Critical Genre Analysis Research Articles

Accessibility of discoursal data in critical genre analysis: international commercial arbitration practice

Critical genre analysis, especially targeting specific professional practices, crucially depends on the availability of discursive data from the professional practice under investigation, which is not always easily accessible. In this paper, I take up a typical example of this kind of difficulty focusing on an international initiative, in which I have been involved for the last several years, with collaboration from more than twenty research teams from as many countries. By drawing on discoursal data (narrative, documentary and interactional), it is possible to look at the motivations for interdiscursive processes and procedures. However, the so-called duty to strict confidentiality observed and practiced in international arbitration practice makes it difficult to get access to data from arbitration practice and thus to undertake such critical genre-based interdisciplinary research. In this paper, I will focus on some of the important issues involved in this study of professional practice and discuss implications of this generally assumed requirement of confidentiality, and its implications for research in and development of the institution of arbitration. I also propose alternatives to collection of data from arbitration practice to make such research possible.

Ciência na mídia: análise crítica de gênero de notícias de popularização científica

Este artigo apresenta uma Análise Crítica de Gênero (proposta em MEURER, 2002; BHATIA, 2004; MOTTA-ROTH, 2005, a partir de princípios teóricos de BAKHTIN, 1986; SWALES, 2004; CHOULIARAKI; FAIRCLOUGH, 1999; HALLIDAY, 2004) de notícias de popularização da ciência (PC), enfocando o discurso reportado que populariza a ciência. Foram analisados 30 exemplares de notícias de PC dos sites BBC News e Scientific American. Ao mobilizar diferentes posições enunciativas (pesquisador, colegas e entidades, governo, público e o próprio jornalista), a mídia desempenha três funções discursivas: informar sobre novas descobertas, explicar princípios / conceitos científicos e esclarecer a relevância da pesquisa para a coletividade. A expressão de cientistas e colegas é hegemônica; a participação do público, tímida.

Understanding Shifting Power Relations within and across Organizations: A Critical Genre Analysis

Drawing on an in-depth qualitative study of a consulting project, we examine how conditions of novelty and ambiguity on interorganizational engagements produce inconsistent norms and expectations for guiding project interaction. Clients and consultants attempt to resolve the resulting discursive tensions while also increasing their organization's influence on the project. As diverse institutional contexts offer multiple legitimate ways of practicing, agents draw on such alternatives to renegotiate power relations. We develop a theoretical framework and empirical approach for understanding how discursive resources from diverse institutional contexts can be used to transform power relations within and between organizations.

‘I am a very happy, lucky lady, and I am full of Vitality!’ Analysis of promotional strategies on the websites of probiotic yoghurt producers

This article studies the Internet advertising of food and drinks containing probiotics – potentially beneficial bacteria marketed as a means to strengthen the body's ‘defence mechanisms’. Using the framework of critical genre analysis, I describe discursive and semiotic means by which probiotics emerge as a credible ‘tool’ for building the ‘inner armour’ of immunity and as a locus of interlinked discourses on biomedicine, science, nutrition and the body. In my analysis, I examine the multitude of strategies with the help of which texts placed on the websites of probiotics producers promote the companies and their products, and in this process formulate different visions of the body's relationship with food, construct scientific facts as an exclusive guide for individuals on what foods they should and should not be eating, and position responsibility for the management of wellbeing with the individual.

Genre analysis, ESP and professional practice

Studies of professional genres and professional practices are invariably seen as complementing each other, in that they not only influence each other but are often co-constructed in specific professional contexts. However, professional genres have often been analyzed in isolation, leaving the study of professional practice almost completely out, except as providing context for specific analyses, thus undermining the role of interdiscursivity in professional genres and practices. Drawing examples from a range of professional contexts, in particular from business and international arbitration practice, this paper argues for a shift towards an integration of discursive and professional practices, thus emphasizing the function of interdiscursivity in critical genre analysis.

‘Yes, a very good point!’: a critical genre analysis of a corpus of feedback commentaries on Master of Education assignments

This paper seeks to use a corpus-based analysis of assessment commentaries on Master's level assignments to shed light on the guidance practices of those who provide feedback. The analysis offers a set of functional categories that emerge from the corpus and uses these to consider the degree of transparency evident in the commentaries. Based on this analysis, the paper discusses implications for feedback providers and offers suggestions for diminishing power imbalances and for re-placing the student writer at the centre of academic discourse. In doing so, I hope to enhance the value placed on individuals’ academic contributions and facilitate the process of induction into the academic discourse community, through a notion of critical inclusion, as opposed to a prescriptive notion of convention adoption.