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3 Learning through Other People’s Words

At advanced levels of academe, classroom writing is, by and large, genred writing. Whether students are writing seminar papers, lab reports, proposals, or critiques, their written texts are guided and evaluated by certain disciplinary expectations. Classrooms therefore become important sites of knowledge building, as it is here that students encounter guidelines, feedback, models, and samples that feed into their developing understanding of writing in general and of genres in particular. Of course, not all classrooms are the same; there are, for instance, considerable differences between a course in biomedical engineering and one in academic writing. Nevertheless, both settings have the potential to influence a writer’s understanding of writing and of written texts. I will focus on such knowledge building in so-called “disciplinary content classrooms” in later chapters, but first, in chapters 3 and 4, I turn to knowledge building in the writing classroom, a site of particular interest to teachers of writing.

My focus in the next two chapters is on the strategies and resources for genre learning that are available in the writing classroom. Certainly, the stories of the John, Yoshi, Paul, and Chatri are tied to their unique local setting. Nevertheless, their stories provide illustrations of the very specific ways that knowledge building can occur within a writing classroom. When considered alongside related literature on classroom learning, these cases add to a broader theoretical understanding of learning genres outside of the milieu in which they exist more organically.

Interacting with Texts

As I observed students in WCGS, both in the classroom described here and in a prior pilot study, I was struck repeatedly with the ways in which the writers looked to textual samples as important resources for knowledge building within the classroom context. Classroom activities prompted much interaction with texts, but students continued to draw on sample texts as they composed outside of the classroom. While the use of texts as “models” to be analyzed and imitated by students raises concerns of prescriptivism for instructors, students often desire models and tend to make effective use of them. Many studies have shown students to make use of sample or model texts as learning resource in their disciplinary content courses or in workplace or research settings (e.g., Angelova & Riazantseva, 1999; Beaufort, 1999, 2000; Ivanič, 1998; McCarthy, 1987; Riazi, 1997; Shaw, 1991; Smart, 2000; Winsor, 1996), but this area has been less examined within writing classroom contexts. Two studies that have looked at the use of text models as an explicit teaching strategy suggest that exposure to genre exemplars may have a positive influence on student learning.

In an attempt to understand the role of model texts for native English speaking students, Charney and Carlson (1995) studied the effects of exposure to models in a psychology course in which students were learning to write a Methods section for a research paper. The researchers divided 95 students into different groups: (a) no models, (b) three models of Methods sections receiving “A,” labeled as such, (c) a model of an “A,” “B,” and “C” Methods section, labeled with their respective grades, (d) three “A”-graded models with no labels included, and (e) an “A,” “B,” and “C” model with no labels. Students were then given details related to a particular experiment and asked to compose their own Methods section in a one-hour time period. Exposure to models influenced both the content and the organization of the students’ texts in positive ways. Interestingly, there appeared to be no advantage to giving students only “A” models, as opposed to giving them the range of “A,” “B,” and “C” models. Exposure to models, however, did not seem to help the student-writers discriminate between relevant and irrelevant details; similarly, labeling models (as “A,” “B,” or “C”) also had no affect in this area.

Within the context of a genre-based ESP classroom, Henry and Roseberry (1998) examined the effects of explicit genre analysis of model texts on student writers in a first-year management class in Brunei. As the students learned to write travel brochures, they were divided into two groups: one receiving six hours of genre-based instruction (in which students analyzed model texts) and a second receiving no genre-based instruction. Those students who analyzed model texts had higher “texture” scores (an index designed to measure cohesion and coherence) in a post-test, and their gain scores were significantly higher than the students who had received no genre-based instruction. Like Charney and Carlson’s (1995) research, however, this study measures only very short-term benefits of exposure to and analysis of model texts. Also important for instructors is the absence of any consideration of students’ application of genre knowledge beyond the immediate classroom context.

If student interactions with texts—whether those texts be “models” or simply “samples”—are so influential in non-writing classroom settings (as these studies, for example, suggest), one might believe that such interactions are also important within the writing classroom. It is, after all, in this space that students are very often given samples and that such samples are explicitly discussed. As I traced student writing in WCGS, it soon became clear that the texts to which they were exposed played a very important role in developing their knowledge of an unfamiliar genre. One such example was the writers’ engagement in the writing assignment of a self-promotional genre: a job application cover letter.

Job Application Cover Letters as a Genre

As junior scientific researchers, Chatri, Paul, John, and Yoshi repeatedly spoke of the disciplinary value of remaining objective and impersonal in one’s writing. Through years of writing lab reports, research reports, and classroom assignments, they had become accustomed to avoiding any mention of themselves in their writing. Therefore, the job application cover letter assignment in WCGS introduced a fairly new rhetorical purpose to these writers: to promote themselves, rather explicitly, to their readers.

