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Genre analysis today

Article in Revue belge de philologie et d histoire · January 1997

DOI: 10.3406/rbph.1997.4186

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 Vijay K. Bhatia

Genre analysis today

In: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire. Tome 75 fasc. 3, 1997. Langues et littératures modernes - Moderne taal-
en letterkunde. pp. 629-652.

Citer ce document / Cite this document :

K. Bhatia Vijay. Genre analysis today. In: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire. Tome 75 fasc. 3, 1997. Langues et littératures
modernes - Moderne taal- en letterkunde. pp. 629-652.

doi : 10.3406/rbph.1997.4186

http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rbph_0035-0818_1997_num_75_3_4186
 Genre analysis
today
Vijay Κ. Bh άτια

1 . Introduction
Although genre analysis is a relatively recent development in the field of
Applied discourse studies, it has become extremely popular in the last few
years. The interest in genre theory and its applications is no longer restricted to a
specific set of researchers in any one field or in any particular section of the globe,
but has grown to be of a much wider significance than what was envisaged at one
time. Candlin (1993) rightly asks,
What is it about the term and the area of study it represents that attracts such attention ?
What is it that will bring together under one terminological roof literary scholars,
rhetoricians, sociologists, cognitive scientists, machine translators, computational linguists
and discourse analysts, ESP specialists and language teachers ? What is it... that will allow
us to bring into the same fold, advertising copywriters, business communication experts and
Plain English campaigners ? (Candlin : 1993)

« Clearly a concept », he points out, « that has found its time. » There are
obvious attractions in the way the term has been variously used in recent
literature. The very nature of generic framework is multidisciplinary. Genre theory
extends discourse analysis from linguistic description to explanation, often
attempting to answer the question, why do members of specific discourse
communities use the language the way they do ? The answer takes into account
not only socio-cultural but cognitive factors too, thereby attempting to clarify not
only the communicative goals of the discourse community in question but also the
cognitive strategies employed by its members to achieve these goals. This tactical
aspect of genre construction, its interpretation and use is probably one of the most
significant factors that accounts for its current popularity in the field of discourse
and communication studies. One of the disadvantages of such a popularity is that
the more popular a concept becomes, the more variations in interpretation,
orientation and framework one is likely to find in published literature. Discourse
analysts interested in genre theory find themselves in a somewhat similar situation
today.
In this paper, I would like to clarify the theory of genre analysis to see what is
common in its various manifestations, to identify some of the important issues
raised in recent literature, and to discuss implications of these issues for further
development of the theory and its applications to the teaching and learning of
languages.

2 . Genre analysis
Genre Analysis is the study of situated linguistic behaviour in institutionalised
academic or professional settings, whichever way one may look at it ; whether in
630 VIJAY Κ. BHATIA
terms of typification of rhetorical action, as in Miller (1984), and Berkenkotter
and Huckin (1995) ; regularities of staged, goal oriented social processes, as in
Martin, Christy and Rothery (1987) and Martin (1993) ; or consistency of
communicative purposes, as in Swales (1990) and Bhatia (1993). Genre theory, in
spite of these seemingly different orientations, covers a considerable common
ground. Although I would like to resist the temptation of going into an
exhaustive account of the overlap between these orientations, it is worth pointing
out some of the important features which characterise these competing
frameworks. The first one is the emphasis on conventional knowledge, which
gives individual genres their integrity and all the three frameworks consider this as
central to any form of generic description. The second one is the versatility of the
generic descriptions, and the third one, though it may appear to be somewhat
contradictory to the first one, is the propensity for innovation, which comes from
the essentially dynamic nature of genre. Let me give substance to these three
aspects of genre theory.

2.1. Conventional knowledge

Genres are essentially defined in terms of the use of language in
conventionalised communicative settings, which give rise to specific sets of
communicative goals for specialised disciplinary and social groups, which in turn
establish relatively stable structural forms and, to some extent, even constrain the
use of lexico-grammatical resources. As indicated earlier, there are at least three
interrelated aspects of conventions that have figured prominently in genre literature
and all of them are crucial to our discussion here : (a) recurrence of rhetorical
situations, (b) shared communicative purposes and (c) regularities of structural
organisation.
The first one is more or less directly related to socio-cultural context and
situated in specific disciplinary cultures. In order to identify typical rhetorical
situations one may need to characterise the relevant socio-rhetorical context in which
a particular communicative event takes place. A good and adequate understanding
of a typical rhetorical situation leads to an identification of the communicative
purpose(s) which are mutually shared by the participants typically associated with a
particular discourse community. Shared communicative purposes are thus
embedded within the relevant rhetorical context. Taking it a step further in the
direction of linguistic form, it is then possible to identify typical regularities of
organisational and structural forms, which often give shape to a generic
construct. For a number of applied concerns, especially language teaching,
therefore, the concept of rhetorical situation is perhaps the most general one, which
provides a necessary framework within which one can locate communicative
purposes, which in turn are realised in somewhat typical uses of lexico-grammar
and discoursal forms. For the study of genre, especially for applied linguistic
purposes, all the three inter-related levels of generic description are important. I do
not see any tension in these so-called competing frameworks at this stage. In fact,
they appear to complement each other, providing not only support and useful
 GENRE ANALYSIS TODAY 631

