Critical Genre Analysis Research Articles

Aircraft accident reports: A corpus-based genre analysis

Based on a corpus of ‘Aircraft Accident Reports’ (AARs) collected from the official website of The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), issued during the years 2000–2021, this study used Bhatia’s Critical Genre Analysis (CGA) framework to examine how this type of techno-professional discourse is recognized by considering the text, the genre, the professional practice, and the professional culture of the corpus. It was found that (1) textually, both Move2 collecting information, and Move3 Analyzing Information are the lengthiest moves within the corpus regarding the number of tokens, while Move1 Summarizing the Accident, Move4 Reaching Conclusion, Move5 Sharing Recommendations, and Move6 Board Member Statement are the shortest in length; (2) the generic move structure of the corpus contained six-move pattern (five of them are obligatory, and only one is optional), 11 steps, and 40 sub-steps; (3) the professional practice of the corpus is expressed through two types of discursive processes, they are: genre-mixing, and genre-embedding; and (4) the professional culture is presented through a set of professional values imbedded in the corpus, they are: embracing change and learn from mistakes, and maintaining objectivity and impartiality. The results of this study contribute in understanding the realization of professional discourse and expand the application of CGA in professional practices.

The Genre of a Grant Proposal in the Modern Teaching Context: Challenges and Possibilities

Nowadays attaining a grant is a criterion of success for an early-career researcher and an important indicator of effective work of a university as a research-based and corporate institution. During its thirty-year history in Russia, grants have become a traditional and even routine practice for every Russian PhD student and an early-career researcher. Like their international colleagues, Russian researchers often don’t get sufficient support from their scientific advisor and an academic writing expert. A few attempts to improve current situation have been made in a number of research universities. One of such cases is a course “Grant Writing” that has been recently implemented in the English-language writing-intensive program of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. The complex aim or the paper can be explained by the multidimensional nature of a grant. After characterizing a grant proposal as an up-to-date text genre in the international and interdisciplinary context in the framework of Genre Field Analysis, we consider the full process of applying for a grant in real-life environment and classroom settings. Finally, in the lens of Critical Genre Analysis, the qualitative analysis of the introductory sections of Russian grant proposals is conducted. The modern genre theory gives the basis for using a combination of methods in our research. In the lens of Genre Field Analysis, the sociopragmatic approach to the grant proposal provides an opportunity to get acquainted with the modern practices of applying for a grant, while Critical Genre Analysis may contribute to the deeper understanding of the text production mechanisms. The synthesis of theory and practice and its role could be seen in the qualitative analysis of grant proposals written by PhD students, attendees of the course “Grant Writing” at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. The findings give evidence for insufficient disciplinary expertise and substitution of one genre – a grant proposal – by another one, more familiar for Russian students, – a research paper and an abstract. The obtained results testify in favor of the implementation of the course “Grant Writing” as well as other genre-based courses deeply rooted in the cross-disciplinary context and aimed at developing the researcher competence.

Discursive strategies in the branding of Fortune Global 500 Chinese manufacturing companies

Company profiles are increasingly used to construct the corporate brand of Fortune Global 500 Chinese Manufacturing Companies (FG500CMCs). However, the communication of the corporate brand through the company profile is not sufficiently explored. This article explored the discursive strategies that were exploited to construct the desired brand identities of the FG500CMCs. Through the approach of critical genre analysis, it is found that the branding of the FG500CMCs is realized by the strategic organization of rhetorical moves, the purposeful employment of rhetorical devices, and tactical wording. All the obligatory moves identified primarily highlight a set of attributes indicating the strengths, competitiveness, and superiority of the FG500CMCs. This projects the distinctiveness of the brand identities of the companies. The strengths, competitiveness, and superiority are constructed by deploying graduation resources, appropriating numerical resources, adopting high-end and high-tech-related terms, and exploiting endorsement, authentication, and altruism. Besides analyzing the lexico-grammatical features and discursive techniques, this article also investigates how the FG500CMCs’ particular attributes and strengths are covertly conveyed through the strategic organization and distribution of the moves. This provides a more comprehensive explication and thus gives new insights into the body of knowledge on the discursive construction of corporate branding. With grounded elaboration on the tactful use of language and covert arrangement of the moves, this article also sheds light on the content design of the ‘company profile’ for shaping stakeholders’ and the public’s perception of the corporate brand.

