6.

Genre analysis
Christine M. Tardy and John M. Swales

1. Pragmatics and genre analysis

At first sight, it might appear that the fields of pragmatics and genre analysis would
have little in common, at least partly because of their very different historical de-
velopments. Pragmatics, in its origination, was largely the province of philos-
ophers, while genre analysis was formerly a branch of literary studies, which then
spread to anthropology and folklore studies, and then linguistics/discourse analy-
sis. However, if we remember the well-known characterization of genre by sys-
temic-functional linguist, Jim Martin, “Genres are how things get done, when lan-
guage is used to accomplish them” (1985: 250), then we can see a connection with
the famous book by the Oxford philosopher, J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with
Words (1962). Another disconnect now has only historical resonance: Genre analy-
sis, in its modern reincarnation as part of discourse analysis, was long associated
with longer written texts, such as the research article, while pragmatics focused on
small-scale spoken interactions, particularly those of a conversational nature. How-
ever, over the last two decades, genre analysts have become increasingly interested
in characterizing spoken genres, while pragmatists have additionally turned their
attention to written texts and longer spoken utterances, especially when those texts
have explicitly persuasive motivations, such as sales letters and political speeches.
One further sign of this growing interdisciplinary rapprochement is the fact that
both fields recognize that discourses, both spoken and written, typically have be-
ginnings, middles and ends and that such sections may well have different prag-
matic and/or communicative functions and, concomitantly, draw upon different lin-
guistic and rhetorical resources to realize those functions. Today, genre analysis is
generally considered an important tool for research into the pragmatics of dis-
course. In this chapter, we provide an overview of a range of methods of genre
analysis by describing the most common methods through illustrative examples.

2. Theoretical/historical background

Over the past three decades, genre has become an important construct in the study
of discourse in general and written discourse in particular. Following an influential
article by Hyon (1996) entitled “Genre in Three Traditions”, it has become tradi-
tional to view non-literary genre studies from three viewpoints. One is the New
Rhetoric school as represented by Bazerman (1988), the second is the systemic-

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166 Christine M. Tardy and John M. Swales

functional or “Sydney” school as represented by Halliday and Martin (1993), while

the third is that of the English for Specific Purposes school (Swales 1990). How-
ever, integrative and cross-over work over the last decade, especially by younger
academics, has considerably blurred and complicated this tripartite division; as a
result, it is not maintained in this chapter.
Further, there is a clear sense that all genre analysts have been influenced by
Miller’s seminal (1984) paper, in which she argued for a theoretical definition of
genre that emphasized its rhetorical, rather than linguistic, nature, defining genres
as “typified rhetorical actions based in recurrent situations” (1984: 159). She ex-
plained that “as action, it acquires meaning from situation and from the social con-
text in which that situation arose” (163). Miller’s insistence on defining genre as a
social category is crucial in compelling us to consider not just the form of a genre
but the relationship between form, context, rhetorical action, and function or pur-
pose. Since the mid-1980s, a number of scholars have outlined theoretical prin-
ciples that emphasize the rhetorical and social nature of generic communication
(e.g., Bazerman 1988, Swales 1990, Bhatia 1993, Cope and Kalantzis 1993, Martin
1993, Freedman and Medway 1994, Hyon 1996, Johns 1997, Paltridge 1997, De-
vitt 2004, Swales 2004).
At their most basic level, genres are formed in order to carry out actions and
purposes. Most definitions of genre, like Miller’s (1984), emphasize that genres are
used to carry out actions and purposes. Swales’ (1990) similarly highlighted that
genres have a communicative purpose, which may in fact serve as the key charac-
teristic for placing discourses into generic categories. In addition, genres are so-
cially situated. As a rhetorical category of discourse, genre cannot be distinct from
social context. Genres arise within social contexts, carried out for social purposes
ranging from the relatively simple (e.g., creating a list of items to buy at a grocery
store) to the more complex (e.g., outlining the terms of a business transaction). By
virtue of their social situatedness, genres are necessarily dynamic, always changing.
As a situated form of discourse, genres both shape and are shaped by the com-
munities and contexts in which they exist. As communities of users – variously re-
ferred to by terms such as discourse communities, communities of practice, speech
communities, or disciplines – develop and shape genres for their purposes, it
follows that these forms of communication will reflect in some ways character-
istics of the users. Such characteristics may include communities’ values, beliefs,
and epistemologies as well as shared knowledge and experience. Berkenkotter and
Huckin (1995) point out that this, however, is a two-way, or structurated, relation-
ship: genres also shape communities and their practices. Once a particular genre
exists, for example, practices and beliefs are also influenced by the genres. The
one-page business vita, for example, may have formed as a genre as a result of the
need to highlight specific information very succinctly, but over time this genre has
begun to shape how people who use this genre think about job-seeking, hiring, and
perhaps even career-building.