Certainly, scientific texts like research articles do require authors to self-promote or market themselves, persuading readers that they are legitimate and credible members of the discipline (Hyland, 2000). In such texts, writers must illustrate their credibility through relatively subtle means such as displays of disciplinary knowledge or self-citation. Numerous other genres require writers to take more of a “hard-sell” approach, marketing themselves in addition to their work. This class of genres includes, for example, résumés, job application letters, graduate school statements of purpose, or fellowship applications. In composing these sorts of texts, writers need to know how to promote themselves effectively within a specific rhetorical context, balancing the boundary between confidence and arrogance.

Studies of self-promotional genres in general, and job application cover letters in particular, are scarce. Swales and Feak (2000) describe these letters as supporting a research career, “primarily designed to get the ‘right’ academic people in the ‘right’ positions” (p. 257). Job application letters are also included in Swales’ (1996) list of “occluded genres,” which encompass genres that share several characteristics: they are typically formal, kept on file, written for very specific audiences, often highly evaluative, often concerned with promoting the author (and his or her scholarship), and often occluded from the public. While the cover letter meets several of these criteria, it lacks the defining feature of occlusion. Through reference books, career centers, advisors, and, most importantly, the Internet, examples of this genre are readily available—and, as I’ll show throughout this chapter, these resources can have a significant impact on writers who are relatively new to the genre.

Bhatia’s (1993, 1999) work provides the most extensive discussion of the job application cover letter from a genre perspective. Bhatia (1993) focuses on communicative purpose as the defining element of the cover letter genre, and he analyzes the rhetorical structure of an exemplar, drawing parallels between the job application letter and the sales promotion letter. Bhatia claims that the most important function of this type of letter is to show a favorable and relevant description of the job candidate. In other words, the writer’s task is to persuade the readers that he or she is competent and possesses those credentials that are of particular importance to the job at hand.

In his application of generic move analysis to job application letters, Bhatia (1993, p. 62) identifies a typical seven-part structure (see Figure 3.1). He describes “Indicating value of candidature” as the key step, as it is here that the writer attempts to persuade readers that he or she has the relevant experience, qualifications, or background for the position. While Bhatia provides no details regarding the corpus on which this structure is based, he exemplifies it through a letter written for a lectureship in Britain. This generic structure is, however, influenced by socio-cultural factors within any given context. Drawing on a corpus of South Asian scholarship and job application letters, for example, Bhatia (1996) identifies self-degradation as a frequently used strategy in the closing move of a letter.

1. Establishing credentials

2. Introducing candidature

a. Offering candidature

b. Essential detailing of candidature

c. Indicating value of candidature

3. Offering incentives

4. Enclosing documents

5. Using pressure tactics

6. Soliciting response

7. Ending politely

Figure 3.1. Move structure of job application letters identified in Bhatia (1993).

Using a corpus of 40 application letters written by native English speakers for a variety of jobs, Henry and Roseberry (2001) identify similar moves to those in Figure 3.1. Their analysis, however, goes further in identifying key lexical phrases common to different promotional strategies. They note, for example, the high frequency of paired nouns, verbs, and adjectives that writers use to describe their relevant skills (e.g., “background and experience” or “assess and implement”). Awareness of common features like these, the authors argue, may help second language writers compose letters that resemble those written by their native-English-speaking peers. While resembling a conventional “native-like” letter may be a goal of many L2 writers, they are also likely to want to assert an individual identity within their letters, standing out as distinct in some ways—and this is, of course, another important goal and rhetorical move of job application letters.

Beyond these studies of generic form, job application letters have not received any significant research attention—a fact that is somewhat surprising given their relative prominence in professional writing course curricula (particularly at the undergraduate level) as well as the weight that these documents often carry in a tight marketplace. Studies of the procedural dimensions of these genres in different domains would be particularly valuable. Outside of the classroom, cover letters, for example, are connected to a whole range of oral and social interactions, ranging from requesting a reference, to contacting potential employers, to more general networking. The genres act as links in a genre chain that might include job advertisements, requests for more information, interviews, thank-you letters, and acceptance and rejection letters. At various stages of this genre chain are nodes to other genres, such as reference letters, employer websites, job search websites, reference books, and online tutorials. There are also the countless social interactions that serve to build writers’ repertoires of ideas about what is effective, ineffective, desirable, or discouraged in preparing these documents.

In addition, job application letters are linked to résumés or CVs in an intertextual generic set. Bhatia (1993) describes the letter as the applicant’s opportunity to demonstrate his or her qualifications for the job by clarifying the contents of the résumé. In Bhatia’s conception, the résumé is dependent on the letter because it cannot persuade the reader on its own; it is the evidence for the claims made in the letter. Furthermore, the letter is often more variable than the résumé, as writers have even more choices about what content they may include or exclude for specific audiences.

