Lewin, Beverly (Tel Aviv University),
Fine, Jonathan (Bar-Ilan University),
Young, Lynne (Carleton University);

Expository Discourse: A Genre-based Approach to Social Science
Texts;
Hb: 0-8264-4913-1; x, 166pp; GB£45.00 /US$79.95. Continuum. October
2001

This volume provides a detailed and explicit account of the genre
of
social science research articles.  While previous literature has
analyzed some aspects of the research genre separately, this book
presents a comprehensive model which characterizes the generic,
registerial and discoursal options as they interweave within a
text.
Another important contribution of the analysis is the formulation
of
explicit realisation statements that relate the abstract categories
of
move and act (as described by Swales and Bhatia) to the way these
units actually are created by lexical grammatical choices.  The
realisation networks draw on the work of systemic functional
linguistics, primarily Halliday, Hasan, Martin and Ventola.  The
added
emphasis in this study is that research texts are ultimately
persuasive texts and genre 'constraints' can be tightened or
loosened
in response to the rhetorical dimension.  The description of the
social science research genre is important both for those teaching
English, for speakers and readers of other languages, and for
researchers of discourse structure.  For teachers, the detailed
analysis of texts and the method for determining realization rules
will help in guiding students who must understand and produce
research
articles.  For researchers, the qualitative and quantitative
analysis
show how the different levels of abstraction, from the genre itself
to
its moves, acts and wordings, are related to each other.  Lastly,
this
analysis can serve as a model for future descriptions of other
academic and professional genres.


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