explanation but also validity to the deconstruction of generic constructs. The notion
of communicative purpose seems to be more central to genre theory, in that
it is embedded within specific rhetorical contexts, on the one hand, and
invariably determines specific choices in structural and lexico-grammatical forms,
on the other.
Another important point to note in the three orientations is the emphasis in all
of them on certain specific aspects of genre description, either in terms of
recurrence, sharing or regularities, all of which highlight conventional aspects of
genre construction and interpretation. Whichever way one may look at it (see
Jamieson : 1973 ; Swales : 1990 ; Miller : 1984 ; Martin : 1985 ; Dudley-
Evans : 1986 ; Bhatia : 1993 and 1994), the most common denominator has
always been the conventionalised, institutionalised and allowable (rather than the
creative, innovative and exploitable) aspects of genre construction. To a large extent
this is quite understandable also. As Swales (1990) maintains, genres are not
created overnight. They evolve over a period of time and are not recognisable till
they become somewhat standardised. In this context, genre theory has placed a
strong emphasis on the institutionalised aspects of genre construction and
interpretation.
Fairclough (1989, p. 59) illustrates the importance of conventions by
considering medical encounter between a male gynaecologist and his female
patient. Often, the gynaecologist needs to reassure his patient in his soft and
soothing voice at the time of internal examination, « now relax as much as you can,
I'll be as gentle as I can ». Quite appropriately, Fairclough asks, « what is there in
this brief encounter that helps the patient to interpret it as a medical rather than
sexual encounter ? ». In answer he points out,
... the constraints on the settings of gynaecological examinations are of major significance
in guaranteeing that the encounter is indeed a medical one... Such examinations can
legitimately be undertaken only in « medical space » ~ a hospital or a consulting room —
which implies the presence of a whole range of medical paraphernalia which help to
legitimise the encounter.

Any attempt to overlook, ignore or undermine the power of conventions in

such encounters can result in disastrous consequences. Obviously, generic
conventions go a long way to maintain desirable communicative climate and social
order in civilised professional communities.

2.2. Generic versatility

The second most important aspect of genre theory is its versatility, which can
be seen operating at various levels. It is a theoretical model for specifying the
relationship between (a) text and context in a very narrow sense ; (b) what people
do with language and what makes this possible, especially in the context of
specific disciplinary cultures ; and (c) language and culture, in its broadest sense,
on the other.
632 VIJAYΚ. BHATIA

The versatility of genre-based linguistic description can be seen at a number of

levels of generic description. Using communicative purpose associated with a
specific rhetorical situation as a privileged criterion, genre theory combines the
advantages of a more general view of language use on the one hand, and its very
specific realisation, on the other (Swales : 1990, p. 58 ; Bhatia : 1993). In this
sense, genre analysis is truly narrow in focus and broad in vision. The concept of
communicative purpose itself is very versatile. On the one hand, it can be identified
at a fairly high level of generalisation, whereas on the other hand, it can be
narrowed down to a very specific level. Also, it may either be a single
communicative purpose or a more detailed set of communicative purposes.
Depending upon the level of generalisation and detail at which one specifies
communicative purpose(s), one may be in a position to identify the status of a
particular genre and its use of generic conventions. Let me give some substance to
this by taking up the case of what is commonly known as promotional discourse
(see the following diagram).

Genres
identified in terms of
communicative purposes
I
achieved through the rhetorical processes of
narration description evaluation explanation instruction

giving shape to products like

promotional genres

I I
blurbs
book reviews
book Advertisements letters
sales applications
job

TV print radio
commercials advertisements advertisements

: I I
computer ads book ads airlines ads car ads cosmetic ads

I I
vacation ads ads for business travelers

Levels of Generic Description

 GENRE ANALYSIS TODAY 633
Although genres are essentially identified in terms of communicative purposes
they tend to serve, these communicative purposes can be characterised at various
levels of generalisations. They can be realised in terms of a combination of
rhetorical processes, which can also be considered as primary generic
values. Halliday and his associates, working within a systemic orientation to genre
description, have used this notion very successfully in teaching genres at school
level (see Reid : 1987). In the case of professional genres, it is always possible to
posit several levels of generalisation. To take the case of promotional genres, one
may find at the highest level of generalisation « promotional discourse » in the
form of a constellation of several closely-related genres with an overlapping
communicative purpose of promoting a product or service to a potential
customer. Some of the common examples of promotional genres may include
advertisements, promotional letters, job applications (in the sense that their purpose
is also to sell the services of the applicant to a potential employer, see Bhatia :
1993), book blurbs, company brochures, travel brochures and a number of
others. All these and a number of other instances of this kind have a large degree of
overlap in the communicative purposes they tend to serve and that is the
main reason why they are seen as forming a closely-related discourse colony,
serving more or less a common promotional purpose, in spite of the fact that some
of them may also display subtle differences in their realisations. It is further
possible for us to view any one of these genres, advertisements for example, at a
lower level of generalisation and make distinctions between more specific
realisations of this genre. Obvious examples will include print advertisements, TV
commercials, radio advertisements and others. The differences between these are
less discernible in terms of communicative purposes but more in terms of the
medium of discourse and therefore as genres, they belong to the same broad -
category, popularly known as advertisements. Taking a step further, this time
considering only print advertisements, it is further possible to view these in terms of
categories like straight-line advertisements, picture-caption reminder
advertisements, image-building advertisements, testimonials, pretend genres
etc. (Kathpalia : 1992). Whatever the sub-category, all these advertisements serve
the same set of communicative purposes, though most of them use different
strategies to promote the product or service. Straight-line advertisements most often
use « product appraisal » as the main persuasive strategy, whereas Image-building
advertisements rely more heavily on establishing credentials as the main source of
persuasion. Another variation one may find in the use of linguistic resources is that
some types rely on verbal strategies (straight-line advertisements using product
appraisal) while others, for example picture-caption advertisements, rely more on
visual inputs. Once again, it is possible for us to take up straight-line
advertisements and differentiate them further either in terms of their use of linguistic
features for product evaluation, or maybe in terms of the kind of product they
advertise, or even in terms of the audience they serve. In each case, we are sure to
find subtle differences in the use of strategies for product description, evaluation,
product differentiation, and these eventually giving rise to specific uses of linguistic
634 VIJAYΚ. BHATIA

resources. But the interesting thing is that all these variations become distinctive
genres only at a level at which they start indicating a substantial difference in their
communicative purposes.
The interesting thing about genre theory is that, whether one uses rhetorical
situation or communicative purpose as a privileged criterion, it implies that so long
as the communicative purpose remains the same, the texts in question are identified
as closely related genres. As we move down from the top level to the lower levels
of generalisation, we need to define communicative purpose(s) in an increasing
order of specificity and detail, if we need at all to distinguish them as genres or sub-
genres. In other words, it is possible for a genre analyst to look for either
similarities or differences between various members of a colony of genres. If one's
interest is in looking for generic subtleties, he or she will be required to define
communicative purposes at an appropriately lower level of specificity, whereas if
one needs to distinguish a variety of specific realisations of the somewhat similarly
related genres, he or she will need to specify communicative purposes at a higher
level of generality.

