February 10 Blog

Textbooks for different subjects are obviously written for the purpose to teach people the in's and out's of whatever subject that textbook falls under, but it is interesting to look at what textbooks do and how they do it when considering the opinions of Charles Bazerman.  After reading through his writing on genres and the like, I consider typification and social activity to hold strong roles in the use of textbooks within their features, functions, and student activity.

Textbooks are usually written by professors or those that are skilled in the field in which the textbook is about, so after reading the text within the book, it is safe to say that one will immediately believe that text to be factual. The standard formats of typification within textbooks will help educators get points across to students that will aid them in other situations that they will run into later in life.  For instance, when you find yourself in a Biology class, the scientific genre of text is going to aid you if you find yourself desiring a position within a health research field or perhaps a physical therapy career later in life.  

Features that a Biology textbook will include will be the obvious lessons that cover different topics that fall under that specific field. Also, it will probably point out important terms that students should be aware of by bolding the font when the come up on the page.  Features of a Biology book may differ from that of a different subject because of such a strong need for graphics to help convey ideas and scientific processes.  Individualistic of a science subject textbook will also include experiments to help students learn in a hands-on manner.

The functions of a Biology book are seemingly obvious, because the purpose that they serve is to educate and prepare students with knowledge that will aid them in any Biology related field or career, or even an upper level class that requires previous and probably basic background knowledge in the subject.  It will also serve to aid those who are doing research in the Biology field so that they can come up with solutions to illnesses or even to produce new and usable technology.

Lastly, textbooks will obviously include social activity that will help increase a student's awareness of the particular subject.  Biology books will use review questions at the end of different chapters to help students go back over information given within the chapter.  This will help every student retain the information so that they are able to put it to good use at a later date.  Specific to science subjects, as I mentioned earlier, will be scientific experiments.  Some people obviously learn better through hands on activities rather than just reading texts.  Typifying things beyond textual information will include social activity within the classroom.  For example, this could be the case when having students work in groups together on said experiments.  

The textbook, an interesting genre of professional writing, can be viewed in many different ways and analyzed through different aspects, but however one goes about doing so, I believe these features, functions, and student activities will remain the same.