In filing an application for a travel grant, I have been drafting a statement of the significance of MSA X for 1) my field of study, and 2) my career. I spend 40% of my workweek in the Writing Center engaging with student writing from a huge range of disciplines, but the moment I have to write in a new genre of I get as baffled and stammery as a freshman accidentally placed in a Russian history seminar.
We’re trained to understand that writers encountering a new genre will lose their mechanical and analytical aptitudes, but it’s been a few years since I’ve had this experience. (Note to any undergraduates who happen to be reading this: don’t be the first student to ask your young instructor to write a letter of recommendation.)
But here’s the thing: in the last year I’ve seen work from a half dozen students who write equally stylish dissertation proposals, grant requests, data analysis, and cover letters, and no doubt these same writers are crafting essay prompts, answering students’ emails, and reviewing peer work. Is this a skill—something trainable—or is it a kind of talent to be able to switch fluidly between genres of writing? Should multigeneric writers be held in the same esteem as polyglots?
(Edited 10/21 for clarity and expression.)
First, can I express my deep sympathy for you, and hatred for conference travel grant applications that ask for more than a few sentences of justification? My grad student government has a Byzantine application that requires not only justification from you, but a letter on letterhead from your advisor or dept. chair explaining why this conference is worthy of their travel funds. Strangely, the letter often closely resembles the justification — could it be because the letter is always written by the student and merely signed off on by the advisor? Nah.
But in the matter of genre fluency, I think there might be a few things at work… all of the genres you mention, with the exception of the dissertation proposal (and perhaps even that) are genres with very clear and obvious models. So perhaps these students are partly modeling their own writing very closely on existing templates?
But what genre fluency reminds me of more than linguistic fluency is social competency — the ability to mingle with very diverse groups of people and always be able to keep the conversation rolling. Both depend on the ability to change one’s voice and style for the occasion without losing a sense of groundedness. I’d be interested to learn whether these writers are also social experts… if so, maybe they can start running workshops for the rest of us!
That’s a persuasive connection, Kermit. I’ve heard it suggested that etiquette is nothing more than a kind of social fluency: if you’re able to fit in at a rave and at a seven-course French dinner without making the people around you feel awkward, you probably have the sort of empathy that makes you an apt writer in odd genres.
And there is something maybe a little bit infantilizing about these travel grants, as though our advisors are there as supplemental parents who must attest to the validity of our work before the University dares risk a few hundred dollars on a 30-year-old grad student traveling to a professional conference.
If you think you are seeing anything close to a first or even 10th draft, they are fooling you. I believe it’s all about perseverance in revision and that any new piece of work — whether in a new or a familiar genre — looks pretty crappy if you only have the self-discipline to revise it a smidge.
But then again, that may be my advisor’s philosophy being beaten into me (over many many drafts).