2.3. Generic integrity v. propensity for innovation:

In the preceding sections I have made an attempt to emphasise that genres are
identifiable as a result of conventionalised and institutionalised discoursal practices
of specific discourse communities. It is this conventionalised knowledge of the
way genres are constructed, interpreted and used within a specific discourse
community that gives its legitimate members an advantage over others who
are outsiders. In other words, it is this knowledge of generic conventions which
helps expert professionals to identify them (Bhatia : 1993). However, it is
interesting to note that although genres are typically associated with recurring
rhetorical contexts, and are identified on the basis of shared communicative
purposes with constraints on allowable contributions in the use of lexico-
grammatical and discoursal forms, they are dynamic constructs. Berkenkotter and
Huckin (1995) point out that

... genres are inherently dynamic rhetorical structures that can be manipulated according to
conditions of use, and that genre knowledge is therefore best conceptualised as a form of
situated cognition embedded in disciplinary cultures.

Emphasis on conventions and propensity for innovation : these two features

of genre theory appear to be contradictory in character. One tends to view genre as
a rhetorically situated, highly institutionalised textual event, having its own what I
have elsewhere called « generic integrity » (Bhatia :1993) ; whereas on the other
hand, genres are also attributed with a natural propensity for innovation and change,
which is often exploited by the expert members of the specialist community to create
new forms in order to respond to familiar and not so familiar rhetorical contexts.
This gives most genres a kind of dynamic complexity which is often attributed to
the use of multi-media, explosion of information technology, multi-disciplinary
 GENRE ANALYSIS TODAY 635

contexts in the world of work, increasingly competitive professional (academic as

well ^as business) environment, and above all to the urge to be creative and
innovative in professional communication.
Genres are typically situated in specific socio-rhetorical contexts, and thus
shape future rhetorical responses to similar situations ; they have always been
viewed as « sites of contention between stability and change » (Berkenkotter and
Huckin : 1995, p. 6). It may be that a person is required to respond to a somewhat
changing socio-cognitive need, requiring him to negotiate his response in the light
of recognisable or established conventions, since genres do change over time in
response to changing socio-cognitive needs. This expertise to respond to novel
rhetorical contexts on the basis of established generic knowledge also gives
considerable tactical freedom to expert members of the discourse community in
question to manipulate generic resources and conventions « to express private
intentions within the framework of socially recognised communicative purposes »
(Bhatia : 1993). However, as Bhatia (1995) points out,
Genre conventions are often exploited by expert members of the discourse communities to
create new forms ; however, such liberties, innovations, creativities, exploitations,
whatever one may choose to call them, are invariably realised within rather than outside the
generic boundaries, whichever way one may draw them, in terms of recurrence of rhetorical
situations (Miller, 1984), consistency of communicative purposes (Swales 1990, and
Bhatia, 1993), or arrangement of obligatory structured elements (Halliday and Hasan,
1985). It is never a free-for-all kind of activity. The nature of genre manipulation is
invariably realised within the broad limits of specific genres and is often very subtle. A
serious disregard for these generic conventions leads to opting out of the genre and is noticed
by the specialist community as odd.

Such is the power of genre, to which we shall come back in the later sections
of the paper. However, at this stage, I would like to look at the complexities of
the world of work and discuss how genre theory is likely to cope with these
realities.

3 . Genre mixing and embedding

In the present-day competitive professional and academic climate, genres are
seldom seen to maintain static values. These are being increasingly exploited by
expert professionals to create more hybrid genres, especially as a result of an
overwhelmingly compulsive nature of promotional and advertising activities. It is
hardly surprising that our present-day world of work is being increasingly identified
as a « consumer culture » (Featherstone : 1991). The inevitable result of this is
that many of the institutionalised genres, whether they are social, professional or
academic, are seen as incorporating elements of promotion. Fairclough (1993,
p. 141), referring to such changes in discursive practices, points out,
. . . there is an extensive restructuring of boundaries between orders of discourse and between
discursive practices ; for example, the genre of consumer advertising has been colonising
professional and public service orders of discourse on a massive scale, generating many new
hybrid partly promotional genres...
636 VIJAY Κ. BHATIA

As an instance of such a hybrid genre, Fairclough (1993) discusses the case

of contemporary university prospectuses, where he highlights an increasing
tendency towards marketization of the discursive practices of British
universities. Martin (1985, p. 250) rightly points out, «... genres are how things
get done, when language is used to accomplish them ». And, as demands on
communicative practices become increasingly complex, expert professionals begin
to respond to novel rhetorical situations by using established and more often, a
number of innovative strategies to achieve a variety of complex goals.
This process of exploiting the established generic values to create mixed or
embedded generic constructs is always viewed by members of professional
communities as tactically superior and effective. The exploitation of generic
resources to create mixed or embedded forms is always based on whatever is
already established in the professional community. It is almost like the advertiser's
exploitation of the cliché The shape of things to come in the following opening
headline of an advertisement for a car.