This dependence of one genre upon another illustrates the relationship among genres in a genre set. A genre set may, for example, consist of a core genre (or genres) on which other genres are dependent. While the core genre may serve as the primary document of the system, other genres are important in navigating the system and improving the effectiveness of the core genre. I will refer to these supporting genres as linked genres, as a way to emphasize their dependence on another genre. Such linked genres require that writers have knowledge of multiple genres (the linked genre and the core genre) within the network. To Bhatia (1993), the cover letter is a core genre and the résumé is a linked genre; as shown later in this chapter, the writers I followed did not always share this relational view.

Previous Knowledge

Chatri, Yoshi, John, and Paul all came to the writing classroom with no previous experience in writing job application cover letters. That said, they did bring different understandings of the genre (along with its linked genre, the résumé) to their first encounters in the writing classroom.

Chatri had neither seen nor written a cover letter prior to the writing course, and in fact said he had not heard the term before. He had written a Thai résumé when applying for the research job he had held in Thailand, and he wrote an English-language résumé when he applied for a position as a research assistant (RA) at Midwest University, but he had not heard of a cover letter accompanying these documents. As a student near the start of a five-year (or longer) doctoral program, Chatri did not appear to see any immediate need for the genre.

Although Yoshi had written his first English-language résumé in cram school in Japan, he did not practice writing cover letters at that time. In contrast to the other writers, however, Yoshi had seen cover letters on Internet websites, and he had written what he described as “a tiny cover letter” (September 23, 2003) when applying to graduate schools. The WCGS assignment was his first real experience writing a job application cover letter. While the other writers seemed quite skeptical about whether or not they would ever write a cover letter, Yoshi believed that if he were to apply for a job in the U.S., he would use a letter similar to what he had written in WCGS. The chances of this happening in the near future, however, were slim, as Yoshi was required to return to his position in Japan upon completion of his master’s program.

Like the other writers, John had written his first résumé in English before the WCGS assignment. He found that he needed a résumé to respond to a variety of interactions with his professors:

. . . every time I went to talk to a professor about anything, he or she would say, “Do you have a résumé?” So I got tired of that, so I just made up a résumé. So that was basically what [my original résumé] was for. Sometimes I would talk to them about getting an RA position or something, so that was probably the main reason I made a résumé. (September 20, 2002)

Because he had always given his résumé to others in person, or accompanied them with an application form, John had no prior need to write a cover letter.

Though Paul similarly had no prior cover letter experience, his job application experience in general was broader than the other four writers. Before coming to the U.S., Paul had worked at a “dot.com” company in China where he was at one point responsible for some hiring; he therefore had some insight into an employer’s perspective in the job hiring process. In the U.S., Paul had written and used an English-language résumé twice before the WCGS unit: once when applying to graduate school in the U.S. and once when applying for a summer internship during the first year of his master’s program. As is typical, these documents were attached to an application form and statement of purpose rather than a letter. Paul had—unsurprisingly—not heard of a cover letter before the WCGS unit. In fact, during the same time as this class unit, Paul also attended a workshop led by a major computer company (referred to here as “Micron”) in which professionals spoke to computer science students about résumés and the job application process. Even in this workshop, he was not made aware of the role that cover letters often play in job searching.

The writers’ novice background with this genre was typical of the other students in the class and in my experience is also typical for many international graduate students studying in the U.S. One possible reason for this shared lack of experience with cover letters is that genres—that is, the typified response to a recurring rhetorical situation—are realized in different ways in different social and cultural contexts. Some countries, for example, carry out this action (introducing a job application) through other textual means, such as application forms or oral interactions. For students from such countries, the cover letter—including its formal, rhetorical, and process dimensions—will be unfamiliar. A second possible reason that this genre was so new to the writers that I followed could lie in their own histories and trajectories. Even in the U.S., where cover letters are fairly common, college students, graduate students, and first-time job seekers often get by without writing them. Job fairs, on-line job sites, and social networks all provide rhetorical scenes that can make the cover letter an unnecessary genre. In other words, many U.S. graduate students may also have no prior experience writing cover letters, though they would most likely have heard of them before and perhaps even seen them.