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 Genre analysis 167

As an action is repeatedly required in similar situations, users develop an ef-

fective way to carry out that action; over time, this approach becomes, in Miller’s
(1984: 159) words (cf. above), “typified” so that users recognize it as a common or
conventional form. In other words, genres are recognizable by users. So, while
genre is not limited to its form, form is indeed an important aspect of genre. Users –
and in some cases, non-users – generally recognize a genre based on formal fea-
tures like lexis, grammar, organizational patterns, topics, and even document
format and associated visuals.
Genres are not isolated, but are instead intertextually linked to other genres
and discourses. Bakhtin’s (1986) definition of speech genres argues that all utter-
ances are responses to prior utterances and anticipate subsequent utterances. More
recent work in genre studies highlights the intertextual nature of genres. The link-
ing of texts in chains, systems, or other networked relationships has been described
and analyzed by Devitt (1991, 2004), Bazerman (1994), and Swales (2004) in in-
vestigations of how genres coordinate to carry out complex tasks for specific users.
In other words, while a single genre may accomplish a simple task, most tasks or
multi-task activities engage the use of multiple linked genres.
Finally, as reflections of the social groups that use them, the power dynamics of
those users are embedded in genres. Such dynamics may be instantiated, for
example, through gatekeeping practices, intertextuality, or privileged discursive
forms. While genres are channels for carrying out communicative and social ac-
tions, they can at the same time exclude users who are unfamiliar with their nor-
malized practices or even to those who do not bring the preferred forms of capital
to the communicative context.

3. Methods of genre analysis

As these various principles of genre illustrate, genres are far more than textual
forms – they are forms that embody goals, actions, values, activities, histories, and
politics. Methods for analyzing genres, therefore, variously aim to understand
these multiple dimensions of genre. While a range of approaches are taken to genre
analysis, a shared goal is to gain insight into the social function of language. Com-
mon methods of genre analysis are presented discretely below to familiarize
readers with the goals and procedures for each form of analysis. In practice, how-
ever, many – if not most – analyses blend analytic methods. Such a multi-method
approach allows for a more complex understanding of the genre, setting, users, and
goals – and of how these elements both converge and structure one another.

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168 Christine M. Tardy and John M. Swales

3.1. Text analysis

Text analysis identifies grammatical or phraseological patterns that are unique to or
common within a particular genre. Today, text analysis is aided by computer con-
cordancing programs, which can be used to count occurrences of lexical and gram-
matical features, identify common collocations of word clusters, or compare
usages of words. These analyses can offer robust descriptions of a genre’s textual
features or can compare textual features across a genre’s different user groups,
such as academic disciplines. Text analysis can target a wide range of lexico-gram-
matical features, such as hedges (Hyland 2000), personal pronouns (Kuo 1999),
nominalizations (Yeung 2007), or reporting verbs (Thompson and Ye 1991). In ad-
dition to single-word items like these, word clusters (also known as “lexical
bundles”) can be analyzed (e.g., Biber, Conrad, and Cortes 2004, Hyland 2008b).
While text analysis may be used with small-scale corpora, technology also allows
for relatively easy analysis of large-scale corpora containing over a million words.
Text features may be analyzed using descriptive frequency counts or, for compari-
sons of larger corpora, inferential statistics.

3.2. Move structure analysis

One of the most common methods of genre analysis is known as move structure
analysis (or, simply, move analysis), a method first described by John Swales in
1981. The goal of this method is to identify the rhetorical moves of a text, or the
parts of the text that carry out distinct rhetorical functions. Move analysis, like text
analysis, analyzes a corpus of texts considered representative of the genre of inter-
est (cf. also Samraj this volume). Researchers may begin by reading through the
texts multiple times to identify a general pattern from which they develop initial
move categories. The next stage is to determine the moves present in each individ-
ual text. At this point, researchers may determine which moves appear to be obli-
gatory and which seem to be optional, as well as the possibilities for sequencing
moves. Analysis of the presence and placement of moves within the texts may be
qualitative or quantitative. More detailed move analysis may also consider what
Swales referred to as steps, which make up sub-categories within each move. We
give an extended illustration of how a simple move analysis might emerge in sec-
tion 4.2 of this chapter. It is important to point out that moves (or communicative
stages) are rhetorical categories, not grammatical ones; in consequence, moves
may vary in size from a clause to a paragraph or upwards, or may even be realized
through non-verbal means (see section 3.7.1 below). The identification of moves
has been discussed in the literature, some analysts opting primarily for linguistic
clues, such as a switch in tense, or the use of phrases such as “in this paper, we …”;
others relying more on the content of the discourse (e.g. Paltridge 1994). However,
the position we adopt here is an eclectic one – one that makes use of all types of

