Journal of Business and Technical Communication Jul 2005

Genre Theory, Health-Care Discourse, and Professional Identity Formation

Catherine F. Schryer University of Waterloo ; Philippa Spoel Laurentian University

Abstract

This article explores the value of rhetorical genre theory for health care and professional communication researchers. The authors outline the conceptual resources emerging from genre theory, specifically ways to conceptualize social context, professional identity formation, and genres as functioning but hierarchical networks, and discuss the way they have used these resources in two separate but complementary health-care studies: a project that documents the ways regulated and regularized resources of the genre of case presentations shape the professional identity formation of medical students and a project that extends this theoretical work to observe that genres, especially policy genres, function to regularize or control other genres and shape the identity formation of midwives in Ontario, Canada. The authors also observe that the implications of rhetorical genre theory have impelled both of these studies to develop an interdisciplinary trajectory that includes members of health-care communities as participating researchers.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
2005-07-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651905275625
Open Access
Closed
Topics
genre theory professional writing multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (31)

  1. Wickman (2025)
    Emerging Perspectives in Medical Case Report Writing: How Guidelines Support In…
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  2. Burnett et al. (2025)
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  3. Pellegrini (2024)
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  4. Cagle (2024)
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  5. Spinuzzi (2023)
    What Is a Workplace? Principles for Bounding Case Studies of Genres, Processes,…
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  1. Hartline (2023)
    Shaping Emerging Community-Engaged Scholars’ Identities: A Genre Systems Analys…
    College Composition and Communication
  2. Wickman (2023)
    Genre and Metagenre in Biomedical Research Writing
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  3. Driscoll et al. (2022)
    Threshold Genres: A 10-Year Exploration of a Medical Writer’s Development and S…
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  4. Watts (2021)
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  5. Weedon (2020)
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  6. Pickering (2019)
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  7. Opel et al. (2019)
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  8. Kessler et al. (2018)
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  9. Reed (2018)
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  10. McNely (2017)
    Moments and Metagenres
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  11. Gouge (2017)
    Improving Patient Discharge Communication
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  12. Rice-Bailey (2016)
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  13. Read (2016)
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  14. Lindsley (2015)
    Legitimizing the Wound: Mapping the Military's Diagnostic Discourse of Traumati…
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  15. Spinuzzi (2015)
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  16. Petersen (2014)
    Redefining the Workplace: The Professionalization of Motherhood through Blogging
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  17. Brasseur (2012)
    Sonographers' Complex Communication during the Obstetric Sonogram Exam: An Inte…
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  18. Artemeva et al. (2011)
    The Writing’s on the Board
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  19. Spinuzzi (2010)
    Secret Sauce and Snake Oil: Writing Monthly Reports in a Highly Contingent Envi…
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  20. Swarts (2008)
    Information Technologies as Discursive Agents: Methodological Implications for …
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  21. Artemeva (2008)
    Toward a Unified Social Theory of Genre Learning
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  22. Popham et al. (2008)
    A Structural Analysis of Coherence in Electronic Charts in Juvenile Mental Health
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  23. Longo et al. (2007)
    Implementation of Medical Research Findings through Insulin Protocols: Initial …
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  24. Swarts (2007)
    Mobility and Composition: The Architecture of Coherence in Non-places
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  25. Swarts (2006)
    Coherent Fragments
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  26. Spafford et al. (2006)
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Cites in this index (13)

  1. Barton (2004)
    Discourse Methods and Critical Practice in Professional Communication
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Schneider (2002)
    Theorizing Structure and Agency in Workplace Writing
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  3. Barton (2001)
    Design in Observational Research on the Discourse of Medicine: Toward Disciplin…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  4. BERKENKOTTER (2001)
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    Written Communication
  5. Schryer (2000)
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    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Show all 13 →
  1. Bell et al. (2000)
    ‘Aristotle's pharmacy’: The medical rhetoric of a clinical protocol in the drug…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. WINSOR (2000)
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    Written Communication
  3. DUNMIRE (2000)
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    Written Communication
  4. DETWEILER et al. (1999)
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    Written Communication
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    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
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Also cites 20 works outside this index ↓
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CrossRef global citation count: 74 View in citation network →

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