Cover Letters in the Writing Classroom

In WCGS, the résumé and cover letter were presented as linked genres and were turned in together as one assignment; nevertheless, the procedural or rhetorical relationships between the two texts was never explained or discussed in depth in the classroom. Michele told me that she chose to teach these texts because she felt they were “indicative of the very weird American discourse forms” (August 28, 2002) and provided an opportunity to focus on related grammatical conventions of form like gapping and parallelism. She sequenced this unit after the first course assignment—a writer’s autobiography—because she felt it represented a natural progression from a more informal and personal way of writing about oneself to a more formal and public style. In teaching the cover letter, Michele wanted to provide the students with a range of samples written in different contexts and with practice in adapting those samples to their own needs. An additional goal was to help students become more familiar with what Michele called the nuances of language, particularly in relation to describing oneself. She saw this as a difficult rhetorical task which she hoped to help students become more successful in.

The résumé/cover letter unit was covered in 11 class days (see Table 3.1), including one-on-one conferences that took the place of several class sessions. The four writers that I followed attended each class session and both of the conferences in this unit. While Michele made use of many instructional strategies for awareness-raising, typical to genre-based pedagogy, she never used the term genre during this unit, nor did she ever explicitly discuss how the awareness-raising strategies might be applied to other genres.

Table 3.1 WCGS schedule for unit on résumés and cover letters.

Day	Date	Topic
1	Sept. 9	CV/résumé contents
2	Sept. 11	CV/résumé contents; gapping
3	Sept. 13	CVs vs. résumés; parallelism; peer editing
4 & 5	Sept. 16 & 17	One-on-one conference with CV/Résumé
6	Sept. 20	Sample cover letters
7	Sept. 23	Cover letter templates; formality and language
8	Sept. 25	Cover letter format and structure in different contexts
9	Sept. 27	Discussion of cover letter samples; peer editing; email requests
10 & 11	Sept. 30 & Oct. 2	One-on-one conference with cover letter

Because few of the students were familiar with cover letters, most of the class sessions on Days 6 through 9 were spent examining and discussing sample letters. By presenting students with a wide range of examples, Michele hoped that they could select what they liked from various letters. Six of these sample texts were job application letters, including three written for jobs in industry, one for a graduate research assistantship, one for a postdoctoral position in molecular biology, and one for an assistant professor position in rhetoric and composition. In addition, Michele provided three cover letters of request asking a professor for a letter of recommendation, and four email request letters, with varying requests. She included these non-job application letters for the benefit of John, who would be writing this type of a “request cover letter” as he prepared applications for PhD programs. To some extent, then, the term “cover letter” was used somewhat ambiguously and its various uses and forms were never fully teased out within the classroom. However, because “the cover letter” was situated within a unit related to job applications, most of the students interpreted the term to be equated with job application letters.

On Day 7 of the unit, Michele distributed two quite different job application letters and asked the students to work in pairs to create a “template for a generic cover letter” (Class notes, September 23, 2002) based on their observations of the samples. Two pairs of students wrote their templates on the board; these are reproduced in Figure 3.2. As the figure shows, both pairs identified a similar basic format of (1) self-introduction/purpose for writing, (2) qualifications and experience, and (3) closing remarks. Their structures generally mirror Bhatia’s (1993) moves of establishing credentials, introducing candidature, enclosing documents (found only in John’s and Tae’s template), and ending politely. They exclude his moves of offering incentives, using pressure tactics, and soliciting response—the first two of which Bhatia claims are less common.

Much classroom discussion also centered on specific sentences in the sample letters and the ways in which they may be interpreted by readers. Michele frequently asked questions that explored relationships between formal and rhetorical features of the genre, such as “What are the differences between the letters for different types of jobs” or “How much of a specialist would you need to be to understand this?” Discussions addressed the formal language style and the connections between style and intended audience. The students generally preferred the shorter letters for more general audiences. In fact, there was strong negative reaction to a sample letter written for an academic position in the humanities. In commenting on this letter, these engineering and science students disliked both the high frequency of jargon and the lengthy prose.

On Days 8 and 9, Michele extended the discussion of cover letters to request letters, including requests for letters of recommendation (attached to a résumé) and email requests. The former were included to address the needs of one student, John, who was hoping to request letters of recommendation from some of his professors. Michele also recognized that requests can be rhetorically challenging, so she incorporated a 20-minute classroom activity in which students examined four email requests that she had received. She asked students to read the emails and try to determine the relationship between the sender and receiver, in terms of familiarity and status, exploring the ways in which social relationships are indexed through texts. Students noted variations in word choice and formality, and asked about how common different phrases were. The inclusion of letters of request may have helped students to draw connections between this genre and the job application letter, but, as I shall show later in this chapter, only John made these connections explicit in discussing the assignment with me.

