Expository Discourse

This volume provides a detailed an explicit account of the genre of social science research articles. While previous literature has analysed some aspects of the research genre separately, this book presents a comprehensive model which characterizes the generic, registerial and discoursal options as they interweave within a text. Another important contribution of the analysis is the formulation of explicit realization statements that relate the abstract categories of move and act (as described by Swales) to the way these units are actually created by lexical and grammatical choices. The realization networks draw on the work of systemic functional linguistics, primarily Halliday, Hasan, Martin and Ventola. The added emphasis in this study is that research texts are ultimately persuasive texts, and genre 'constraints' can be tightened or loosened in response to the rhetorical dimension. The description of the social science research genre is important both for those teaching English to speakers and readers of other languages and for researchers in discourse structure.
For teachers, the detailed analysis of texts and the method for determining realization rules will help in guiding students who must understand and produce research articles. For researchers, the qualitative and quantitative analyses show how the different levels of abstraction, from the genre itself to its moves, acts and wordings, are related to each other. Lastly, this analysis can serve as a model for future descriptions of other academic and professional genres.