Reviews for Genre in the Classroom

The average rating for Genre in the Classroom based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-05-21 00:00:00 John Batgos This is a very important book for the histories of composition and rhetoric. First and foremost, it is one of the first such histories that makes a substantive move to describe English composition from an indigenous point of view. It certainly has to be the first to do so from a Chinese point of view. You describes how composition ideologies described by James Berlin were combined with Chinese rhetorical traditions to create composition instruction that fit with each specific socio-cultural context. Though this produces a fairly linear piece that relies a lot on essentialist notions of nationality and culture, the result is a thought-provoking counter-history to our own. Anyone who teaches English to Chinese students should know from experience, that there is no monolithic writing tradition that we can use to interpret and evaluate student writing. This book shows the varied approaches to composition, both in Chinese and English writing, that impacts how students have learned writing. I see my Chinese students writing in an entirely different light now. My only complaint about this book is the ending which relies too much on grand narratives, so much so the chapter is almost useless. But I guess one has to find a way to end a book.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-04-24 00:00:00 Stephen Archibald I'm doing research on Chinese students. You is primarily concerned with writing about the history of teaching English in China. Within his discussion of how English composition was taught, he also provides a discussion of how Chinese writing was taught to students. Several of his chapters are important to my own research including his chapter titled "Writing in Traditional Chinese Education" which discusses the ways that traditionally Chinese students have been taught to write. Two other important chapters are "Chinese Proletarian Rhetoric" and "Creativity and Individuality in Chinese Composition." Both of these chapters contain information on how writing in taught in China.