Genre and academic writing in the disciplines

The last decade has seen increasing attention given to the notion of genre and its application in language teaching and learning. Genre represents how writers typically use language to respond to recurring situations, pointing to the fact that texts are most successful when they employ conventions that other members of the community find familiar and convincing. This community-based nature of genres suggests that their features will differ across disciplines, encouraging teachers to research the features of the texts their students need in order to make these explicit in their classes. I examine some of the research understandings and practical applications of these views by looking at what the approach offers teachers of academic writing.