Generic Structure Of Persuasion-oriented General Science And Technology Discourse

Technical discourse with persuasive purpose is most influential to common people, and they are termed as Persuasion-oriented General Science and Technology (PGST) discourses in this study.This study is conducted within the framework of functional perspectives to discourse genres. The generic structure analysis approaches taken by Swales (1990), Bhatia (1993) are employed to study the generic structure of PGST discourse. The study attempts to arrive at a pattern which is expected to interpret how the communicative purpose is achieved step by step. Meanwhile the study would also further explain this process from a macro perspective with Aristotle's Three Means of Persuasion (logos, ethos and pathos) and from a micro perspective by its stylistic features at lexical, syntactical and discourse levels with functional linguistic theories.Nine samples are analyzed in this thesis, all of which are collected from world famous and widely distributed science and technology magazines or journals. The concepts of"Moves"and"Steps"are used to discover how minor Steps gradually come to a Move in these samples. Through the two-level analysis, a clear and simplified structure of each sample can be discovered. Through a comprehensive comparison and extraction of the generic structure of each sample, a general generic structure of PGST discourse is concluded.The detailed analysis in Chapter 4 identifies a general generic structure for PGST discourse—"WHAT-WHY-HOW-ACTION"four move pattern, that is, Answering WHAT, Answering WHY, Answering HOW, Calling for Action Pattern. Move 1 introduces the topic of its discourse in order to answer what will be mainly discussed in this discourse; Move 2 presents the reasons why people need to accept the opinion promoted by the discourse; Move 3 points out the practical methods to follow the instructions; Move 4 reiterates the importance and necessity of what is promoted. According to the analysis,"WHAT-WHY-HOW-ACTION"structure is employable to almost all the samples. Because of different contents and arrangements, some steps in certain moves are flexible, but most steps are comparatively fixed and crucial in the whole persuasion process, which agrees with the theory of GSP.Meanwhile, using Aristotle's three means of persuasion, a rhetoric interpretation of PGST discourse is conducted in Chapter 5. In terms of logos, by the order of moves and steps PGST discourse introduces information from abstract to concrete aspects and it use many quotations, citations and statistics to make the discourse authoritative and convincing. In terms of ethos, PGST discourse appeals to the means of ethos to enhance the effect of persuasion by objective description, knowledgeable and authoritative identification as well as powerful expression. By means of the move arrangement, step arrangement and lexical choices, PGST discourse appeals to pathos to be friendly, positive and reader-oriented in order to get desirable persuasive effect.Finally, in Chapter 6 a stylistic analysis on PGST discourse language has been done at lexical, syntactical and semantic levels respectively. It is found that at the lexical level, sub/non-technical words and spoken words are frequently used, and these words let the relationship between the writer and the reader much closer. At the same time some emotional words create a beneficial atmosphere for the whole discourse's persuasion. At the syntactical level, the active voice makes the communication more natural and lets readers accept the content of the discourse as a part of their personal life. What's more, the two forms of imperative sentences greatly enhance the persuasive effect. At the discourse level, the implicature is sometimes working as a cohesive device in PGST discourse. With those invisible devices, PGST discourse tends to be more logical and understandable and also could better fulfill its persuasive process.Understanding the general generic structure of PGST discourse would be beneficial for a better understanding of technical publication. A good command of the generic structure, rhetoric methods and stylistic features of PGST discourse would also lead to better effect of persuasion and let science serve the people more effectively.