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

81Hence, there is a variety of reasons for writing BRs. In mainstream academia, it iscertainly not for projection or career progression but, to a certain extent, for socializingwith peers, maintaining contact among colleagues and for maintaining a powerfulposition evaluating advances in the discipline. Besides serving these purposes, BRs alsoprovide a way to novice or less known members to use journals as a forum to presentthemselves to colleagues as active participants in the disciplinary debate.3.2.4 Reasons for reading book reviewsContextual factors such as the high costs of books for personal purchase andthe need for efficient information on new material are the main reasons forreading book reviews.Contextual factors can indeed affect the use of a genre. The cost of books isgenerally appointed as the main reason for people to read a BR. For C, the high pricesthat chemistry books usually have persuade readers to consult BR sections first. It seemsthat book prices can affect the use of the genre: the more expensive the book, the morepeople read BRs to make a decision on the worth of the purchase:[C]Specialists learn that the book exists and readers can make a decision aboutpersonal purchase or can recommend that the university library buy it if it is tooexpensive.The chemistry reviewer seems the most concerned about the expenses involved inthe whole academic activity when he calls attention to subscription prices: