universidade federal de santa catarina pós-graduação em letras ...

13way to verify the existence of variations in the basic schematic textual structure inresponse to variations in context.Different genres of written discourse are considered to have different patterns ofrhetorical structure, i.e., how the writer uses language to attain certain communicativepurposes in specific parts of the text. The conference abstract, for example, displays apattern of organization in functional sections that usually includes Introduction >Methods > Results > Conclusions (Kaplan et al., 1994). Such explorations into textstructure have been used for teaching purposes in academic writing courses (see, forexample, Swales and Feak, 1994). In addition to macro-structural features, genres areconsidered to have patterns of organization on a micro-level. Researchers haveinvestigated how the form and the meaning of different functional sections in writtengenres are realized by evaluative language (Hunston, 1994) or by unanalyzed linguisticconstructions such as lexical phrases (Nattinger and DeCarrico, 1992).I will adopt a combined approach to macro- and micro-structural features in orderto carry out a comparative study of generic features across the three selected disciplines.Genres have recurring form and style features that allow initiated members of academiccommunities to identify texts as exemplars of specific genres, i.e., engineers recognizegrants, scientists recognize lab reports, scholars recognize a research article. Based onthis property, one may be able to draw generalizations about such style and formfeatures in book reviews in the form of a schematic description of the genre. Suchdescription may be used by writing instructors and students in developing academicskills.