Compliance and Rhetoric in Sustainability Reports Published by A Malaysian Plantation Company

Publishing sustainability reports have been mandatory in most countries, including Malaysia, where all publicly listed companies must disclose their sustainability activities since 2007, as gazetted in the Bursa Malaysia Listing Requirements, Ministry of Finance 2006. In addition, a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) framework was established to report corporate sustainability initiatives to include four focal areas: Environment, Workplace, Community, and Marketplace. Based on critical genre analysis, this article examines the discursive practices in disclosing these reports published by one plantation company by identifying the reports’ generic structure and reporting style. The results show that the disclosure complies with the Listing Requirements, and the discourse employs modern rhetoric, a form of subtle persuasion supported with facts and figures. Therefore, it can be concluded that these sustainability reports are more than just paying lip service.

The discursive (re)construction of social relations in a crisis situation: A genre analytical approach to press conferences on COVID-19 in China.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has imposed a great threat both to people's health and to social relations. By following the theoretical constructions of critical genre analysis and critical discourse analysis and drawing on the 35 press conferences on the COVID-19 outbreak in China, this paper explores how the discourse of press conferences is used by the Chinese government as a means of crisis management to (re)construct social relations. The analysis of the data reveals a hybridity of social relations reproduced discursively between such social actors as government institutions, the general public, medical institutions or staff, and COVID-19 patients, and a distinct feature of interdiscursivity of the discourse of press conferences on COVID-19, with descriptive, instructional, strategic, and evaluative discourses being the most frequently employed. It is also found that political, professional, social, and cultural forces are interwoven with each other to contribute to the interdiscursivity of the discourse of press conferences and the hybridity of social relations constructed thereof.

Mutual Constitution of Genre and Knowledge: The case of genre resistance in the French diplomatic occupational community

In this paper, we study the relationship between genre and knowledge in the dynamics of occupational resistance to genre change. Using critical genre analysis, we investigate the response of French diplomats to the introduction of modifications in a key institutionalized communicative practice, the diplomatic telegram. As the organization modified genre rules for knowledge distribution, the perceived loss of control over audience and purpose threatened the elite occupational community values of autonomy and secrecy. In response, diplomats subverted the new organizational communicative practices by invalidating its content through knowledge fragmentation, repetition and depletion. At the same time, they enhanced the content of the hybrid new genre of the ‘political email’, through knowledge integration, differentiation and amplification. Our work contributes to critical genre analysis by revealing the political dimension of organizational genre change for elite occupational communities. Also, in examining the relationship between genre and knowledge, we identified genre resistance mechanisms that (de)authorized communicative practices by (in)validating knowledge. Our work suggests that genre resistance is an essential tool for elite occupational communities, whose power depends on control over esoteric knowledge.

A Critical Genre Analysis of Covert Advertising Through Short-Videos in Douyin: The Chinese Version of Tik-Tok

Short-video social media is becoming a major advertising tool in the digital age. Covert advertising is increasingly used as a major strategy to effectively promote a product. This study aims to explore the genre of covert short-video advertisements launched in Douyin—the Chinese version of TikTok. It integrates Bhatia’s critical genre analysis approach with Kress and van Leeuwen’s Multimodal Discourse Analysis approach as the conceptual framework. The researchers selected 100 covert short-video advertisements in Douyin for analysis. The findings demonstrate how this genre is manipulated to exploit consumerism, to shape consumer culture and to drive business growth through rhetorical moves, interdiscursivity and exploitation of multimodal resources. This study not only gives insight into the less explored deceptive new media genre but also contributes to recognition of covert short-video advertising and methods in analyzing genres in the age of “new media.”

