Building Genre Knowledge. Christine Tardy

research, and they all decided to sign the Informed Consent Form. The class demographics were representative of the overall demographic of international graduate students enrolled at Midwest University; the majority were males from the Far East studying in fields like computer science, mechanical or electrical engineering, or biological-mechanical-electrical-micro-systems (known as “bioMEMS”).

      During the semester, the class members appeared to gradually become more and more accustomed to my presence, my notebook, and my small tape recorder. For the most part, I sat in the back corner of the classroom between two students, quietly taking notes. At times, however, I interacted more closely with class members. During their poster sessions, for example, I engaged them in short conversations about their work. Later in the semester, Michele on occasion asked for my ideas on a given topic that was being discussed in the class. Although these “intrusions” were minimal, I mention them because they illustrate that I was a constant presence in WCGS.

      The Writers

      The four writers whom I focus on in this book—Paul, John, Chatri, and Yoshi—were selected because of their willingness to participate in the research and to discuss and share their writing, and also because they together provided me with a range of backgrounds, interests, and experiences, without differing radically from one another. Paul and John were each beginning the second year of their master’s programs, while Yoshi was in his first year of a master’s program, and Chatri was beginning his fourth semester of a doctoral program. The four also differed in their professional experiences prior to my research; John and Paul had both begun their graduate work almost immediately after completing their undergraduate degrees, while Yoshi and Chatri both spent several years working before beginning their graduate studies in the United States. All four writers had completed all of their prior education in their home countries outside of the U.S. John, however, had lived in the U.S. from birth through elementary school. Their directions after completing their degrees were uncertain at the start of my study.

      The length of time that the writers participated in my research varied because of their different dates of graduation (see Figure 2). As John and Paul both left Midwest University after completing their master’s degrees, their participation ended earlier than Yoshi and Chatri. Below, I describe each writer in greater detail, providing further insight into their individual writing histories.

Aug. ’02	WCGS	John	Paul	Yoshi	Chatri
Sept. ’02
Oct. ’02
Nov. ’02
Dec. ’02
Jan. ’03
Feb. ’03
Mar. ’03
Apr. ’03
May ’03
June ’03
July ’03
Aug. ’03
Sept. ’03
Oct. ’03
Nov. ’03
Dec. ’03
Jan. ’04
Feb. ’04
Mar. ’04
Apr. ’04
May ’04
June ’04
July ’04

      Figure 2. Timeline of research participation for the four writers.

      Paul

      At the start of the study, Paul was beginning his second year in a master’s program in computer sciences. Paul’s interest in computer science dated back to his childhood when he loved playing computer games:

      As I mentioned, I like playing games very much. I think since the first computer appeared in China, I was playing, almost. My dad is also in this area, and actually he’s an expert on computer science. When I was a child, he brought a computer home and I played games on it. So I was getting interested in computer science. (September 3, 2002)

      A native of China, Paul finished his bachelor’s degree in engineering at a top Chinese university and then worked for one year at a computer company in China. He described this work as “very tiring” and decided that he wanted to continue his education instead of staying on at the company. He applied to Midwest University because of its reputation in computer science and because he had a friend at the school who had recommended it to him.

      In our first meeting, Paul explained that his research interest was “to investigate operating system and compare techniques to find the solution for hand-held device. The goal is to reduce energy consumption” (September 3, 2002). In his first year in the master’s program, he began working as a Research Assistant (RA) on a research team with five other graduate students and a professor—all Chinese. Though the group all shared a native language and home country, they always spoke in English when the advisor was in the lab. The collegial atmosphere of his research group seemed to play a major role in Paul’s interest in staying on for doctoral work in the CS program:

      . . . because both my colleagues and my advisor are very nice, and they also help me while I encounter some difficulty. I think I learned many things from them since I come here. And I think I will continue to make progress if I stay here. (September 3, 2002)

      At the beginning of my study, Paul was already well on his way to continuing in the graduate program, having completed three of the four required qualifying exams for PhD students. However, within a few months after the start of my study—halfway through the second year of his master’s program—Paul had begun to lose interest in continuing his graduate education. He saw his own strengths and interests as more aligned with the type of work he could do in industry than with that done in academe:

      . . . I think I am not an academic people. Doing research for me is difficult. Not difficult- I know how to work on the project, but the research needs more patience [laughing] and lots of time you cannot come up with any conclusions. For the purpose of writing paper, the research is good because you can read some corrections you cannot answer now. You present some work currently you have. But I think I more like to come up with very completed conclusions and a solution to put it into industry. That’s what I’m interested in. So [laughing] I think that I will not go on to PhD. (December 12, 2002)

      Paul reiterated this sentiment repeatedly throughout my study.

      An additional reason for completing his education at the master’s level was that Paul’s research interests no longer seemed to fit with those of his advisor. He was hesitant, however, to change advisors in order to work with someone in another area:

      Also, I think that, to say the truth, I don’t very like the area I’m currently in. I think, I don’t know, maybe it’s difficult or- I don’t know. [laughing] So, I will not go on for the PhD. And I haven’t think about looking for another advisor, I haven’t think about it. I just want to finish my master’s degree. (December 12, 2002)

      With or without a PhD, Paul described his long-term goal as working as a programmer for a computer game company. His true love was program analysis and experimental work.

      Whether or not Paul decided to continue for a PhD, the major requirement for completing his master’s degree was to write a master’s thesis. During the first half of my research, the requirements for the thesis still seemed rather mysterious and vague to Paul, though he believed that his advisor would be playing a prominent role in terms of giving feedback. By the sixth month of my study, though, Paul had started becoming nervous about his thesis. He had hoped to conduct research on the area of inter-network security, but without any promising results in his experiments, he was unable to focus on a specific topic. Five months later, when his thesis had been completed, Paul had an increased sense of confidence in writing in English and a sense that he would be able to tackle whatever future writing tasks he encountered.

      Prior to coming to the U.S., Paul had written papers in English courses, a bachelor’s thesis in Chinese, and some internal company documents in Chinese. He had also translated into English the abstract of his thesis and a peer’s short master’s thesis. The summer before my research began and at school breaks during the study, Paul worked as an intern at a local computer software company. In this position, he wrote regular progress reports and memos to document his work. At the start of WCGS, Paul described most of his English-language writing as email communication with