This article reports the findings of a quasi-experimental study investigating the effect of using the analysis of technical genre exemplars within the systematic functional linguistic framework for developing rhetorical awareness in technical writing. The study participants were sixty undergraduate students at university. Genre analysis test and writing samples were conducted at the beginning and the end of the course to assess their rhetorical awareness. The findings revealed that analyzing technical genre exemplars developed students' rhetorical awareness. Analyzing technical genre exemplars helped students be aware of how texts in technical writing were shaped for different purposes, audiences and context. Furthermore, students' rhetorical awareness was transferred into their technical writing