Amy Devitt
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Genre-colored glasses

Thoughts on genre, language, grammar, and other
rhetorical and linguistic norms

Syllabus as Genre

8/8/2016

12 Comments

 
Picture
​image by Ron Mader flickr

What does the syllabus say about us?

So it’s getting to be that time of the summer for those of us who teach in post-secondary schools. Classes will start within weeks, and syllabuses must be prepared. To delay my own prepping a little longer, allow me to do a bit of commenting on the syllabus--that first-day-of-classes document that teachers hand to students with course requirements and information about the semester.
 
I find the syllabus especially revealing for how genres reflect and shape their contexts. I use it as an example on the first day of classes when I’m teaching anything genre-based, from first-year writing classes to graduate seminars.
 
Take a look at my standard syllabus first page. I’m sure I learned this formatting and organization from my supervisors and other teachers when I was a newbie. Notice what comes first.

​After the course title comes the instructor’s information—name, contact info, office hours. As my first-year students point out, that makes sense since they do need to know how to contact me. Genres do develop as they do for some good reasons. But notice the absence of students’ contact information. They need to contact each other, too, and I need to contact them. Of course, I can’t publish all their info for other students without their permission. But there’s not even a space on the syllabus for students to write in others’ names, much less their email addresses. Who are the classmates they’re going to spend a semester with? The syllabus makes no room for such information. All that matters is the instructor.
 
Such a simple thing, what’s included and what’s not in a genre. But such a powerful statement about what—or who—matters.
 
If what mattered most was the information most important to students, what might come next after the instructor’s contact info? I’d guess course requirements and grades—what students will need to do to get the grade they want. Seems perfectly reasonable to want to know such important information, and that’s information you can’t get anywhere other than the syllabus. But it doesn’t come next on most syllabuses I’ve seen. Grading and requirements are usually buried in the middle of the document. Instead, what often comes next is the course description, course outcomes, or learning objectives, depending on the institution. That big picture of what the course is about and will help students accomplish. That’s certainly important information, and many teachers, I imagine, will believe like me that it’s good to start the course off with the big picture of what we’re about and what we’re here for.

But as teachers are reading the course description, I imagine we’ve all seen students flipping to page two or three, searching for that info on requirements and grades. It’s not that they’re not interested in the big picture and what the course will do for them. Maybe it’s just that they already understood that. That’s why they enrolled in the course. They may even have read the course description online. But they haven’t been able to see anything about the details of the course requirements. Still, we make them search for that information, buried in the middle. What we think matters most comes first—who we are and what our course is about. The syllabus is not designed first of all to meet students’ needs, or surely that basic requirements and grade  information would come first, so they can get that covered and be ready to hear about our lofty goals.
 
Such a simple thing, what comes first in a genre. But such a powerful statement about whose priorities matter.
Picture
​image Delete by West Ham Trackside flickr

​Again, there are some good reasons for starting with the course description and goals. We want to encourage students to pay attention to what they’re learning. Research tells us that it helps them learn to have the big picture first, setting a frame for everything they learn afterward. But notice that teachers are the ones who get to say what they should pay attention to.
 
Notice, too, that the genre can’t make them do what we want. Some students will still flip pages to find the grading info first. We can’t make them value lofty goals over pragmatic grades, but we can make it harder for them. And by putting those lofty goals first, we’re making a statement about what they should do and be.
 
After that first page, many syllabuses will be full of detailed instructions about what students should do to be “good” students—turn papers in on time, not arrive late to class, not use cell phones during class, be respectful of other students’ comments, maybe even use MLA headings and 1” margins. We want them to gain those lofty objectives, but they should also be obedient. So we use lots of commands (do this, don’t do that; be this, don’t be that) and very few requests or questions. The instructor is in charge, after all.
 
Such a simple thing, choosing the sentence type and tone in a genre. But such a powerful statement about the role of the writer and the reader.

Oh, there’s so much more to notice about the syllabus and how it reinforces the academic institution’s values. It puts not just the students but also the instructor into particular roles that are hard to resist. But I try to keep these blog posts under 750 words, and I’m already well over.

​So I’ll just end by showing you a sample of a syllabus I’ve created to try to break some of those generic expectations. This one is from an undergraduate course introducing students to these rhetorical conceptions of genre, so the syllabus was very meta- about our course topic. You'll notice I still put the big course goals first, but at least I label them as "My Goals" and I leave room for their goals. And I start with the students' names (removed here, for students' privacy). We also negotiated the grade breakdown after that first class, but I'm still dictating a lot and still in charge. 

