Journal Entry #9: Genres in Writing

Answers:

1) To discover the goals of the college the writer utilizes the activity theory. Powell studied how the students reacted and worked through the tensions they would come across in the activities systems. She researched how academic genres can limit what students write about.

2) To gather her data powell looked at how personality and environment influence how students write, or what they write about. Powell looks exclusively at the contradictions in students writings to collect her data.

3) Often times, a genre is assigned to students and students are required that students look at situations from a certain angle. This prevents students from applying their own styles of writing. It is because of this that students are in danger of losing their sense of self, only so that they might please their professor. Suggestions from their peers also tend to impact the outcome. this all weakens the students ability to think freely and critically.