« The shape of cars to come : Mitsubishi Cordia »

Or, the use of the famous statement about the British colonial empire in the
Lufthansa advertisement, The sun never sets on Lufthansa territory, or in the
following slogan for energy conservation, which says, Don't befuelish, where the
whole idea of waste of energy is lost unless it is associated with « Don't be
foolish ». The whole point about such associations is that they communicate best
in the context of what is already familiar. In such contexts, words on their own
carry no meanings ; it is the experience which gives them the desired effect.
Therefore, the moment one deviates too much from the original experience, the
effect can be lost. Again, if one is not familiar with the original, value of the
innovation is undermined. Just as the advertiser makes use of the well-known and
the familiar in existing knowledge, a clever genre writer makes use of what is
conventionally available to a discourse community to further his or her own subtle
ends. The innovation, the creativity or the exploitation becomes effective only in
the context of the already available and familiar. As Fowler puts it,
The writer is invited to match experience and form in a specific yet undetermined
way. Accepting the invitation does not solve his problems of expression... But it gives
him access to formal ideas as to how a variety of constituents might suitably be combined.
(Fowler: 1982, p. 31)

In fact, the notion of creativity is the very essence of the way genres are
defined. It is clearly implied in the definition of genre in Swales (1990, p. 58)
when he says, « A genre comprises a class of communicative events, the members
of which share some set of communicative purposes. » Bhatia (1993, p. 13)
associates this tactical aspect of genre construction with « a clever exploitation of
generic conventions by expert members of the professional community » when
 GENRE ANALYSIS TODAY 637

they mix socially recognised communicative purposes with their private intentions.
Whatever the explanation, genres very rarely if ever serve single purposes ; they
have a set of purposes, but the set, more often than not, is a mixture of
complementary purposes. It will not be wrong to claim that these purposes
themselves have « generic values », if we can separately identify them. In a
promotional genre, for example, the generic values of « description » and
« evaluation » are used as one of the many persuasive strategies to achieve the
right promotional effect. This use of description in a promotional genre is
somewhat different from the one that is central to a book review. In a review, we
often find a more balanced description of the book, (incorporating positive as well
as negative aspects), whereas in the case of a promotional book blurb, it is
invariably a positive description and evaluation that is used for a desired persuasive
effect.
In advertising, a partial description and positive evaluation of the product is
always preferred, even where the product advertiser is required by law to include a
balanced description, as in the case of cigarette advertisements or more recently,
advertisements for investments, where one often finds in small print a mention of
either a statutory warning « Cigarette smoking is injurious to health » or, « Price
and income of units can go down as well as up and past performance is no
guarantee of future returns ».
Genres, in this sense, have a natural propensity for embedding and mixing, in
that most genres have more than one generic value (see Bhatia : 1995). The
following advertisement for a job, for example (p. 638), has two different but
rather complementary generic values.
The opening section from « Scitex Corporation Ltd is a world leader... » to
the end of the first paragraph ending with «... for marketing and customer
support » has the promotional input (description and positive evaluation), which is
very typical of the promotional literature. A good majority of promotional
letters begin with such openings attempting to establish credentials of the
company. It is true that such opening statements are not uncommon in job
advertisements ; however, it is the size of the move rather than its presence or
absence in this case which is the issue. Also, compare the space devoted to the
job description, which is the main communicative purpose of the
advertisement. There can be several explanations for the mixing of the two rather
closely related generic values. A good reason for emphasising company credentials
rather than job description may be that the company wishes to attract candidates by
capitalising on the reputation of the company. The other reason may be that the
company does not wish to disclose specific requirements of the job in question and
by doing this they would like to keep initiative entirely within their own
control. Yet another reason could be that the company has no detailed job
specification in mind, but would not want to give a brief four-line advertisement,
which might reflect adversely on the company credentials. Whatever the reason, the
point is that there is a mixing of generic values. The mixing is done in a manner
638 VIJAYΚ. BHATIA

that the promotional generic value reinforces the communicative purpose of job
advertising.

ELECTRONIC SUPPORT ENGINEERS

. (4 POSITIONS)

Scitex Corporation Ltd is a world leader in colour electronic

prepress system for the graphic design, printing and publishing
markets. The Company has an extensive range of products that
includes creative layout and design systems, image digitizing
scanners, color workstations for page assembly and retouching,
digital proofers, imagesetters and communication devices.
Regional subsidiaries in North America, Europe, Japan and Hong
Kong are responsible for marketing and customer support.

Our subsidiary in Hong Kong has an opening for 4 new positions

for Electronic Support engineers. The suitable candidates must
have a university degree in Electronics or Mechanical Engineering,
with a minimum experience of 3 years in High Tech Electronic
Systems.

We offer attractive remuneration. Please send c.v. before January

15th to :

Scitex Asia Pacific (H.K.) Ltd.

8/F Park Avenue Tower, 5 Moroton Terrace
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Kathpalia (1992), in a very detailed study of promotional genres, gives a

good account of variation in communicative purposes in advertising and makes a
strong case for generative power of genres.
...the varying communicative purposes of promotional genres like those in which the goal
is one of establishing the company behind the advertised item,· that of building an awareness
in prospective clientele of the company or product name..., have given rise to sub-
categories like... the Pretend Genres which ape the format of other genres... This generative
procedure of genre creation or development is more popular in... advertisements as
copywriters are constantly vying with each other to be unique and innovative in a market
which is flooded by competing brands of products and services and an equally large number
of advertisements.... ( Kathpalia : 1992, p. 394)

As against genre-mixing, as in the previous example, we also come across

instances of genre-embedding in advertising, which has been referred to as pretend
 GENRE ANALYSIS TODAY 639
genres (Kathpalia :1992), where we find two or more generic patterns, embedded
one within the other. Let me illustrate this with the following example.

OVERHEARD AT FANLING GOLF COURSE

1st PLAYER : « How was your trip to Indonesia ? »

2nd player : « Great. Got all the business done... and got in a spot of
golf. »
1st PLAYER : « Hear business is booming there ? »
2nd player : « Yes. We're very optimistic on the future, so we're
opening an office in Jakarta next month. »
1st PLAYER : « So you're heavily invested there ? »
2nd player : « Well, the company is. My investments are more liquid. I
prefer to buy shares in funds. »
1st player : « I thought you liked Indonesia ? »
2nd PLAYER : « I do. I've invested in the Barclays Indonesia Fund. It's
up 60% over the past three years *. »
1st PLAYER : « Sounds good. Know anyone there? »
2nd PLAYER : « Call my contact at Barclays, Sarah Robbins, on
826 1988, or your investment adviser can help."
1st PLAYER : « Thanks. I'll follow it up. By-the-way, you just played
my ball. »
* Source Micropal 01/10/91 to 17/10/94

Dear Sarah,

I recently heard about the great performance of the Barclays Indonesia Fund.
Please send me information on how I too can benefit from Barclays' Asian
expertise with as little as US$1,500. My business card is enclosed. Thanks.

HK
IFA
BARCLAYS

LOGO BARCLAYS
BARCLAYS INTERNATIONAL FUND MANAGERS

Level 16, Two Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Hong Kong

Tel. 826 1988 Fax : 523 5128

It must be remembered that the value of shares and the income from them
can decrease, as well as increase and the past performance figures shown
are not indicative of future performance.
640 VIJAYΚ. BHATIA

There are at least two other genres which are embedded within the advertising
one. The main information about investment opportunities is conveyed in the
conventional genre of conversation and then there is the other conventional genre of
letter used to solicit more information. These two genres are then embedded within
the conventional advertisement with the standard signature line, logo and the rest of
it. The intention here is to attract the attention of the potential customer by strategies
other than the conventional headings and pictures.
Sometimes advertisers may resort to very clever and subtle use of suggestive
headlines in an advertisement to « convey private intentions » within the socially
recognised communicative purpose of promoting a product or service, as we find in
the following headline for property finance.

« Uncommonly Flexible. International Property Finance From... »

It may appear to be a perfectly normal headline in an unmarked

situation. However, in the immediate local context, it is neither innocent nor
straightforward. This advertisement appeared a day after the government in Hong
Kong imposed tighter controls over mortgage lending financial institutions,
reducing lending ratios from 60 per cent down to 50 per cent to private property
buyers for flats valued at more than $ 5 million. On the face of it, it was a perfectly
allowable conventionalised strategy to offer services to suit the individual
requirements of clients ; however the private intention was to drop a subtle hint to
the clever clients that the bank in question is « uncommonly flexible ».
Although it is true that of all the professional genres, it is the promotional
ones, particularly advertising, which display maximum creativity in the construction
and use of generic resources ; the other genres can be equally
vulnerable. Sometimes this kind of creativity and variability results in
tentativeness in the context of generic identification. The case of introductory
genres which are often found on the first few pages of books is an interesting
one. « Introduction », «preface», «foreword» and «acknowledgements»
are all used in the publishing industry with a remarkable degree of flexibility, so
much so that even the best of dictionaries give up when it comes to drawing a fine
distinction between at least three of them, namely « introduction », « preface »
and « foreword ». Let me consider the following instances to see how
practitioners manage to exploit them in various permutations and combinations.
INTRODUCTION
Discourse analysis examines how stretches of language, considered in their full
textual, social, and psychological context, become meaningful and unified for their users...
[It then continues with the discussion of the field, indicating its importance for language
teaching]
This book aims to explain the theory of discourse analysis and to demonstrate its
practical relevance to language learning and teaching. Section one examines... Section two
explores... [It then gives the description of the content of the book]
 GENRE ANALYSIS TODAY 641

There are several people 1 want to thank for their friendship and help... [The
introduction ends with acknowledgments] (Cook : 1989)

PREFACE

It is arguable that the most crucial problem at present facing foreign language
teaching syllabus designers, and ultimately materials producers, in the field of language for
specific purposes, is how to specify validly the target communicative competence... [The
introduction attempts to establish a niche for the book]
In the preparation of this book I was influenced at the macro-level by the
sociolinguistic writings of Dell Hymes and Michael Halliday, and at a more micro-level by
the work of, in particular, Henry Widdowson, David Wilkins... [The introduction ends
with acknowledgments] (Munby : 1978)

FOREWORD

This book, which is based on the teaching given in the Ordinary Course in Phonetics
at Edinburgh University, is intended to provide an introduction to the subject as traditionally
understood and practised in Britain: it deals. ..with phonetics as part of general
linguistics... [// begins by describing the book positively and establishing its orientation]
My debt to the great phoneticians of the English speaking tradition — Alexander
Melville Bell, Alexander J. Ellis, Henry Sweet, Daniel Jones, Kenneth Lee Pike — must
be apparent on nearly every page. 1 owe especial thanks to... [The introduction ends with
acknowledgments] (Abercrombie : 1967)

The three examples here display a remarkable degree of overlap in content and
communicative intent, in that all of them begin with a good positive description of
the book followed by the writer's acknowledgement of gratitude, but have been
given different names. Although, as Swales (1990) rightly points out, the
knowledgeable members of professional communities give genre names to classes
of communicative events, these very generic constructs are often manipulated by the
expert members of the community to reflect the changing realities of the world of
work.

4 . Genre and authority

In the preceding sections of the paper, I have claimed that genres derive their
authority from conventions, which is based on the belief that all discourse forms,
especially those used in institutionalised contexts are socially determined. As
Bruffee (1986 : 777) points out, there is always a kind of « consensus or an
agreement » among the members of specific disciplinary communities to structure
knowledge in specific discursive forms. Goodrich (1987) also explains this
institutionalisation of discoursal practices in terms of « social authorship » as
against the more familiar subjective authorship.
The right to a discourse is organized and restricted by a wide variety of means, to particular
roles, statuses, professions and so on. Similarly the institutionalisation of discourse is
limited in terms of its legitimate appropriation, and the restrictive situations of its reception
— church, court, school, hustings and so on.
642 VIJAYΚ. BHATIA

Foucault (1981) also sees social authorship of discourse in terms of the

institutional status of the speaker and the institutional sites from which the
authorised speaker makes his discourse and from which the discourse derives its
« legitimate source and point of application », when he says :

Who is speaking ? Who, among the totality of speaking individuals, is accorded the right to
use this sort of language ? Who is qualified to do so ? Who derives from it his own special
quality, his prestige, and from 'whom, in return, does he receive if not the assurance, at least
the presumption that what he says is true ? What is the status of the individuals who —
alone — have the right, sanctioned by law or tradition, juridically defined or spontaneously
accepted, to proffer such a discourse ?

Like other forms of discourse, genres are also socially constructed and are
even more intimately controlled by social practices. Genres are the media through
which members of professional or academic communities communicate with each
other. They are, as Berkenkotter and Huckin (1995) point out,
... intimately linked to a discipline's methodology, and they package information in ways
that conform to a discipline's norms, values and ideology.