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 Genre analysis 169

evidence to reinforce decisions about move boundaries. To gain an insider perspec-

tive to generic texts, move analysis is often augmented with other ethnographic
methods such as interviews or observations. When used in combination, linguistic
and ethnographic methods can provide a more robust understanding of the mean-
ing that particular generic features hold for users or even of the ways in which
moves influence readers’ textual interpretations. So far, this paragraph may have
given the impression that move analysis is a rather dry and technical process. How-
ever, this kind of investigation often has the underlying motive of gaining greater
insight into the rationale of the genre under study. In this process, original, perhaps
simplistic understandings of the purposes of the genre can become modified, or
even subverted (for examples, see Askehave and Swales 2000).

3.3. Comparative genre analysis

Text and move analysis are often used together to identify common formal and rhe-
torical features of a genre within a given community of users. In many cases, re-
searchers develop corpora that include examples of a single genre as used by two
or more communities. These communities may be defined, for example, by disci-
plinary, professional, national, or linguistic affiliations. Comparing the ways in
which a similar genre is articulated by different communities illustrates the rhetori-
cal and situated nature of generic texts.
One of the most common approaches to comparative analysis is to compare the
rhetorical moves of a genre as used by different communities (cf. Samraj this vol-
ume). Samraj and Monk (2008), for example, compare the move structures of suc-
cessful statement of purpose essays written for master’s degree programs in lin-
guistics, business administration, and electrical engineering. They find that the
writers instantiate similar moves in different ways and suggest that this may be in
part related to the distinct goals of the disciplinary programs. In a study of business
email responses, van Mulken and van der Meer (2005) offer a four-way analysis
between companies with long traditions versus relatively new traditions and be-
tween Dutch and American companies of both traditions. Through move analysis,
they locate differences in the emphasis given to different moves by Dutch and
American companies, though they find no differences between so-called Old and
New companies.
Hyland’s (1998) work is an excellent illustration of the insights that can be
gained from a robust multi-method comparative analysis. Working with represen-
tative sample texts of a single genre across multiple academic disciplines, Hyland
uses both text and move analysis to compare similarities and differences in generic
form across user groups. To gain further insight into these texts, Hyland interviews
experts in the fields he studies, allowing him not only to examine what differs
across texts but also to consider why these differences occur.

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170 Christine M. Tardy and John M. Swales

3.4. Diachronic genre analysis

While synchronic comparative analysis reveals ways in which communities of

users shape genres to meet their particular needs, diachronic analysis can be car-
ried out to examine changes in a genre over time. Such analysis can provide useful
insight into the sociohistorical changes within a community of users, as generic
changes result from (and even lead to) shifts in a community’s practices and
values – which themselves are often related to larger social or material influences.
Diachronic genre analysis typically examines a single genre over an extended
period that includes moments of important change, such as the formation of an
organizational body, an epistemological shift, or the advent of a new technology
(Atkinson 1999, Gross, Harmon, and Reidy 2002). By tracing the genre (and/or its
new manifestations) through periods of its history, such analysis can demonstrate
how genres change in response to evolving rhetorical contexts and can also lend
valuable insight into the nature of the genre’s users over time.
Bazerman’s (1988) historical studies of scientific genres are some of the most
well known examples of diachronic analysis. In one such study, Bazerman traces
research articles in experimental psychology from the late-1800s to the mid-1960s,
along with the establishment and subsequent revisions of the American Psycho-
logical Association (APA) documentation style manual from 1929 through the
1980s. Bazerman takes readers through an epistemological and textual history of
experimental psychology, demonstrating a change from a genre more akin to a
philosophical essay to today’s fairly rigid experimental reports. More specifically,
through an analysis of the APA style manuals, Bazerman finds increasing prescrip-
tive specifications and a growing commitment to a positivist paradigm. Through
this textual-historical analysis, Bazerman illustrates the manual’s role in codifying
a behaviorist rhetoric, which exerts a significant influence not only on experimen-
tal psychology but also on the human sciences more generally.
In a diachronic analysis of “short texts” that accompany research articles in the
journal Nature, Ayers (2008) traces a change in these texts’ structure over time.
Through move structure and text analysis, Ayers demonstrates that the genre has “de-
mocratized” over time, including a greater presence of promotional features and defi-
nitions, and emphasizing contributions to the larger field. These changes coincide
with the introduction of an e-version of the journal and a new “reader-friendly” jour-
nal policy. Other changes, such as the disappearance of a methods move are likely re-
lated to the increased complexity and specialization of methods and materials.
A major diachronic study in the area of business is the (1989) book by Joanne
Yates entitled Control through Communication. Yates shows, for the period 1850
to 1920, how US corporations transformed their communicative practices through
the development and proliferation of new genres often brought about by techno-
logical advances, such as the invention of the typewriter, carbon paper, and vertical
filing systems. The memo was born!

