Advice Online
Advice-giving in an American Internet health column
1st Edition
Published on 19. July 2006
XVI, 277 pages
978-90-272-9347-3 (ISBN)
Description
Advice Online presents a comprehensive study of advice-giving in one particular American Internet advice column, referred to as 'Lucy Answers'. The discursive practice investigated is part of a professional and educational health program managed by an American university. The study provides insights into the linguistic realization of both asking for and giving advice in a written form and thus adds to the literature on advice columns as a specific text genre, on advice in health care contexts, and on Internet communication. The book offers a comprehensive literature review of advice in health encounters and other contexts, and uses this knowledge as a basis for comparison. Advice Online demonstrates how qualitative and quantitative research methods can be successfully combined to arrive at a comprehensive analysis of a discursive practice. It provides essential information on advice-giving for researchers, academics and students in the fields of (Internet) communication, media studies, pragmatics, social psychology and counseling. Health educators who work for advice columns or use similar forms of communication will also benefit from the insights gained in this study.
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07/2006
John Benjamins Publishing Co
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Content
- Advice Online
- Editorial page
- Title page
- LCC data
- Table of contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of tables and figures
- Introduction
- Part I
- Material description
- 2.1. The site
- 2.2. The data for this study
- Part II
- Literature review on advice
- 3.1. Advice in face-to-face health care settings
- 3.2. Advice in face-to-face educational counseling
- 3.3. Radio advice programs: The public dimension
- 3.4. Advice in therapeutic contexts
- 3.5. Everyday advising
- 3.6. Previous research on advice columns
- 3.6.1. Advice columns as a specific text type: Some characteristics
- 3.6.2. Norms and values
- 3.6.3. Linguistic realizations in advice columns
- 3.7. Summary
- Research questions
- 4.1. The content structure of the responses and the linguistic realization of advice
- 4.2. Relational work and advice: The face-threatening character of advice
- 4.3. The Internet as a medium of the mass media: The personal versus the public dimension of advice
- 4.4. Lucy's voice
- 4.5. The problem letters posted by the anonymous readership
- 4.6. List of research questions
- Part III
- The content structure of the response letters and the realization of advice
- 5.1. Introduction and methodology
- 5.2. Results: The composition of the response letters
- 5.2.1. Number of words and number of units in a response letter
- 5.2.2. Number and type of level 3 discursive moves overall
- 5.2.3. Number of level 3 discursive moves in a unit
- 5.2.4. The sequence of level 3 discursive moves
- 5.2.5. Summary
- 5.3. Results: The linguistic realization of discursive moves
- 5.3.1. The advice and referral discursive moves
- 5.3.2. The linguistic realization of the other level 3 discursive moves
- 5.4. Summary and comparison with other advisory situations
- Aspects of relational work in the response letters
- 6.1. Introduction
- 6.2. Methodology
- 6.3. Results and discussion
- 6.3.1. Hedging
- 6.3.2. Empathizing
- 6.3.3. Bonding
- 6.3.4. Praising
- 6.3.5. Boosting
- 6.3.6. Criticizing
- 6.3.7. The use of humor
- 6.4. Summary and evaluation
- The personal and public dimension of advice-giving in the response letters
- 7.1. Introduction
- 7.2. The tension between the personal and public dimension in the response letters of the subcorpus
- 7.2.1. Choice of problem letter to be answered
- 7.2.2. Wording of title
- 7.2.3. Broadening the scope of the response letter
- 7.2.4. Evaluating the advice-seeker's attitudes and actions
- 7.2.5. Bonding with and showing empathy for the advice-seeker
- 7.2.6. Addressing the wider readership directly
- 7.3. `Lucy Answers' over time: A comparison of new and old response letters in the archive
- 7.4. Summary
- Lucy's voice
- 8.1. Introduction
- 8.2. Results and discussion
- 8.2.1. Lucy's name, self-reference and address terms
- 8.2.2. Lucy presents herself as a competent and knowledgeable source of accurate information
- 8.2.3. The realization of advice: Lucy makes readers think and gives options
- 8.2.4. Lucy chooses an easily accessible, informal and inoffensive range of vocabulary
- 8.2.5. Lucy has an opinion
- 8.2.6. Lucy shows awareness of difficult situations
- 8.2.7. Lucy has a sense of humor
- 8.3. Summary
- The problem letters by the anonymous advice-seekers
- 9.1. Introduction
- 9.2. Methodology
- 9.3. The composition of the problem letter
- 9.3.1. Number of words and number of units in a problem letter
- 9.3.2. Number and type of discursive moves overall
- 9.3.3. Number of discursive moves in a unit
- 9.3.4. Sequence of discursive moves
- 9.3.5. Summary
- 9.4. Aspects of relational work in the advice-seekers' problem letters
- 9.5. The linguistic realization of discursive moves
- 9.5.1. The address form and mention of Lucy in the body of the problem letter
- 9.5.2. Questions
- 9.5.3. Requests for advice
- 9.5.4. Background information
- 9.5.5. Problem statements
- 9.5.6. Apology, comments on previous records, compliments, explanations, metacomments, and thanks
- 9.5.7. The pseudonyms of the advice-seekers
- 9.6. Discussion of a selection of problem letters
- 9.7. Summarizing remarks and the links between the problem and response letters
- Part IV
- Factors constituting the discursive practice in `Lucy Answers'
- Notes
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10
- Appendix
- References
- Index
- The Pragmatics & Beyond New Series
