This historical overview of the study of genre offers interdisciplinary perspectives from rhetorical theory, applied linguistics, sociology, philosophy, cognitive psychology, and literary theory. It describes key issues and theories in the field over the past 30 years, explores possibilities for using genre to teach writing at various levels, and provides examples of methods for conducting genre research. The section on genre research in multiple contexts examines international research conducted in academic, workplace, public, and new media contexts. In the section on genre approaches to teaching writing, approaches are divided into two categories: multiple pedagogical approaches (the ways genre scholars have used genre to support writing instruction in the US and other countries), and rhetorical genre-studies approaches, with a focus on how to develop students' genre knowledge in first-year composition courses. Bawarshi is director of the Expository Writing Program at the University of Washington. Reiff teaches English at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Annotation 2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
