About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

28 Barry L. Rev. 1 (2023)

handle is hein.journals/barry28 and id is 1 raw text is: 
: Genre Discovery 2.0


                                    GENRE   DISCOVERY 2.0

                                                                        Katie Rose  Guest Pryal*

                                            Abstract

        Ten years ago, I proposed the genre discovery approach for teaching new  legal writers
how  to write any legal document, even ones they had never encountered  before. Using the genre
discovery approach,  a writer studies samples of a genre to identify the genre's conventions so
that they can write the genre. From the seed of Genre Discovery 1.0, the approach's potential has
blossomed  into a robust pedagogical system: Genre  Discovery 2.0. Genre Discovery  2.0 is more
effective than Genre Discovery  1.0 because it more explicitly integrates metacognition into its
pedagogy.

       Metacognition,  the concept that individuals can monitor and regulate their own
cognitive processes and thereby improve  the quality and effectiveness of their thinking, is not
innate-it  must be taught. The legal writing professoriate has embraced metacognition to teach
our students to be conscious of their learning. Some legal writing professors have contributed
strategies for teaching metacognition to law students. Most current metacognitive teaching
strategies include overlays atop an underlying assignment. In other words, these strategies
require two steps to teach metacognition: the underlying task itself and then the separate
metacognitive  task that overlays the main task. This learning process is inefficient because it
requires multiple steps. It is also less effective because the metacognitive activity is divorced
from the underlying assignment,  requiring students to make a cognitive leap from one
assignment  to the other. The push for metacognition in legal education has come from the upper
levels of legal education reform. This article shows that metacognition is the best way to prepare
our students to be practice ready.




        * Adjunct Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
A.B., 1998, Duke University; M.A., 2000, Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars; J.D., 2003, University of
North Carolina School of Law; Ph.D. in Rhetoric, 2007, University of North Carolina Greensboro. Co-editor of THE
COMPLETE SERIES FOR LEGAL WRITERS and co-author of THE COMPLETE LEGAL WRITER (2d ed. 2020), THE
COMPETE BAR WRITER  (2020), THE COMPLETE PRE-LAW WRITER (2022), A LIGHT IN THE TOWER: A NEW
RECKONING WITH MENTAL  HEALTH AND DISABILITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION (forthcoming 2023).
        I thank my co-author, co-editor, and writing partner Professor Alexa Z. Chew of the University of North
Carolina School of Law for her invaluable assistance with this article. I also owe a long-standing debt to Professor
Jordynn Jack of the University of North Carolina Department of English and Comparative Literature, with whom I
started building my knowledge about rhetorical genre theory over a decade ago.
        Deepest thanks to the following colleagues who provided invaluable feedback on this article: Joe Fore,
Ellie Margolis, Jennifer Romig, and Kirsten Davis.
        This article would not be possible without the input of students and professors who used THE COMPLETE
LEGAL WRITER in both its first and second editions over the years and provided immensely valuable feedback on the
genre discovery approach to me and my co-author Professor Chew, including in no order of precedence, Anne
Ralph, Jennifer Romig, Rachel Gurvich, Sara Warf, Kevin Bennardo, Luke Everett, Craig Smith, Katrina June Lee,
and many more. The following UNC Law colleagues provided support for my research: Mary-Rose Papandrea, O.J.
Salinas, Leigh Osofsky, and Aaron Kirschenfeld.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most