Exploring Generic Features in China-Africa Corporate Advertising: A Critical Genre Analysis

Abstract China-Africa corporate advertising is emerging as an example of the corporate advertising genre in response to the specific rhetorical context of China-Africa win-win cooperation. Drawing on Bhatia’s Critical Genre Analysis (2017), this study explores the text-internal and text-external generic features of China-Africa corporate advertising by analyzing 50 collected samples. The analysis of text-internal prominence shows that China-Africa corporate advertising is unique in its frequent use of win-win-oriented and sector-dependent technical lexicons to indicate the promotional intent. It is also found that move structures vary across different sub-types of China-Africa corporate advertising. Text-externally, the findings reveal a mixture of different discourses within the discursive space of China-Africa corporate advertising. In addition, the results suggest that Chinese companies invest more rhetorical efforts in enhancing the China-Africa community than African counterparts who tend to perceive China-Africa cooperation as the main avenue to attract worldwide partnerships. The findings have some practical implications for discourse construction in the Belt and Road Initiative context and shed light on the evolving nature of advertising discourse, particularly in the China-Africa win-win business context.

Constitution of Pakistan: A Textual Perspective Analysis

Constitutional texts are known for their linguistic complexities related to vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. Complexity increases where the language of constitution is not commonly used by the citizens. Despite the use of technical terms, legal jargon, and complex sentence structure, the constitution is frequently referred to in the matters of state and governance. The current study is built on the textual perspective of the Critical Genre Analysis (CGA) framework (Bhatia, 2004, 2016). Analyzing the patterns in which the text (constitution) is arranged in a hierarchically nested way, the analysis moves on to explore what linguistic features lend specificity to the form of this genre, which is constructed in a nontraditional way. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, it offers prototypical instances of lexico-grammatical and syntactic features of the constitutional genre which include the use of adverbials, nominalization, modal auxiliary verbs, long sentences, adverbial clauses, passivized statements, and conditional sentences. The study strives to know how cohesion and coherence are formed in the text using repetitions and synonyms, adverbials, references, definitions, footnotes, interdiscursivity, intertextuality, and intratextuality. The findings will allow ESP teachers to design effective learning interventions. It will also assist law students, researchers, policymakers, and parliamentarians to be familiar with the constitutional text for its better cognizance and usage.
 Keywords: constitutional genre, Critical Genre Analysis (CGA), English for Specific Purposes (ESP), textual perspective analysis

Semiotic vagueness as a tool for goal fulfilment

Over the past 15 years, ‘platform of values’ texts presenting core values have become common in most Swedish public authorities. This article presents a study of how this genre is understood and used in professional practices. The aim is to show how semiotic vagueness in such texts serves a number of previously under-researched purposes in public organizations, including, rather paradoxically, concrete goal achievement. The framework of critical genre analysis enables the analytical process to move from text to practice, and further to the superordinate level of professional culture. Three different data sets are analysed: 47 ‘platform of values’ texts; a focus group discussion with seven senior civil servants/managers; and a quantitative questionnaire study answered by civil servants from three public authorities. The findings suggest that vagueness serves as a means to exercise managerial control through the promotion of interpretative work and continuous, identity-related dialogues on value related issues. The article argues that even though such uses of the ‘platform of values’ genre may be functional in neo-bureaucratic organizations, it is also problematic when semiotic vagueness is used as a tool for concrete actions such as internal promotions.

The Discourse Genre and the Dispute Over the Forms of (Re)Construction of Social Practices

ABSTRACT This article aims to discuss how the (co-)construction of discourse genre shows disputes over the (re)construction of social reality. To accomplish this, a theoretical review is done, bringing the Bakhtinian postulates closer to those of Critical Discourse Analysis, in the formulation of Critical Genre Analysis. A socio-educational group session (sessão de grupo socioeducativo) for men who have committed violence against women is analyzed, illustrating the discursive dispute regarding the constituent frame of the genre’s theme. The data analyzed was generated over 12 months of ethnographic research field work. The discussion allows us to perceive the open nature of language and practices, made intelligible through critical analysis of discourse genres, and points to essential openings in the political struggle for social change.