The WCGS classroom discussions were interesting to observe for several reasons. They showed that the writers did have preferences for some forms over others, despite being unfamiliar with the genre. In some cases, such as the reaction to the lengthy humanities job application letter, these preferences may have been influenced by the discourses of their hard science disciplinary backgrounds. For example, the long sentences and paragraphs of the humanities letter are likely to contrast rather sharply with the hard science preference for more concise text. The classroom discussions also gave students a chance to see how their peers and instructor reacted to the different texts, or even to very specific phrases within those texts. While the students often came to these discussions with preferences, their preferences may also have been shaped in part by the discussions themselves, as they listened to the reactions of others. As I later traced the writers’ cover letter practices, the classroom discussion re-emerged in interesting ways through both their texts and their comments, as I shall illustrate in the next section.

Cover Letter Knowledge Building: Four Cases

Each of the four writers experienced the résumé/cover letter assignment uniquely, according to their own prior experience and immediate needs. In order to best capture some of these distinctions, I describe their experiences individually, beginning with Chatri and then Yoshi, the two writers who made no use of the cover letter genre outside of the classroom. Next, I describe John’s experience, which included a very immediate need to write a “request cover letter” during the semester he was enrolled in WCGS. Finally, I provide a more detailed description of Paul’s experiences, over a six-month period in which the cover letter became an increasingly important and more high-stakes genre for him.

Chatri: Writing Text, Forming Preferences

Of the four writers, Chatri seemed to be the least immediately invested in the cover letter. Because he already held a stable RA position and was obliged to return to a Thai university upon completion of his PhD, he did not foresee any immediate situations in which he would write such a letter. Again, Chatri had not heard of a cover letter before WCGS, but after the class sessions in this unit had finished, he was able to give a very general description of the use and rhetorical goal of the genre, describing it as a letter that covers a résumé and introduces a candidate. He had also developed some understanding of the letter as a linked genre. He distinguished the résumé and cover letter in terms of the work they required of the reader, explaining that the reader must infer meaning from a résumé, but the writer does this task for the reader in a cover letter. The letter that Chatri composed for WCGS was written in response to a year-old job posting on Honda’s website. In his conference with Michele, he explained that he could not actually apply for the position, and that it was “just for the class” (Conference #3, October 2, 2002).

In the relatively short space of time in which the class focused on cover letters, Chatri developed an awareness of what kind of subject matter should be included and in what order. He described it as something like a template:

Okay, the format is the first paragraph should be introduce myself, I’m a student, or what I want, why I write the letter. Just only I think three sentence is okay. And then the next paragraph is try to tell about my experience or tell that why my qualification is okay for this position. Actually, this can try from the CV, but I think just write only short paragraph to tell about me. And then the ending paragraph is just, I think it’s typical that, “Okay, I feel that your company is really good. I hope that you will accept me.” Or something like that. (October 2, 2002)

After writing his first draft, but before receiving feedback on it, Chatri was still unsure about some of the genre’s conventions of form. For example, he didn’t know the meaning of “enclosure” written at the bottom of the page or whether he should include his signature in the space between “Yours sincerely” and his printed name. Chatri also did not know whether to introduce himself by name in the first sentence. With this issue he differentiated between a paper-based cover letter, in which he thought it was appropriate to begin by stating his name, and an electronic cover letter, in which he thought he should not include this information. Chatri’s questions here give a sense that he is still trying to make sense of the genre as it is used for real purposes. Without any experience reading or writing cover letters to actually obtain a job, he can only make guesses at this point about the appropriacy of various formal conventions.

In discussing some of the sample texts distributed in WCGS, Chatri illustrated his emerging rhetorical understanding, including the roles that readers and writers may play when encountering the genre. For example, he commented on one sentence from a sample cover letter that he felt was inappropriate and may anger the reader: I will follow up next week by phone to see if we can set up an interview.

Chatri: I don’t think it’s suitable. I think that he [is trying to] convince someone to meet this guy, “Okay, I will call you to ask about the result of my application.” Because I think it’s- [if] someone don’t interest this guy, he just ignore, not contact, and that’s it.

Chris: So you wouldn’t do that?

Chatri: I will not do it! [laughing] Sometime I think it will make this guy angry, I think. (October 10, 2002)

He also ventured some guesses regarding the reading practices surrounding the genre. He felt that as an employer, he would likely read only the first paragraph of the letter to look for key information:

Everyone knows that the [cover letter] is just an introduction, and what’s important is CV. Because it’s easier to look in the CV. We don’t have to read the sentence, just, “Okay, PhD, okay, from this school, master from this school. What’s the work experience? And how many publications, and which publications?” And for my case, I would read only this. (October 2, 2002)

Chatri’s reading practices, as he described them to me, may not be typical. In some contexts—such as academic job searches—the cover letter may be quite important to readers; however, what Chatri illustrates here is a growing awareness of how the CV and cover letter genres work together and how they may be read for a given purpose. His description above also reflects some of his own values about what is important in judging a candidate’s qualifications. For example, it may be notable that Chatri did not refer to the cover letter’s role as a writing sample or a glimpse into the character of the job candidate. At this point, he seemed to view the cover letter primarily as a functional document that helped guide the reader through the CV.