If the world can stay sane for a week, I’ll return to comment more on this syllabus, and other classroom genres, next week.
​

What do you notice about syllabuses and the ways they shape teachers and students or reflect their institutions? Do your syllabuses differ in significant ways? I'd be glad to have more examples and material to work with as I continue to think through the syllabus, one of my favorite examples.
12 Comments
Shelley Manis
8/8/2016 11:44:35 am

This is so great, Amy. As I read this, I wish so much that I felt empowered to design a syllabus as you have (in your second example). One audience with fairly rigid expectations that the syllabus has to satisfy (especially for Non-TT faculty) is the review committee. What I've noticed is that what the review committee wants to see and what might be most helpful/desirable for STUDENTS (and for learning) are rarely in sync. I wonder how Non-TT faculty can make some moves toward the kind of inclusiveness and agency you're modeling here without risking our jobs? (Honest question, suggestions welcome!)

Reply
amy
8/8/2016 12:45:00 pm

And thank you, Shelley! I love getting comments here

Reply
Amy
8/8/2016 12:44:16 pm

You raise a great topic, Shelley. I had been planning on writing about the multiple audiences and rhetorical situations of the syllabus for my next post, so this is a great reminder of the multiple writers' situations. I think the instructor's awareness may be as important as (or more important than) actually creating an alternative syllabus. Small tweaks of the language can make a difference and pass inspection. And the instructor can introduce the syllabus in class in a different way, with some critical awareness of what the genre (and its institutional review) is encouraging and inhibiting. Asking students to write about their goals for the class first, for example. All the ice breakers teachers use to get students to know their classmates. Even delaying giving out the syllabus, at least to the end of class (I tried just putting it online once in a first-year class, but that did not work well ;) These genre actions (and more) can counter some of the more rigid expectations. But again some of these genre actions are there for a reason, including institutional reasons, and some serve good purposes. What a complex genre it is, and what complex institutional settings we're in, teachers and students alike.

Reply
Shelley
8/8/2016 01:05:27 pm

These are excellent ideas, all--thank you!!

Reply
Sarah Stanley link
11/5/2016 04:36:52 pm

HI Amy, I'm teaching a 400 level genre course in the Spring...anyway, I just got an email from a student asking for my course description for it because Genre has always been a topic class here taught through a literature perspective. ....and, I felt compelled to write this only I'm still reflecting on it. It would be posted on the English Department website, and part of my aim in the course is for students to do social activism/advocacy through critical genre awareness. An important test will be Patricia Williams' Death of the Profane...

Genre: How To Do Things With Texts

I am writing a course description.
You are reading it.
Is this innovative? Does it change the rhetorical situation?
Come find out.

Reply
Amy
11/7/2016 10:12:31 am

Hi Sarah. That sounds like a great course, and I Love your innovative course description. Of course, the primary purpose of the course description Is to get students to enroll. Once they've taken your course, they'll get this course description and see its brilliance. Before then, they'll probably be mystified and steer clear of this strange class

I taught a graduate seminar last year on genres for social action, and it was lots of fun. I hope you'll share how your course goes

Amy

Reply
Alan P Marks
7/12/2022 07:06:12 am

This in interesting. In one of my classes we spend a fair amount of time looking at the syllabus as a genre (which has the added benefit of those students doing a more complete job of actually reading it than they do in any of my other classes). One of the things we talk about is what is the "work" that the syllabus is trying to do, and how does that then affect the content/organization. And how do certain variations fit into that? In a lot of ways the syllabus for that course is fairly standard but with one huge exception that students sometimes have a hard time processing. The course description is also a course "history" that outlines the development of this particular course from as far back as the 1940s. It goes on for roughly 3 pages. But it still doesn't really violate what a syllabus is and what a syllabus does, which is "inform" students of what they need (or what we think they need) on day one of a new course. In this case, when we redesigned this course 8 or 9 years ago to move from a more standard essay-focused composition course to one that deals much more heavily situation-based, it changed into a kind of writing course that is fundamentally different than anything the students might have had before. They come into class the first day expecting something much different from what the course actually is. So we go into detail about that change (and why it was made) to "reset" those expectations right from the start of the course. Not something I'd need to do if I taught Calculus as that course is the same now as it's always been. The course history still does what a few sentence catalog description does (tell what the class is), but does it in a much different way. It is part of the standard syllabus genre, while not being part of the standard syllabus genre.

