989. 

Pfau, Thomas.  "The Pragmatics of Genre:  Moral Theory and Lyric Authorship in Hegel and Wordsworth."  The Construction of Authorship:  Textual Appropriation in Law and Literature.  Ed. Martha Woodmansee and Peter Jaszi.  Durham:  Duke UP, 1994.  133-58.

Reid, Ian, ed.  The Place of Genre in Learning:  Current Debates.  Geelong:  Deakin University, 1988. 

Romano, Tom. Blending Genre, Altering Style. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann/Boynton-Cook, 2000.

Rosmarin, Adena.  The Power of Genre.  Minneapolis:  U Minnesota P, 1985. 

Russell, David R.  "Rethinking Genre in School and Society:  An Activity Theory Analysis."  Written Communication 14.4 (1997):  504-554. 

Schryer, Catherine F.  "Genre Time/Space:  Chronotopic Strategies in the Experimental Article."  JAC:  A Journal of Composition Theory 19.1 (Winter 1999):  8-190. 

Slevin, James F.  "Genre as a Social Institution."  Understanding Others:  Cultural and Cross-Cultural Studies and the Teaching of Literature.  Urbana, IL:  National Council of Teachers of English, 1992.  16-34.

Starkey, David, Ed. Genre by Example: Writing What We Teach. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton, 2001.

Styslinger, Mary E. "Multigenre-Multigendered Research Papers." English Journal 95.4 (March 2006).

Swales, John.  "Discourse Communities, Genres, and English as an International Language."  World Englishes 7 (1988):  211-220. 

Swales, John M., and Margaret A. Luebs.  "Genre Analysis and the Advanced Second Language Writer."  Discourse Studies in Composition.  Eds. Ellen L. Barton and Gail Stygall.  Cresskill, NJ:  Hampton P, 2002.

Swales, John M.  Genre Analysis:  English in Academic and Research Settings.  Cambridge:  Cambridge UP, 1990. 

Taylor, Diana. "Remapping Genre through Performance: From 'American' to 'Hemispheric' Studies." PMLA 122.5 (Oct. 2007): 1416-1430.

Todorov, Tzvetan.  The Fantastic:  A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre.  Trans. Richard Toward.  Ithaca:  Cornell UP, 1975. 

Todorov, Tzvetan.  "The Origin of Genres."  New Literary History 8.1 (1976):  159-170. 

Vandenberg, Peter.  "Animated Categories:  Genre, Action, and Composition."  College English 67.5 (May 2005):  532-545. 

Willard-Traub, Margaret.  "Rhetorics of Gender and Ethnicity in Scholarly Memoir:  Notes on a Material Genre."  College English 65.5 (May 2003):  511-525. 

Yates, JoAnne, and Wanda Orlikowski.  "Genres of Organizational Communication:  A Structural Approach."  Academy of Management Review 17 (1992):  299-326. 

Yancey, Kathleen Blake.  "More Than a Matter of Form:  Genre and Writing."  Coming of Age: The Advanced Writing Curriculum.  Ed. Linda Shamoon, Rebecca Moore Howard, Sandra Jamieson, and Robert Schwegler.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann Boynton/Cook, 2000.  87-93. 

Yancey, Kathleen Blake. "Portfolio as Genre, Rhetoric as Reflection: Situating Selves, Literacies, and Knowledge." WPA: Writing Program Administration 19.3 (Spring 1996): 55-69.