During the three-week class unit on résumés and cover letters, then, Chatri was just beginning to form an understanding of the genre. He had developed a template-like awareness of the form and content, preferences for some forms over others, and some nascent knowledge of the procedural practices around the genre. However, he focused very little on rhetorical context when discussing the cover letter with me or Michele, and he did not distinguish between academic and business cover letters as he had with the CV/résumé. Neither did he focus heavily on the intended action of the cover letter—that is, self-promotion. While Chatri seemed to have this overarching purpose in mind, he lacked an urgent need to shape his letter to a specific audience for a specific position. Because this assignment constituted Chatri’s first exposure to the genre, it is likely that he would extend his knowledge through subsequent exposures and practices.

As Chatri developed his understanding of cover letters, classroom activities in WCGS played an important role. Because he had not encountered cover letters previously and did not seek information about them outside of class, the discussions and texts from WCGS served as his primary resource for knowledge development of this genre. Although some of this knowledge may have been developed by applying his knowledge of other genres (like résumés), WCGS provided an opportunity for him to make these connections. Through classroom discussion and activities, Chatri learned a basic structure for a cover letter and developed a sense of readers’ reactions to different writing styles and approaches to the genre, thus helping him to develop some knowledge of the genre’s form, rhetorical strategies, content, and procedural practices.

By far Chatri’s most important strategy for learning about cover letters, though, was the use of sample texts. Chatri explained that he referred to the samples from class to determine the format of his first draft. He said the most difficult parts to write were the opening and closing paragraphs; to facilitate this challenge, he referred to two sample letters, borrowing their discursive structures as well as specific textual fragments. Figure 3.3 illustrates the extent of Chatri’s textual borrowing in his opening paragraph, with the underlined sentences adapted from a sample cover letter for a job in industry. The overall structure of the two texts is identical, and many of Chatri’s sentences can be traced directly to the sample letter.

Sample Cover Letter from WCGSI am a PhD candidate in Biomedical Engineering (degree anticipated June 1999). I am writing in response to the Biomaterials Engineering position posted on your company’s web site. I understand that you seek a candidate who has experience prototyping of an implantable drug delivery device, as well as with biomaterials, tissue interactions, and impurity identification. I hope you will agree that my qualifications and experience meet your needs.

Chatri’s First Draft Cover LetterMy name is Chatri Boonmee, a PhD student in school of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Midwest University. I am writing in response to your advertisement in ‘Research Internship Positions at Honda R&D Fundamental Research Labs.’ I understand that you are seeking a candidate who has research experience in Computer Vision area. I hope that my qualifications will meet your requirement.

Figure 3.3. Opening paragraphs from industry cover letter and Chatri’s WCGS cover letter. Shared words are underlined.

Chatri also borrowed structures and text fragments from multiple samples when composing the closing paragraph. Several of the WCGS samples, for example, referred to the writer’s interest in the company in or near the final paragraph. Chatri adopted this same structure and integrated it with the final paragraph of a second sample letter written for a post-doctoral position in science. Figure 3.4 illustrates Chatri’s creative use of this sample letter and later revisions between his first and second drafts.

Sample Cover Letter from WCGSI have enclosed a copy of my curriculum vitae, together with the three manuscripts and have arranged for three letters of reference to be forwarded to you. I look forward to hearing from you soon. If you require any further information please write, call or contact me by e-mail on: johnsonmh@musc.edu.

Chatri’s First Draft Cover LetterI feel that many of your company research topics are very interesting. And, I think that if I will be able to expand my research skill with your company I will also be able to use the knowledge that I will obtain there to improve the quality of my PhD research. I also have enclosed a copy of my curriculum vitae. If you require any more information please feel free to contact me by e-mail on: name@Midwest.edu. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Chatri’s Second Draft Cover LetterI feel that many of your company research areas are very interesting especially the topic about vision system for humanoid robot which I think that my current research topic can be applied to develop more robust algorithms for this project. Additionally, I think that if I will be able to expand my research skill with your company, I will also be able to use the knowledge that I will obtain there to improve the quality of my PhD research. I also have enclosed a copy of my curriculum vitae. If you require any more information please feel free to contact me by e-mail on: name@Midwest.edu. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Figure 3.4. Closing paragraphs from post-doc sample cover letter (left column) and Chatri’s first draft (right column). Words borrowed from the sample cover letter are underlined. Words shared in both drafts one and two are italicized.

