An 'Odd Couple' for Teaching Writing: The Tutorial Takes in the Committee Meeting

Abstract

Writing courses are increasingly popular in higher education. This paper presents a pedagogic approach that combines theory and practice, in an accessible way, to help students appreciate the interrelation of styles and contexts, and develop skills for writing in a range of genres. The approach is characterised as "adaptive application". It is illustrated by the modification of a traditional tutorial group structure to provide a new setting in which students can immediately apply key terms of rhetorical theory as they negotiate differentiated experiences as writers, readers, speakers, and listeners. This change in classroom practice is achieved by adopting and adapting the roles, organizational genres, and communication conventions of the committee meeting. The resultant hybrid form of committee-tutorial assists students to engage collegially in the disciplinary study and practice of writing. It also encourages them to consider how they may transfer their understanding of rhetorical principles and techniques to writing endeavours in other scholarly and social settings.