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Chapter 2. Positioning and proximity of reader engagement

Authorial identity in professional and apprentice academic genres
  • Feng (Kevin) Jiang and Xiaohao Ma
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Engagement in Professional Genres
This chapter is in the book Engagement in Professional Genres

Abstract

In this chapter we look at engagement by exploring how writers involve readers while expressing authorial identity in professional and apprentice genres. Based on a modified model of engagement features (Hyland 2005c; Hyland and Jiang 2016), this paper examines a 1.2 million-word corpus of 30 published research articles and 20 PhD confirmation reports in educational studies. We further relate the engagement features to the rhetorical strategies of proximity and positioning in the construction of authorial identity (Hyland 2012). Results show that journal articles include far more engagement devices than doctoral confirmation reports, while PhD writers express a higher degree of proximity than professional experts. Thus different authorial identities impact the patterns and strategies of reader engagement in academic persuasion.

Abstract

In this chapter we look at engagement by exploring how writers involve readers while expressing authorial identity in professional and apprentice genres. Based on a modified model of engagement features (Hyland 2005c; Hyland and Jiang 2016), this paper examines a 1.2 million-word corpus of 30 published research articles and 20 PhD confirmation reports in educational studies. We further relate the engagement features to the rhetorical strategies of proximity and positioning in the construction of authorial identity (Hyland 2012). Results show that journal articles include far more engagement devices than doctoral confirmation reports, while PhD writers express a higher degree of proximity than professional experts. Thus different authorial identities impact the patterns and strategies of reader engagement in academic persuasion.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. Foreword xi
  5. Chapter 1. Networking engagement in professional practices 1
  6. Section I. Monomodal genres
  7. Chapter 2. Positioning and proximity of reader engagement 29
  8. Chapter 3. Authorial engagement in business emails 47
  9. Chapter 4. Challenging the concept of pure objectivity in British and Spanish hard news reports 67
  10. Chapter 5. Rebuilding trust in the banking sector 87
  11. Chapter 6. Interrogative engagement as a pragmatic and textual function in Legal Studies 101
  12. Chapter 7. Patients engaging their doctors in the doctor-patient relationship 119
  13. Chapter 8. “Let’s have that conversation on next quarter’s call” 137
  14. Section II. Intersemiotic genres
  15. Chapter 9. Multiplying engagement 157
  16. Chapter 10. Researchers’ move from page to screen 179
  17. Chapter 11. Recruitment websites and the socialization of new employees 197
  18. Chapter 12. Verbal and nonverbal engagement devices in business persuasive discourse 217
  19. Chapter 13. Scifotainment 243
  20. Chapter 14. How much do U.S. patents disclose? 259
  21. Chapter 15. Gestural silence 277
  22. Chapter 16. Silence and engagement in the multimodal genre of synchronous videoconferencing lectures 297
  23. Chapter 17. Organizational metadiscourse across lecturing styles 321
  24. Chapter 18. Engagement of readers/customers in the discourse of e-tourism promotional genres 341
  25. Notes on contributors 359
  26. Names Index 365
  27. Subject Index 367
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.301.02jia

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. Foreword xi
  5. Chapter 1. Networking engagement in professional practices 1
  6. Section I. Monomodal genres
  7. Chapter 2. Positioning and proximity of reader engagement 29
  8. Chapter 3. Authorial engagement in business emails 47
  9. Chapter 4. Challenging the concept of pure objectivity in British and Spanish hard news reports 67
  10. Chapter 5. Rebuilding trust in the banking sector 87
  11. Chapter 6. Interrogative engagement as a pragmatic and textual function in Legal Studies 101
  12. Chapter 7. Patients engaging their doctors in the doctor-patient relationship 119
  13. Chapter 8. “Let’s have that conversation on next quarter’s call” 137
  14. Section II. Intersemiotic genres
  15. Chapter 9. Multiplying engagement 157
  16. Chapter 10. Researchers’ move from page to screen 179
  17. Chapter 11. Recruitment websites and the socialization of new employees 197
  18. Chapter 12. Verbal and nonverbal engagement devices in business persuasive discourse 217
  19. Chapter 13. Scifotainment 243
  20. Chapter 14. How much do U.S. patents disclose? 259
  21. Chapter 15. Gestural silence 277
  22. Chapter 16. Silence and engagement in the multimodal genre of synchronous videoconferencing lectures 297
  23. Chapter 17. Organizational metadiscourse across lecturing styles 321
  24. Chapter 18. Engagement of readers/customers in the discourse of e-tourism promotional genres 341
  25. Notes on contributors 359
  26. Names Index 365
  27. Subject Index 367
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