Rapport — how the weight it carries affects the way it is managed

Abstract

This paper discusses the management of rapport by a group of English-language teachers through their request e-mail discourse. The group was regarded as a community of practice consisting of two types of members — core and peripheral. The paper explores and compares the ways the core and peripheral members managed rapport while making requests through e-mails. It is argued that to the two types of members, rapport weighed differently and was thus managed differently by differential manipulation of three aspects of the macro-structure of the discourse including (i) the blending of discourses, (ii) the generic structure of the request e-mails, and (iii) the rhetorical approach chosen. The observed differences in rapport management are explained with reference to the career prospects and duties of the e-mail authors.