The professional is a teacher at a local high school. Common documents in the genre system include syllabus, lecture notes, reading notes, lesson plans, assignment sheets, and email notes for the students, exam questions and grading sheets. Other documents that are likely to be found in the activity system include lecture notes, notes on assignments, queries to the teacher, drafts of assignments, exam answers, clarifications on syllabus and complete assignments among others (Bazerman, p. 25). To write and read these texts, one needs to understand that the system has two major players who are the teacher and the student. The role of the teacher is to instruct the student through their course work which begins with the syllabus and is followed by lectures, and assignments which lead to exams, grading and recommendation to proceed to the next level.
There are various values and priorities that guide the teacher’s activity system. The teacher acts as a source of guidance for the student, and therefore, effective communication is paramount. The teacher is also the figure of authority in the system, and the student treats the teacher with respect, and the teacher’s priority is to ensure that students learn, pass their grades and move to the next grade, so as to accomplish the work of the system which is to educate students. The teacher is expected to offer the student assistance. To be successful in the activity system, one needs to understand the audience . The grade of the students determines the level of language that the teacher can use with the students. A teacher should also have the ability to find out when they are being understood by the students and when more clarification is needed. The teacher needs to have skills in communication as well as act as a figure of authority. Teachers are at times forced to play other roles which are not in their job description to ensure that their students pass.
Annotated Bibliography
Bazerman, C. (n.d.). Speech Acts, Genres, and Activity Systems. Retrieved from University of California, Santa Barbara: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact =8&ved=0ahUKEwjQ6o3clpnOAhUGuhQKHZJZDHoQFggnMAE&url=http:%2F%2F mina.education.ucsb.edu%2Fbazerman%2Fchapters%2F04c.genresmeth.doc&usg=AFQj CNG3HCJkfltIyyGujnPlhc7SKU31aA&sig2=4ou
Bazerman describes how the use of content in texts is used to create meaning in the world along with other texts which include graphics. Language is a major resource in the relaying of the messages from these texts to the intended audience. The article also examines how texts are created and the impact of these texts on the world. The article contributes to the research by demonstrating the role that texts play in the world and how they achieve this purpose. Bazerman also describes how these texts are part of the organization and how they help to maintain the cycle and order for the organization.
Devitt, A. J. (2008). Writing genres. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Devitt explains in his book that genres and activity systems are created by people through discourse and the context or rhetorical situation. Genres are therefore used by people to define and create situations. Genre demonstrates how writers, speakers, readers and listeners are influenced by the context of situations around them. These genres exist in group settings, and a group cannot rely on a single genre, hence the existence of genre sets.
Spinuzzi, C. (2004, May 5). Describing Assemblages: Genre Sets, Systems, Repertoires, and Ecologies. Retrieved from University of Texas: http://www.dwrl.utexas.edu/sites/www.dwrl.utexas.edu/files/assemblages.pdf
Spinuzzi acknowledges the existence of assemblages in various genres which include genres, genre sets, ecologies and repertoires. There are certain aspects that enable us to understand the different genres. These aspects include the perspective, the agency, the model of action, relationship between genres in a certain genre set, and the foreground genres. These aspects are further driven by the agenda behind the genre.