Myers, (1995) likewise points out,

Disciplines are like cultures in that their members have shared, taken for granted beliefs ;
these beliefs can be mutually incomprehensible between cultures ; these beliefs are encoded
in a language ; they are embodied in practices ; new members are brought into culture
through rituals. (Myers : 1995, p. 5)

The consensus is arrived at and negotiated through professional conversations

and practices amongst the informed and practising members of a professional
community. Interactions and conversations enable consensus, on the one hand, and
have a regulatory or limiting effect on the other, as to what should or should not be
admitted into a community's body of knowledge.
Genres, thus, are socially authorised through conventions, and are embedded
in the discursive practices of members of specific disciplinary cultures. These
discursive practices, to a large extent, reflect not only conventions used by specific
disciplinary communities, but also social conventions, including social changes,
social institutions and social knowledge, all of which, in a way, could be seen as
significantly contributing to what in genre theory is regarded as « genre
knowledge ». Genres are products of an understanding or a prior knowledge of
generic conventions. These generic conventions are responsible for regulating
generic constructs, giving them what we have called generic integrity, and those
members of the specialist community who have acquired such a right to appropriate
generic forms alone have the power to not only to construct, interpret and use
generic resources but also to exploit them to create new forms, to mix generic
patterns and also to control responses of the outsiders. There can be no better
illustration of the saying « Knowledge is power » than the one in the case of
generic power. Power to use, interpret, exploit and innovate novel generic forms is
 GENRE ANALYSIS TODAY 643

the function of generic knowledge which is accessible only to legitimate members of

disciplinary communities.
Although a good understanding of genre knowledge is a pre-requisite to any
manipulation of generic resources, it is by no means sufficient to get such
innovations and exploitations accepted in a disciplinary community. Kress (1987)
mentions two significant ways in which generic innovations are accepted : they are
backed either by a stable social occasion or by authority.
Unless... there is a change in the social structures — and in the kinds of social occasions in
which texts are produced — the new generic forms are unlikely to succeed. That is why
childish innovations fail ; not because they do not constitute perfectly plausible solutions
to particular textual/cognitive problems, but because they are supported neither by a stable
social occasion, nor by « authority ». The latter is of course the case where a writer of
« authority » creates a new generic form, which, seemingly because of the writer's
authority alone, succeeds in establishing a new generic convention. (Kress : 1987, p. 42)

He continues,
Genres are cultural constructs, they are as culture determines. Challenging genres is
therefore challenging culture.... (Dixon) and I are in a position to risk and perhaps to
achieve that. However, it seems to me entirely inappropriate to ask those least able to carry
that burden... (Kress : 1987, p. 44)

How do these disciplinary communities maintain what we have called generic

integrity in their discursive practices ? Let us look at some of the more familiar
professional communities.

4.1. Maintaining generic integrity

In some forms of academic discourse, especially the research articles, one can
see generally two kinds of mechanism in place to ensure generic integrity : the peer
review process, and the editorial intervention. Both these mechanisms, though
operating at different levels, are actively invoked to ensure that all accounts of new
knowledge conform to the standards of institutionalised behaviour that is expected
by a community of established peers in a specific discipline. Although individual
judgements can vary within the membership of specific disciplinary communities, a
high degree of consensus is often ensured by selecting like-minded scholars from
within well-defined disciplinary boundaries. For example, if one were to survey a
few journals which regularly publish articles on discourse analysis, we will find
that although all of them publish articles on various aspects of discourse, they have
very different set of reviewers to certify accounts of knowledge claims for inclusion
in the respective journals. If one encounters names like Cazden, Geertz, Goffman,
Gumperz, Hymes, Milroy, Saville-Troike, Scollon, Tannen, and Zimmerman on
the editorial committee of a journal, one could safely guess that they will be unlikely
to accept articles outside a socio-linguistic orientation on discourse. Articles on
other aspects of discourse are more likely to be discouraged and even rejected. If
on the other hand, one finds names like Ackerman, Bazerman, Berkenkotter,
644 VIJAYΚ. BHATIA

Comprone, Doheny-Farina, Huckin, Linda Flower, Miller, or Odell, one would

expect them to welcome papers with a strong rhetorical orientation. Similarly, if one
finds names like Carter, Christie, Halliday, Hasan, Kress, Martin and Rothery, one
will come to the inevitable conclusion that the journal will favour a more systemic
orientation to discourse.
After peer review, the second most important intervention comes from the
editors, who enjoy all the power one can imagine to maintain the identity and
integrity of the research article genre. Berkenkottor and Huckin (1995) document
an in-depth and fascinating study of this kind of editorial control to maintain generic
integrity. They point out that for the construction and dissemination of knowledge
« textual activity » is as important as the « scientific activity ».
The importance of knowledge dissemination as distinct from knowledge
creation is also brought into focus in the importance given to the description of
previous research in academic publications. In order to become acceptable to the
specialist community of fellow researchers, one must relate his or her knowledge
claims to the accumulated knowledge of the discipline, without which his or her
claims in the field are unlikely to find recognition through publication. In this
context it is hardly surprising that literature review occupies an importance place in
the researcher's repertoire of skills in most academic disciplines. Referring to the
importance of citation in scientific research activity, Amsterdamska and Leydesdorff
(1989) point out,

In a scientific article « the new encounters the old » for the first time. This encounter has a
double significance since articles not only justify the new by showing that the result is
warranted by experiment or observation or previous theory, but also place and integrate
innovations into the context of « old » and accepted knowledge.... References which
appear in the text are the most explicit manner in which the arguments presented in the
article are portrayed as linked to other texts, and thus also to particular body of knowledge.
(Amsterdamska and Leydesdorff: 1989, p. 451)

4.2. Maintaining solidarity within a professional community

One of the most noticeable characteristics of any professional or academic
discourse community is the availability and typical use of a range of appropriate
genres, which their members think serve the goals of their community. The
recurrent use of such discoursal forms creates solidarity within its membership
giving them their most powerful weapon to keep the outsiders at a safe
distance. Hudson (1979) rightly claims,

