| Abstract | Generic knowledge plays an important role in the packing and unpacking of texts used in a
wide-ranging institutionalized socio-rhetorical context. If, on the one hand, it imposes constraints on an
uninitiated genre writer to conform to the conventions and rhetorical expectations of the relevant
professional community, on the other hand, it allows an experienced and established writer of the genre
to exploit conventions to create new forms to suit specific contexts. Unfortunately, however, this privilege
to exploit generic conventions to create new forms becomes available only to those few who enjoy a certain
degree of visibility in the relevant professional community; for a wide majority of others, it is more of a
matter of apprenticeship in accommodating the expectations of disciplinary cultures. This paper reviews
current research to investigate the way the power and the politics of genre is often exploited by the so-called
established membership of disciplinary communities to keep outsiders at a safe distance.
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