While much of Chatri’s writing here is borrowed from the closing paragraph of the sample letter, part of it is also borrowed from the opening paragraph of the same sample:

I have found your studies on viral proteases to be fascinating and I feel that while I will be able to contribute expertise to your project I will also be able to develop and expand my understanding of inhibitor function. (Sample letter)

And, I think that if I will be able to expand my research skill with your company I will also be able to use the knowledge that I will obtain there to improve the quality of my PhD research. (Chatri’s letter, first draft)

After writing this initial draft, however, Chatri remained uncertain about the effectiveness of this sentence, so he asked Michele about it in their one-on-one conference. Their discussion, as the excerpt here illustrates, gave him more confidence in retaining the sentence but also prompted him to expand this closing paragraph in additional ways:

Chatri: Do you like this sentence [And, I think that if I will be able to expand . . . ] or not? Because, actually, I saw from the example that you gave me, but I think that because the intern position normally we don’t make some contribution so much to the company, just practice the skill or something—

Michele: -yeah, so they’re hoping to nurture future researchers.

Chatri: -then, I come up with some sentence that “I think that if I will be able to-“

Michele: Yeah, I like that. Like I say, I think it’s good that it’s all there. I just think you need, um, maybe here where you say, “Many of your company’s research areas very interesting,” like specifically what about them do you find interesting?

Chatri: I see.

Michele: That might give them more of a sense of how you’re going to contribute.

Chatri: Oh.

Michele: Because I think you’re right. For a lot of these internship positions, it seems to me they don’t really expect you to be totally contributing to the company, because otherwise they just give you a job instead of an internship. But you’d still want to know—

Chatri: I see, so some specific topic or project—

Michele: that they’re working on. If you know of any. I mean, since this is all hypothetical, you might not know. (Conference, October 2, 2002)

The final version of Chatri’s closing paragraph, then, is a coordinated mixing of two sample letters and oral feedback from Michele, as well as his own preferences and goals.

The borrowing of words and phrases from the sample letters is found most commonly with what might be considered to be formulaic or conventionalized phrases. Many of these phrases were new to Chatri, and the samples provided him with a kind of scaffolding for composing his letter:

I don’t know what kind of meaning of some sentences, and I have to look to copy something. “I’m writing in response to your advertisement.” I use this kind of sentence in my cover letter. And I think “In response to you . . .” Actually, if I didn’t see the example of this, I will not write this sentence because I don’t know what the meaning of this. And also in the final paragraph, I also have to see from the example. For the second paragraph, it just tell about me. It’s not too difficult. (October 2, 2002)

Chatri went so far as to say that without the formulaic phrase “I’m writing in response to . . .” he would not know how to begin the letter. Textual fragments like these guided him through the rhetorical maneuvering of the opening and closing of the letter—moves that seemed to pose particular challenges for Chatri as a novice to the genre.

Chatri’s primary strategy for learning this new genre became mining sample texts for conventional phrases and discursive structures. By reading a variety of samples, he developed a preference for some styles over others, and he was able to adapt the samples’ generic structures and actual words creatively in composing a text that matched his own sense of the genre. In the subsequent year and a half, Chatri did not have any opportunities to write a cover letter, so one can only guess what he retained from the assignment and the practice. Nevertheless, at the completion of the WCGS course, Chatri commented that the cover letter assignment was useful because, in his words, “we have to show some writing skill” (December 2, 2002).

Yoshi: Borrowing Identities

Unlike the other writers, Yoshi had seen examples of cover letters through websites and electronic mailing lists that he belonged to, yet he had never written a cover letter himself. Although this was a relatively new genre for him, he found it somewhat similar to another self-promotional genre—the graduate school statement-of-purpose essay:

I think [the statement of purpose is a kind of cover letter, but statement of purpose is too long, so I have to write [this] using letter style and too short one. Statement of purpose is also too difficult to organize. (September 23, 2002)

Despite this past experience with U.S.-style self-promotional genres, Yoshi was indeed a novice to this type of writing, and he began the WCGS unit with more questions than answers.

When planning his cover letter for WCGS, Yoshi told me that he would first choose a “virtual” target audience, writing his letter to apply for an advertised job. After having written his first draft, Yoshi illustrated his growing understanding of the genre, describing his letter as follows:

Cover letter is to apply academic job or industry job. Introduce oneself and . . . generally, the cover letter is attached to the documents, and give brief introduction and background. And this time, the object of the cover letter is to apply academic or industry job, so I wrote my brief- where I note the information and my background and descriptions. Then and finally my contact information. (October 16, 2002)

With the exception of the second sentence of his letter, Yoshi’s first draft generally follows the template presented by John and Tae in class (see Figure 3.5), which was (1) explain the purpose for writing, (2) explain your qualifications, (3) closing remarks, and (4) contact information. A revised second draft was unchanged except for the addition of a third paragraph that described Yoshi’s prior work experience in more specific detail. Yoshi’s letter in fact closely resembles the seven-part move structure outlined by Bhatia (1993), most particularly in the last three moves: using pressure tactics, soliciting response, and ending politely.

