The Syllabus Genre
What does the syllabus say about teachers and students?
So it’s getting to be that time of the summer for those of us who teach in post-secondary schools. Classes at my university start next week, and syllabuses must be prepared. To delay my own prepping a little longer, allow me to do a bit of commenting on the syllabus — that first-day-of-classes document that teachers hand to students with course requirements and information about the semester.
I find the syllabus especially revealing for how genres reflect and shape their contexts. I use it as an example on the first day of classes when I’m teaching anything genre-based, from first-year writing classes to graduate seminars.
Take a look at my standard syllabus first page. I’m sure I learned this formatting and organization from my supervisors and other teachers when I was a newbie. Notice what comes first.
After the course title comes the instructor’s information — name, contact info, office hours. As my first-year students point out, that makes sense since they do need to know how to contact me. Genres do develop as they do…
