Building Genre Knowledge. Christine Tardy
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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: [email protected]. | 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: [email protected]. 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: [email protected]. 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,