Transitions : Writing in Academic and Workplace Settings

This volume explores how written communication is structured and functions within academic and workplace contexts, how and to what extent writing in the university is preparation for writing in the workplace, and how classroom and workplaces constitute arenas for learning to write.

This volume explores how written communication is structured and functions within academic and workplace contexts, how and to what extent writing in the university is preparation for writing in the workplace, and how classroom and workplaces constitute arenas for learning to write. Working from a qualitative approach, the research reported in this volume concentrates on university disciplines concerned with professional preparation and on related work settings. The chapters capture various transitions from one rhetorical context to another; within the university; from one course to another; from university to workplace; and from one genre to another. In sequence, the chapters follow a movement outward from the classroom to the working world: chapter 1 offers an activity theory analysis of a university classroom, and chapter 10 uses genre theory to consider the process of learning a new genre in the workplace. In between, chapters provide glimpses into moments and locations that mark the transition from writing at school to writing at work. The volume marks an important step toward redefining how academic resources for work preparation should be redeployed and how workplace practices regarding writing might shift.