Genre-mixing in undergraduate nursing texts

Abstract

This study centres on genre-mixing, a burgeoning writing trend in undergraduate nursing texts. Genre-mixing refers to the process where writers draw on a range of linguistic tools, fracture generic boundaries and combine different genres giving rise to a hybrid or mixed genre text. Being interested in how nursing students construct a hybrid text when writing assignments, the primary question I investigated is: What does it mean to write a hybrid text as a student nurse writer? My core thesis argument is that hybrid writing which is both, generically broad in scope, and lexically and syntactically specific in purpose offers students the flexibility to deploy a broad spectrum of genres, as well as the rhetoric richness to address specific writing situations. To gather evidence to support this thesis, I researched the reflection essay, a mixed genre text that has become increasingly popular in nurse education. In my role as an Academic Literacy Advisor, working with nursing students I noticed that students are asked to write reflective essays, which involves applying nursing theories to practical situations, reflecting on those situations using a given reflective framework, and structuring the personal reflection as an essay. In constructing such an assignment, students are expected to combine the lexical, grammatical and structural features of a reflection and essay genre, thereby producing a hybrid text. Nonetheless, genre-mixing is a new type of writing task in nursing, and students’ lack of knowledge on how to mix genres, mould diverse language features and structure their text makes academic writing intimidating and exacting. Even though an overwhelming number of studies exist on the reflection and essay as mono-genres, research into the reflection essay as a mixed genre is conspicuously absent. Additionally, although academic writing has long been a major consideration in higher education, academic literacy instruction tends to model all forms of writing as mono-generic which negatively impacts writing potential. Hence, this study pivots around the writing needs of nursing students in relation to genre-mixing. Considering the dearth of research into genre-mixing, my study advances genre pedagogy by proving the existence of multi genres in academia. Study findings visually attest that international and domestic students are equally prone to literacy issues and owing to their unique linguistic and cultural identities warrant a more sustainable form of literacy support. I propose an inclusive approach, embedded in disciplinary curricula, contextualised to writing situations, and nuanced to specific genres. Such an embedded, contextualised, nuanced approach to literacy instruction is germane to academic writing and holds relevance to all disciplines. Leveraging genre-mixing allows students to clearly address textual goals and rhetorically manipulate their text to match the writing situation, making academic writing less intimidating, more coherent, meaningful and attainable.

Date of Award	2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Supervisor	David R. Cole (Supervisor)