Written Communication Jan 2008

The Use of Cognitive and Social Apprenticeship to Teach a Disciplinary Genre

Huiling Ding Clemson University

Abstract

This study reports about a yearlong study of the initiation of novice grant writers to the activity system of National Institutes of Health grant applications. It investigates the use of cognitive apprenticeship within writing classrooms and that of social apprenticeship in laboratories, programs, departments, and universities, which introduced students to the genre system of National Institutes of Health grant proposals and helped them in moving from peripheral participation to more central participation. While cognitive apprenticeship employs devices such as modeling, scaffolding, coaching, and collaboration to enhance learning in formal settings, social apprenticeship requires socialization, interaction, and collaboration with experts, colleagues, and peers in informal settings to acquire disciplinary knowledge and experiences. The study suggests that writing instructors should acknowledge and incorporate resources in other activity systems in which students participate, i.e., their laboratories and home departments, and teach genre systems rather than specific genres to better facilitate students' enculturation to activity systems of disciplinary discourse communities.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2008-01-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088307308660
Open Access
Closed
Topics
multimodality

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (10)

  1. Gray (2026)
    The Utility of Inclusivity: How Emoji Proposal Writers Navigate Oppositional In…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Gunning (2025)
    How Do Nonprofit Proposal Writers Learn Their Jobs? Results of a Nationwide Sur…
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  3. Driscoll et al. (2022)
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  4. Cutrufello (2021)
    Scanning as a Rhetorical Activity: Reporting Histories of Ether Experiments in …
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  5. Lawrence et al. (2019)
    Rhetorics of Proposal Writing: Lessons for Pedagogy in Research and Real-World …
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Show all 10 →
  1. Mehlenbacher (2017)
    Crowdfunding Science: Exigencies and Strategies in an Emerging Genre of Science…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Spinuzzi et al. (2016)
    How Magnets Attract and Repel
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  3. McNely et al. (2015)
    Contemporary Research Methodologies in Technical Communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Spinuzzi (2015)
    Toward a Typology of Activities
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  5. Spinuzzi (2011)
    Losing by Expanding
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication

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