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 Genre analysis 171

3.5. Genre system analysis

While early research in genre analysis focused on individual genres – especially

those of high importance in academic or professional contexts – there has been more
recent interest in analyzing genres as clusters or networks that work together in order
to accomplish users’ goals. One of the first approaches to this kind of intertextual
genre analysis was carried out by Devitt in a (1991) study of tax accountants. Devitt
collected multiple samples of all of the types of texts used at six major accounting
firms, and then carried out interviews with members who held different ranks at the
firms. Through the texts and interviews, Devitt was able to identify the repertoire of
genres commonly recognized by tax accountants, and the functions of those genres.
These users also provided insight into the ways in which the genres worked together
to accomplish interacting tasks, from their own insider perspectives. Devitt found,
for example, that genres may at times work together sequentially or dialogically,
while in other cases, text from one genre may actually be incorporated into another
(e.g., incorporating text from the Tax Codes and Regulations into a research mem-
orandum). By examining the full set of texts that a community uses to carry out their
tasks, Devitt was also able to understand how genres work together to meet the
users’ needs.
In her study of the paperwork of a pyschotherapist, Berkenkotter (2001) merges
the framework of genre system with that of neo-Vygotskyan activity theory. Activ-
ity theory expands and animates the notion of context through the metaphor of an
activity system, which integrates users, tools (such as genres), and objects together
carrying out an act. Berkenkotter (2001: 330) argues that “the concept of genre sys-
tems enables the analyst to foreground the discursively salient component of human
activity systems”. Berkenkotter’s genre/activity system analysis is carried out at
micro and macro levels, through an ethnographic case study of a mental health prac-
titioner that examines her texts and practices. The study uses participant-observa-
tion, text analysis, and discourse-based interviews to trace the therapist’s patient in-
terviews, assessments, treatment plans, notes, and termination summaries. Through
such analysis, Berkenkotter is able to identify the recontextualization of texts as
they resurface in new activities and new “social worlds” (2001: 338). Through her
analysis, Berkenkotter identifies the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, 4th ed. (DSM-IV) as an important “meta-genre” that organizes a range of
professional activities and genres carried out by mental health practitioners. On a
micro level, Berkenkotter demonstrates how the DSM-IV shapes the notes that a
therapist takes during a client interview and the inferences that she draws as she
forms her diagnosis. On a macro level, Berkenkotter illustrates how the DSM-IV
standardizes practices in the mental health profession, building a common lexicon
and even conceptual paradigm of mental health.
These two studies exemplify an important turn in genre analysis research,
bridging linguistic analysis with ethnographic analyses of social settings and tak-

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172 Christine M. Tardy and John M. Swales

ing seriously the intertextual nature of genres. Methodology for genre system
analysis is quite varied and includes, for example, interview and text analysis
(Tardy 2003), survey research (Hyon and Chen 2004), citation analysis (Thompson
2005), intertextual analysis (Flowerdew and Wan 2006), ethnographic analysis
(Scollon et al. 1999), textbook analysis (Bremner 2008), and corpus-based analysis
(Swales 2004).