If one wished to kill a profession, to remove its cohesion and its strength, the most
effective way would be to forbid the use of its characteristic language. (Hudson: 1979,
p. 1)

In this context, it is hardly surprising that most of the attempts by the

powerful reformist lobbies in many western democracies to introduce plain English
in legislative contexts are seen as imposition from outside and have been firmly
rejected by the professional legal community. In order to look at the context in
 GENRE ANALYSIS TODAY 645

which legislation is drafted, interpreted and used, we may need to adopt essentially
an ethnomethodological perspective and view this genre in its terms.
The main purpose of legislation, as Bhatia (1993) points out, is to govern the
behaviour of individuals and institutions in society through the use of rules and
regulations. In order to keep control firmly in the hands of the legislature rather
than the judiciary in a parliamentary democracy, statutory acts are written not only
clearly, precisely and unambiguously but ail-inclusively too. This rigour and
adequate specification of scope in legislation helps the legislature to control a totally
subjective and idiosyncratic interpretation of the statute book. This concern on the
part of the drafting community has always been of great importance. All other
concerns, especially those of ease of comprehensibility have played a secondary
role in the construction this genre. Various attempts, therefore, to reform legislative
language, including the ones by plain English campaign (see Thomas : 1985 ;
Eagleson : 1988 ; Kelly : 1988), have to a large extent met with very limited
success, for the simple reason that they are seen as transgression of the generic
integrity of the whole tradition in the legislative process. Although the plain English
movement has been quite effective in influencing the redrafting of general commerc
ial and administrative documents, including insurance policies, residential leases,
tax return forms, social benefit claim forms and other papers for better accessibility
and usability by a larger section of society, when it comes to legislative provisions,
it has not been able to soften the attitude of the parliamentary draftsmen significantly
in many of the Commonwealth countries. The argument for the preservation of the
generic characteristics of legislative discourse is that the real legislative power in all
parliamentary democracies must rest with the legislatures and not with the
judiciary. This is one of the important reasons why clarity, precision, unambiguity.
and all-inclusiveness are so highly prized in the British Legislative discourse, which
gives a relatively high degree of transparency to legislative intentions.
Although, as Fairclough (1992, p. :221) points out, a growing pressure for
« démocratisation » of discursive practices in a number of other professional
contexts is leading an increasing « fragmentation of discursive norms and
conventions », similar pressure to write legislation in plain English is consistently
and quite successfully being resisted by the legal community almost globally. The
reformist lobbies in many countries, especially in the United States, are becoming
extremely aggressive, but are unlikely to make any significant dent in the so-called
integrity of legislative genres, at least not in the foreseeable future. The legislative
community has been very successful in resisting any attempts by outsiders to
undermine the generic integrity of some of their most prestigious discursive forms.
Obviously, members of the legal community value their discursive practices and use
them to maintain solidarity within the community.

4.3. Privileged access to discursive practices

If, on the one hand, generic conventions give suitable expression to the
communicative intentions of genre writers (who are members of a particular
646 VIJAYΚ. BHATIA

discourse community), on the other hand, they also match their intentions against
their intended reader's expectations. This is possible only when all the participants
share, not only the code, but also the knowledge of the genre, which includes the
knowledge of its construction, interpretation and use. A necessary implication of
this shared genre knowledge is that it is not routinely available to the outsiders,
which creates a kind of social distance between the legitimate members of a
discourse community and those who are considered outsiders. Although this
creates conditions of homogeneity between the insiders, it at the same time increases
social distance between them and the outsiders, sometimes resulting in disastrous
consequences for the one who does not have access to such shared
knowledge. This knowledge could reside in the form of linguistic resources used to
construct a generic form, or it could be in the awareness of the rules of language
use, some of which are socially learnt, as the ones associated with classroom
discourse and other academic genres, while others can be legally enforced, such as
the ones associated with courtroom procedures. Courtroom is a highly formalised
setting in which negotiation of justice crucially depends on the contributions made
by witnesses ; however, all forms of behaviour, including who says what,
questioning and responding strategies of the participants, and even the content of
questions and answers, are tightly controlled by the rules of the game, from which
most of the witnesses are routinely excluded. Very few of them have any insider
knowledge as to how their contributions are received, interpreted and used by the
authorised players. Allen and Guy (1989) (citing a personal communication from
Worthington : 1984) report an excellent example of this kind of lack of shared
knowledge from an instance of courtroom encounter.

An off-duty policeman in a store had shot and killed an intruder. Investigation had
shown a set of burglar tools at the back of the store. The prosecutor was trying to show
that there was no ground for presuming criminal intent, and that this was cold-blooded
murder. The victim's wife was testifying for the prosecution. Here she is being cross-
examined by the defence.
Defence Lawyer : Could you tell the court and the jury what your husband's
occupation was ?
Wife : He was a burglar.
This supported the defence's contention of criminal intent, and secured acquittal for
the policeman.

If only the wife had been slightly more familiar with the conventions of the
courtroom examination, the task of the defence lawyer would not have become that
easy.
Another example of the use of insider information to get access to information
can be illustrated by the following headline from an advertisement for « The
Schroder Singapore Trust », which reads,

« The Schroder Singapore Trust Has Grown Over 60% In 3 Years »

 GENRE ANALYSIS TODAY 647

The information being given here can be extremely misleading, except to

those who are well aware of the discursive practices of the professional community
of financial managers. Anybody trying to make sense of this statement should know
that this 60% growth in three years on its face value could be misleading, to say the
least. Although it carries the usual statutory disclaimer in the form of a note in small
print saying, « Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance,
the price of units may fall as well as rise and cannot be guaranteed », a lay person
might still be led to think that his investment will probably get him close to 60%
return. The fact, on the other hand, could be that the unit value might have declined
by 100% in the last one year or so, and may still be showing the downward trend at
the time of the advertisement. There could be several other possible scenarios which
will only be accessible to those with the inside knowledge of the way these genres
functions rather than to outsiders.
If the power of genre can be seen as a legitimate force often used to maintain
solidarity within a disciplinary community, whereas on the other hand, it is used to
keep outsiders at a respectable distance. On the one hand, it empowers some
people, the insiders, while at the same time, it tends to silence others, especially the
outsiders.