But it also has an added benefit of being a kind of short "essay" embedded within the syllabus that turns into an introduction to the very topics we'll be working on during the course.

Reply
Amy
7/12/2022 11:34:00 am

What an interesting way to inform students of the nature of the course, Alan. I bet many of our programs (including mine) have a similar history to shift from essay form toward rhetoric and situation.A 3-page historical explanation is certainly not something I've seen commonly in a syllabus, but, as you say, why not, in terms of purpose. I'd love to see that "essay" from your syllabus.

Thanks for sharing that experience, Alan.

Reply
Alan P Marks
7/12/2022 07:31:38 am

"What does the syllabus say about us?"

I had an interesting discussion in one class that shined a particular light on this. On the one hand, we think about the syllabus as being a genre that "informs the student of things they need." Or, if we take a more author-focused look at it, as a genre that informs students of what we "think" they need, whether those are the things they truly value or not. Which fits with giving our contact info and not leaving room for them to fill in that of all the other students', I suppose.

But in our discussion we came to an even more author-focused definition of what the syllabus might really be doing, one that is not to benefit the student at all, but to benefit the teacher, primarily (it does still help the student, but that becomes a "secondary" purpose). It came from talking about why some syllabi have detailed semester schedules and some don't. While there are a number of reasons for that (some kinds of courses make that possible--math classes that follow a text chapter by chapter--while others don't), there was a tendency for large lecture classes to have semester schedules more consistently than small discussion classes. And one reason we came to for that is that in a large lecture class there might be higher degrees of absenteeism and, as a result, a lot of questions about "what did we do in class today?" Without a semester schedule, the teacher could spend a significant amount of time having to answer those questions over and over.

So the conclusion (and a student put it this particular way--I can't take credit for it), was that a syllabus was really mostly an FAQ document.

If we look at it that way, what is "says about us" is a bit more cynical. The syllabus becomes less about giving the students what they need and becomes more teacher-focused by making it so (assuming the students actually read it) we don't have to answer the same questions over and over again. It becomes a "self" serving document, literally. Which might make us re-evaluate other choices in the genre. What "class policies" are in the syllabus, not because they benefit the student, but because they protect the teacher from arguments about grades, or complaints when they are penalized for missing class, etc.?

Is our goal with a syllabus to do something for the student, or do something for ourselves? And, if we see how it might be self-serving, are there ways we can change that approach to make it more student-serving in meaningful ways? Or have the conventions of the genre become so well-established that doing it any differently will short-circuit the reading process in some way because students are "expecting" the syllabus to be a certain way?

Reply
Amy
7/12/2022 11:43:38 am

Great, thoughtful additions from your students, Alan, and from you. I can certainly see the link to an FAQ. In fact, maybe we would do better to separate out some of the genres inside the complex genre of the syllabus. There's the FAQ, which could be labeled that way and be a more accessible bullet list of questions ("what is the attendance policy?") and answers. That part would not be to be read until needed, probably, like an FAQ on other sites, and could be searchable online. Your course history could be a different genre--the philosophy and history essay, perhaps.

The way the syllabus serves teachers is another good point (really smart students and teacher you have there). I'd also put that in the context of how it serves the institution, from the program administration up through the higher levels. I've heard teachers call the syllabus a CYA document, and it seems these days it's also (or primarily?) about covering the university's liability and risk, maybe more than the teachers'.

Thanks for helping to reshape and update this series on the syllabus, Alan. You should write a guest post with all your great ideas!

Reply
Alan P Marks
7/12/2022 11:56:52 am

The "cya" term definitely comes into our discussions. And we split it into University cya (various "disclosures" written and distributed for inclusion in all syllabi), as well as less recognizable forms of cya that protect the teacher from potential conflicts about grades, attendance, etc. later on. "It was in the syllabus" becomes a kind of shield. It makes me wonder about how much effort in the syllabus goes into those things vs. what goes into actively assisting the student in some way.

Amy
7/12/2022 04:41:09 pm

Good question, Alan. What in the syllabus IS for the students? I doubt it's simple, with many efforts helping the teacher, the institution, and the student. I hope

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    Author
    ​Amy Devitt

    I'm a genre-lover and language nerd who likes to write about the fascinating effects of genres (like grocery lists, blogs, and greeting cards, as well as mysteries and romances) on how we read and write and even live our lives. I also notice grammar a lot, both the "proper" kind and the fun kind, like grammar jokes.  For more, read my post on "What I Notice." I write this blog weekly to point out what I see and in hopes that you will tell me what you see, too. 

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