Linguistic Dimensions of Direct Mail Letters

Abstract

In this article, we explore how corpus-based techniques can broaden our understanding of how lexical and grammatical features help to shape and define the persuasive features of philanthropic direct mail letters by allowing us to examine the patterns of dozens of linguistic features across a large number of texts. Using 316 direct mail letters from 108 organizations across five philanthropic fields, we use a multidimensional analysis technique, developed by Biber (1988), to create a linguistic profile of the genre. This profile is based on five linguistic “dimensions” that are determined by the co-occurrence of 67 linguistic features. Based on the assumption that linguistic features do not randomly co-occur in texts but in fact together serve a functional purpose, these dimensions can be used to show how genres vary, as reflected by their use of different linguistic features, in order to accomplish generic goals. Our findings show that philanthropic direct mail letters are indeed a unique genre, displaying a pattern of linguistic features that are quite distinct from other common genres.