Discursive practice of Chinese criminal adjudication: A genre perspective

Different from ordinary discourse, the institutional nature of courtroom discourse has attracted much scholarly attention in the field of applied linguistics and professional discourse studies. Previous studies have examined the lexico-grammatical features and asymmetric power relations inherent in courtroom communication. However, little research has investigated the hybridizing construction of judges’ discourse and the contextual clues that may shape such discursive construction. Under the framework of Critical Genre Analysis (Bhatia, 2017), this study examines 25 video recordings of criminal court trials in the Chinese mainland. The findings indicate a reciprocal relationship between the interdiscursive mechanism of judges’ discourse in criminal trials and the relevant social, cultural, and institutional background. The study also discusses the constituents of the overall courtroom discourse against the background of the social and political realities of the Chinese mainland

Analyzing a test as genre: Critical Genre Analysis of the English language ENEM

ABSTRACT This paper proposes a Critical Genre Analysis (CGA) (Motta-Roth, 2006; 2008a; 2008b) of the English Language test on the Brazilian National High School Exam (EL-ENEM), to, ultimately, discuss the language conception that underlies this test. The corpus of the analysis was composed of eight samples of the EL-ENEM genre. The results point out that EL-ENEM items provide the test takers with a contextualization about their reference texts. This contextualization, in most items, provide information regarding the genres of the reference texts. The items, then, demand the test takers to identify different types of information in the reference texts. The types of information that are demanded the most refer to the text’s content, objective, and topic. This way, the test takers must activate knowledge related to Semantics and Pragmatics, Register (context of situation) and Genre (context of culture), indicating a direction to the view of language as genre, adopted by the official documents that guide ENEM’s design.

‘It is important at this point to make clear that this study is not “anti-iPad”’: Ed-Tech speak around iPads in educational technology research

ABSTRACT This position paper contributes to the field of critical educational technology (Ed-Tech) research by providing empirical evidence for the qualities of the phenomenon known as Ed-Tech speak. The research question, how does Ed-Tech speak in research articles about Apple's iPad contribute to promoting and validating the importance and utility of the iPad for teaching and learning, is addressed by applying critical genre analysis to investigate empirical research articles discussing the use of iPads in institutional education. As a result, four categories were formed: the self-evident importance of iPads, overgeneralization of references, the use of strong reporting verbs (to boost weak references), and the use of boosting devices when discussing the findings. Possible explanations for the existence of Ed-Tech speak in research articles are offered.

Fostering civility and politeness awareness in professional discourse: Critical genre analysis of course books in professional communication

AbstractThis paper aims to analyse a set of communicative events within the service encounter genre in tourism and leisure interdiscursive domains as displayed in course books on professional communication in English (commonly pointing to ESP). These supposedly replicate interaction in real life settings. Therefore, it is relevant to uncover the ways authentic interactions can be interpreted in the pedagogical setting of workplace conversation from a discursive and pragmatic perspective. More specifically, this empirical and exploratory study discusses ways of improving rapport management skills in interpersonal and intercultural communication, in general, and in professional interaction, in particular, in a selection of excerpts on greeting / asking for info exchanges. The study uncovers participants’ possible co-constructions of civility and politeness strategies in naturally occurring classroom discourse supported by course materials in English for glocal communication across segments in the tourism domain as object of this study.

A publicidade da Johnnie Walker e a construção de identidades masculinas na modernidade tardia

Neste trabalho, são analisados seis publieditoriais de uma campanha da empresa de whisky Johnnie Walker, veiculados em revistas da Editora Abril, durante o ano de 2009. O objetivo principal é explicar a relação entre as práticas publicitárias e jornalísticas e a construção de identidades masculinas na modernidade tardia. Utiliza-se o escopo teórico da Análise Crítica de Gênero (ACG) aliado à perspectiva bakhtiniana. A campanha analisada selecionou homens, supostamente bem-sucedidos, para associarem uma imagem considerada positiva à marca, reforçando a representação do consumidor usual da bebida e da classe social a qual ele pertence. A narrativa característica desses textos põe em cena uma representação de sucesso masculino centrado no perfil de herói e em várias características provenientes do discurso neoliberal: o centro no indivíduo e em seu sucesso pessoal, o culto ao mercado empresarial e a valorização das ações empreendedoras.