4.4. Gate-keeping function of discourse communities

Berkenkotter and Huckin (1995) in their study of gate-keeping at an academic
convention present an interesting instance of the power of generic control in well-
defined contexts. On the basis of the analysis of abstracts submitted for the
Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), they claim that
the « high-rated abstracts... addressed topics of current interest to active,
experienced members of the rhetoric and composition community » and « were
seen by experienced insiders as novel » and usually « projected more of an insider
ethos ». Based on their study of CCCC abstracts for four years between 1988-92,
they find two main levels of gate-keeping :

(a) the external reviewers and (b) the program chair. We have observed many cases where
the reviewers rated an abstract Excellent and yet it was not included in the
program. Presumably, the chair disagreed with the reviewers' judgments.... In short, each
convention bears the stamp of its principal gatekeeper. (Berkenkotter and Huckin : 1995,
p. 115)

They further point out that,

In one particularly unfortunate case, a very interesting abstract was submitted to the
Technical Communication area one year, where it received an Excellent rating from a
reviewer and the program chair but was not included in the program (presumably because of
a bad « fit »). It was revised slightly and resubmitted the following year to the Discourse
Analysis area. Again it received an Excellent rating, but again it was not included in the
program. The author of this abstract probably never knew that she had written an
outstanding abstract. All she would have been told was that her paper had been rejected for
the program. (Berkenkotter and Huckin : 1995, p. 1 15)
648 VIJAY Κ. BHATIA

5 . Hegemony and World Englishes

Another important aspect of generic control raises the issue of hegemonic
attitude to maintain generic standards, which in much of contemporary discourse
and genre studies, are dominated, and even determined, by essentially western
conventions. Although it is true that English is the most dominant and widely used
global language for academic as well as professional purposes, it is no longer the
sole property of any one community of people, be they English, American,
Australian or any other. Like cricket, English has also become more universal
not only in usage but also in its character. True to the reality of present-day
variation in English, one needs to think in terms of world Englishes, rather than
English as a single monolithic variety of English. This variation in the use of
English across the globe is getting increasing recognition in the sociolinguistic
literature in the last decade or so, however in some of the genres, especially used in
the academia, the power to control and maintain generic standards can be and
often are interpreted in terms of the dominant community, which undoubtedly
happens to be western community. Any thing which appears to be different from
the norms set by the dominant community is viewed as deficient and in need of
correction.
In some areas, genre writers have become increasingly sensitive to local
knowledge and have started constructing, interpreting and using genres in forms
which display such sensitivities, especially in the case of advertising and some other
business genres, where it has become an established practice now to develop local
teams to act alongside the expatriates in most of the multinational advertising
companies. The reason for such sensitivities is also not difficult to understand. In
the case of academic genres, especially in research publication, the politics is still
controlled by those who have the power. Much of academic discourse still fails to
acknowledge the sources of variations, especially those of marginality and
exclusion, giving the impression as if there is, or should be, no variation in the way
genres are constructed, interpreted and used.

6 . Implications for language teaching

What are the implications of all this for language teaching ? Applied genre
analysis, unlike many other analytical frameworks, is neither static nor pres
criptive. Potentially, it is dynamic and explanatory. It is for the language teacher to
use it the way one would like to use it, for innovative exploitation of generic
resources or for a limited exposure to standardised generic contexts. Although it is
essential for the learner to be familiar with specific generic conventions associated
with a particular professional setting, it is neither necessary nor desirable to restrict
the experience of linguistic behaviour to just the conventionalised and standardised
aspects of genre construction and use.
How can one bring in creativity in genre-based language teaching and
learning ? Since genre analysis gives a grounded description of linguistic behaviour
in professional settings, it is possible to bring in a fair amount of creativity in
 GENRE ANALYSIS TODAY 649

language teaching by adjusting communicative purposes, the nature of participation

in a particular communicative setting, the social and professional relationship
between the participants taking part in a particular genre-construction exercise, and
above all, by bringing in variability in the use of generic strategies to achieve the
similar communicative purposes.
There are two schools of thought, I should say : those who believe in the
explicit teaching of genres, especially the regularities of textual form and
typifications, and others who see this as too constraining and advocate free express
ion.The truth, however, rests somewhere in the middle. All genres, primary as
well as secondary, involve regularities and hence, these regularities must be learnt
by anyone who has even the slightest ambition of being part of any specialist
disciplinary community. As Bhaktin (1986, p. 80) points out, « genres must be
fully mastered to be used creatively. » However, in order to make this happen, the
first pre-requisite is to have an awareness of the conventional knowledge that is
situated within a specific disciplinary genre or a « system of genres ».
Bazerman (1993) attempts to resolve this tension between institutionalised
expression and individual expression when he points out :
... the individual learns to express the self against the compulsive society... We are not
ourselves because we set ourselves apart from each other. We become ourselves as we
realize ourselves in relation to each other. The social is everything we do with each other
and what we become as we do it. We individuate by identifying ourselves on a social
landscape, a landscape come to know as we interact with it. We discover and create ourselves
and others by what we do with each other. (Bazerman : 1993, p. viii)

There are at least three things which stand out clearly from the foregoing
discussion. Firstly, language learners need to become aware of the conversations of -
the disciplinary community to which they aspire to be members of, which could be
done through « centripetal participation in the learning curriculum of the ambient
community » (Lave and Wenger : 1991, p. 100). Secondly, acquisition of genre
knowledge, which leads to an understanding of generic integrity, is necessary but
not sufficient for any subsequent exploitation or manipulation of generic
conventions. And, finally, genre knowledge should be best viewed as a resource to
exploit generic conventions to respond to recurrent and not so recurrent rhetorical
situations, rather than a blueprint for replication.

7 . References
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Amsterdamska (O.) and Leydesdorff (L.), « Citations : Indicators of
Significance? », Scientometrics, 15 (1989) pp. 449-471.
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Bakhtin (M.)., «The Problem of Speech Genres», in Emerson (C.) and

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 GENRE ANALYSIS TODAY 65 1

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