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Abstract
The field of discourse analysis has produced extensive research on various aspects of genres that permeate everyday life as well as on the specialized discourses of academic and professional communities. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of studies on the personal statement, which, despite being a key genre of the admissions processes to globalized (and English language-dominated) institutions of higher education, remains unexplored in Brazilian educational culture. The present study addresses this gap by examining samples of this unique genre produced by US American and Brazilian students admitted to English-language universities. The analysis principally draws from Dominique Maingueneau’s scholarship on the “scene” of a genre and the Bakhtin Circle’s ideas on the social and generic nature of utterances. The main purpose is to compare and contrast rhetorical appeals to ethos and pathos made by both groups of students engaged in the high-stakes enterprise of writing about their values, beliefs, and goals with unknown readers/evaluators in mind. The results shed light on some of the linguistic and intercultural challenges that Brazilian students face when communicating in English within unfamiliar scenes of writing, the knowledge of which can shed light on ways to facilitate successful intercultural communication.
Highlights
Studies in academic discourse have mainly concentrated on the research article and its constituting sections, such as abstracts and introductions (e.g., SWALES, 1990; SAMRAJ, 2005)
In light of this thesis, this study aims to compare, contrast, and interpret rhetorical appeals to ethos and pathos appearing in PSs written by US American and Brazilian students admitted to universities in the USA
I have discussed a rather unfamiliar genre of writing in the Brazilian context: personal narratives known in the English-speaking context of college admissions as personal statements
Summary
Studies in academic discourse have mainly concentrated on the research article and its constituting sections, such as abstracts and introductions (e.g., SWALES, 1990; SAMRAJ, 2005). While a number of studies have examined PSs submitted to graduate programs (e.g., BROWN, 2005; DING, 2007), essays written for undergraduate admissions have received little attention Perhaps this is a consequence of the hybrid status of a genre that “hardly seems academic: a deeply personal narrative written for a complete stranger with no clear standards of assessment” The analyses focus on the language choices that successful applicants make to convey credible images or discursive representations of themselves (ethos) while establishing rapport with their imagined addressees (pathos) To put it in Bakhtinian terms, the head comparative category for my analyses is addressivity, or an utterance’s quality of being directed at a specific audience (BAKHTIN, 1986): I intend to identify and interpret how PS writers use interpersonal resources in the English language to relate to the perceived values, beliefs, and community- and culture-based expectations of university admissions committees. I present the theoretical background of the study, which is followed by a discussion of the data collection method used and of results and conclusions elicited through the analyses
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