O programa eleitoral em um plebiscito de divisão do estado do Pará e o uso do discurso patriótico para a construção simbólica do território e dos agentes envolvidos

Este trabalho discute a construção do discurso patriótico na representação do território e dos agentes dominantes em um programa eleitoral da campanha dos plebiscitos de divisão do estado do Pará. O programa foi exibido durante o Horário Eleitoral Gratuito de televisão, no ano de 2011. O estudo é alicerçado na teoria da Análise Crítica de Gêneros (BONINI, 2011, 2013 ), que enfoca os gêneros em termos de sua participação na configuração da realidade social e seu papel na manutenção de relações de poder assimétricas no contexto das práticas sociais. A abordagem também se vale dos aportes teóricos e metodológicos da Análise Crítica do Discurso, com base nos estudos de Fairclough (2008) e Chouliaraki e Fairclough (1999). Os resultados da análise evidenciam: o uso da identidade paraense tradicional e hegemônica para o alinhamento à posição não favorável à separação, somando-se ao elemento patriótico também o discurso do medo, o discurso militante e o discurso de usurpação. Ao cidadão pró-separação, é atribuída a imagem do “outro”, do “separatista”, em oposição a um “nós/a gente”, defensores do “Pará por inteiro”.

A critical genre analysis of MD&A discourse in corporate annual reports

Based on the texts of ‘Management Discussion and Analysis on Financial Status and Business’ (MD&A) collected from 118 American corporate annual reports, this study investigated how the professional discourse is realized from the dimensions of text, genre, professional practice and professional culture, according to the framework of the Critical Genre Analysis (CGA) theory. It was found that (1) In the text dimension, lexicon features regarding vocabulary volume, vocabulary highlighting, readability and sentiment are unique to MD&As; (2) the genre of MD&As corresponds to a rhetorical structure of 3 moves and 10 steps; (3) the professional practice of MD&As is represented by three types of interdiscursivity, that is, shifting, mixing and embedding; (4) the professional culture of MD&As is embodied through identity enculturation, human-oriented value, cooperation awareness and self-serving manner. The results of this study help to better understand the realization of professional discourse and expand the application of CGA in professional practice. The findings presented herein are expected to enhance interdisciplinary research that relates language with corporate performance.

Understanding the discourse of Chinese civil trials: The perspective of Critical Genre Analysis

The social development and judicial reforms in mainland China over the past 40 years have greatly influenced the way courtroom trials are conducted and how courtroom discourses are purposively constructed to fulfill a variety of judicial, social, and cultural functions. This creates a research gap between the former monolithic understanding of courtroom language as a homogeneous legal entity and the examination of the present hybridizing nature and characteristics of judges' discourse. Drawing on tape recordings and fieldwork notes from 16 Chinese civil trials, this paper aims to fill this gap by invoking the newly developed theory of Critical Genre Analysis (Bhatia, 2017). An analysis of these materials reveals the interdiscursive features of the discourses of Chinese judges in civil trials and at the same time allows us to explore the background social, cultural, and institutional ideologies circumscribing the production, communication and reception of these discourses.

Análise Crítica de Gênero: uma análise de um teste de proficiência em inglês como língua estrangeira

O objetivo deste trabalho é reportar uma Análise Crítica de Gênero (ACG) do Teste de Suficiência em Leitura em Língua Estrangeira (TESLLE). A análise textual incluiu seis edições do TESLLE de língua inglesa ofertadas entre 2014 e 2016, além de documentos oficiais. As questões foram classificadas em relação ao tipo e ao enfoque; e então em relação aos elementos da linguagem que acionam. A análise contextual foi realizada a fim de interpretar os dados obtidos. Os resultados apontam que as questões do teste são de três tipos e apresentam 12 enfoques. Além disso, as questões acionam quatro níveis da linguagem. A análise demonstrou que o teste realmente testa a habilidade da leitura, por acionar principalmente o nível da Semântica e da Pragmática, e que a visão de linguagem que subjaz o teste é de “linguagem como gênero”, uma vez que a relação entre texto e contexto é explorada.