Bhatia’s (1993) MovesOffering candidatureEssential detailing of candidatureUsing pressure tacticsSoliciting responseEnding politely

Yoshi’s Letter, First DraftDear Mr. Greim,I am writing in response to the Simulation Engineer position posted on the High Frequency Measurements web site. Having been employed with Hitachi Ltd. previously, I know firsthand that your corporation is a strong and growing organization in which I could meaningfully contribute the engineering and management experience I’ve gained through both education and experience.My academic career, work experience, and knowledge of simulation engineering have prepared me well for this position. I have studied electromagnetic field theory, transmission line theory, methods and tools for analyzing designs through academic and work experience.I am confident that we would find it mutually beneficial to discuss my qualifications face-to-face. I will phone your office at the end of next week to arrange an appointment. You are also welcome to contact me at the numbers on this letterhead. I look forward to meeting with you. Thank you for your time and consideration.

John and Tae’s TemplatePurpose for writingBackground and qualifica-tionsContact informationThanking

Figure 3.5. Yoshi’s first draft cover letter in WCGS.

The second sentence of the letter (“Having been employed . . .”) is especially noticeable because it makes an interesting rhetorical move that was not discussed in class. Here, Yoshi attempts to align his own experience with the company’s profile, revealing an awareness of the genre’s overarching purpose of self-promotion. In her writing conference with him, Michele commented that she found this sentence particularly effective. Yoshi explained to me that the sentence was in fact an excerpt borrowed from an Internet site that he had used as a resource:

I believe this is the truth, and I used the truth from their computer is good company, and so I use the fact. And I was looking for the perfect sentence to describe that one, and I found this sentence. And using- starting from “Having been . . . ,” not always starting the “I” or “You.” But I think this is more elegant than what I usually write. (October 16, 2002)

Yoshi also makes use of the lexical pattern of paired phrases found in Henry and Roseberry’s (2001) corpus of cover letters—for instance, “engineering and management experience” and “education and experience.” Use of such paired phrases may help emphasize an applicant’s attributes, but Yoshi’s use of these pairs appears to be more motivated by borrowing from sample letters that contained these phrases, as I’ll explain below.

One particularly interesting feature of Yoshi’s cover letter is the final paragraph in which he uses the “pressure tactics” described by Bhatia (1993). Yoshi explained to me that he liked the final paragraph of his cover letter, but he admitted that this was not the Japanese writing style that he was accustomed to:

I [would] never say this in Japanese [laughing], but if I- I felt this is a English cover letter, even [though] I don’t think this, but I’d better advocate like this. (October 16, 2002)

In fact, Yoshi commented rather extensively on the difficulty of promoting himself in an U.S.-style cover letter. He believed that the hardest part of writing such a document was “to describe myself objectively” (October 16, 2002) and to not come across as arrogant. He contrasted the Japanese style of self-promotion with the U.S. style, and he admitted that he felt awkward writing in the more aggressive U.S. style:

Japanese tend to write modestly [about] myself. But to write in English, you tend to write more aggressive- you’d better write aggressive. So I am not accustomed to write that way, so it is- I feel strange still. (October 16, 2002)

Specifically, he felt that the frequent use of “I” would sound selfish or arrogant in Japanese and would thus be avoided as much as possible in a Japanese letter.

This conflict in his own positioning as a writer seemed to pose the biggest challenge for Yoshi in writing the cover letter. Although he was aware of the conventions and expectations of the U.S.-style cover letter and was willing to adopt these conventions, he felt awkward in doing so. In the end, Yoshi’s understanding of the differences between the Japanese and English rhetorical writing styles in this genre may have led him to overcompensate in the final paragraph, which may strike many readers as overly confident. It may be that Yoshi was unaware of the tone established in this paragraph, or that he simply adopted another discursive identity when writing in English, at least for this particular task. The borrowing of others’ words became, in essence, the borrowing of an alternate identity.

After he had revised and turned in the final draft of his cover letter, Yoshi explained, “Through this experience, I learnt it is important to write a distinctive letter to get a job. Do you think that is right?” (October 16, 2002). He expressed knowledge of the larger application process in which a cover letter existed, saying that he believed the cover letter was a key to impressing the employee, which may then help the candidate secure an interview. When asked what he thought made a letter distinctive, Yoshi astutely responded, “one’s experience and the rhetoric to describe this more like the fact” (October 16, 2002). In Japan, on the other hand, he felt that issues such as pedigree, experience, and age would make a candidate stand out to employers.