Teaching the IMRaD Genre: Sentence Combining and Pattern Practice Revisited

Joanna Wolfe University of Louisville ; Cynthia Britt University of Louisville ; Kara Poe Alexander Baylor University

Abstract

The authors describe two pedagogical strategies—rhetorical sentence combining and rhetorical pattern practice—that blend once-popular teaching techniques with rhetorical decision making. A literature review identified studies that associated linguistic and rhetorical knowledge with success in engineering writing; this information was used to create exercises teaching technical communication students to write Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion (IMRaD) reports. Two pilot studies report promising results: Preliminary findings suggest that students who were taught this method wrote essays that were perceived as significantly higher in quality than those written by students in a control section. At the same time, however, the pilot studies point to some challenges and shortcomings of exercise-oriented pedagogies.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
2011-04-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651910385785
Open Access
Closed
Topics

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

  1. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  3. Technical Communication Quarterly

Cites in this index (8)

  1. Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Research in the Teaching of English
  3. College Composition and Communication
  4. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  5. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Show all 8 →
  1. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Written Communication
  3. Research in the Teaching of English
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