3.6. Critical genre analysis

Despite a general recognition in genre theory that genres embody – and reinforce –
the power dynamics of their community of users, genre analysis has, in general, not
foregrounded the political dimension of genre. Instead, critical analysis of written
texts – that is, an explicit analysis of social inequalities structured through dis-
course – has typically been carried out through critical discourse analysis (CDA)
(see Bloor/Bloor this volume). Nevertheless, a growing number of studies have
merged the tools and methods of critical discourse analysis and genre analysis.
Bhatia (2008) outlines a framework for critical genre analysis which integrates
what he calls “text-internal factors” (e.g., lexicogrammatical features, rhetorical
moves) with “text-external factors” (e.g., institutional discourses, actions, and
voices). This framework brings together an analysis of text, genre, professional
practice, and professional culture; Bhatia argues that all four of these layers must
be integrated to carry out a comprehensive, critical analysis of genre. His approach
is illustrated through a study of corporate disclosure texts and practices, which
blends close textual analysis with discourse-based interviews and a broader social
analysis of corporate practices. Bhatia analyzes the annual report genre – a required
mode of disclosure – along these different levels and illustrates how the genre
mixes the opposing discourses of accounting and public relations discourses.
Moving from the corporate world to the public space, Flowerdew (2004) uses
critical genre analysis to analyze the discursive construction of Hong Kong. He
describes the network of genres used by the government in its planning process to
develop Hong Kong as a global city. Three genres used to consult with the public –
a public consultation booklet, an annual yearbook, and a promotional video – are
analyzed at linguistically and intertextually. Flowerdew illustrates how the texts,
which are publicly said to be consulting with the public, in fact adopt an authori-
tative voice that imposes the government’s goals onto the reading public. An
analysis of the genres involved in the public policy process further demonstrates
that the texts do not operate sequentially, as one might expect from texts used to
consult with a group of readers, but rather exist as a colony imposed onto the public
rather than in dialogue with them.
Other studies have used critical genre analysis in the study of news texts sur-
rounding social issues. In an analysis of newspaper articles and editorials on home-
lessness, for example, Huckin (2002) brings CDA and genre analysis together to

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 Genre analysis 173

identify textual silences – or the omission of relevant information from a text. His
method for identifying such silences involves first using a corpus of target texts
and scholarly literature to develop a fairly comprehensive list of relevant subtopics
that could appear within the target genre, then analyzing the presence or absence of
those topics in select texts. Tardy (2009) carries out critical genre analysis to study
a genre system of news texts on language policy. This study uses CDA methods to
analyze the discursive strategies that different genres rely on to express assimi-
lationist ideologies, and it uses intertextual tracing to follow the uptake or dropping
of ideological expressions across linked texts over time.

3.7. New directions in genre analysis

The approaches described above have remained valuable resources for understand-
ing the social uses of language through generic form, but in the past decade new
approaches have emerged, engaging the increasing role of technology in textual
production and a growing interest in the imprint of individuals on generic com-
munication.

3.7.1. Multimodal/visual genre analysis

With developing technology, increased attention has been given to the multimodal
nature of texts, which often incorporate not just written text but also visual images
and even oral text such as speech or music, Bateman (2008) providing an excellent
introduction to work in this area. For some genres, these kinds of elements are so
essential that it would be impossible to overlook them in an analysis. Professional
presentations, for example, integrate verbal text, visual images of different sorts,
and oral commentary. Rowley-Jolivet’s extensive research on this genre provides
one framework for analyzing multimodal genres. Rowley-Jolivet (2002) categor-
izes visuals as scriptural (i.e., text-based), graphical (e.g., graphs, diagrams, or
maps), figurative (e.g., photographs), or numeric (e.g., equations or numeric
tables). She further classifies scriptural and figurative visuals as polysemic (open
to multiple semantic interpretations) and graphical and numerical visuals as mono-
semic (unambiguous in interpretation).This taxonomy allows for descriptive
analysis of the multiple types of images, but it becomes a more robust tool when
paired with systemic-functional analysis.
A systemic-functional approach, which aims to understand the multiple func-
tions enacted by a single message, has been applied quite effectively in previous
analyses of multimodal genres (e.g., Lemke 1998, Miller 1998, Rowley-Jolivet
2001, Lemke 2002, Kress 2003). Within this framework, Halliday (1994) identifies
three functions of meaning-making that any message may play: ideational, inter-
personal, and textual. The ideational function conveys meaning about states of af-
fairs or events in the world, such as an experimental result. The interpersonal func-

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174 Christine M. Tardy and John M. Swales

tion conveys meaning about the attitudes and relations of the writers and readers,
such as the authority and credibility or the writers or the finding. Finally, the tex-
tual function conveys meaning about the text, guiding the reader through the text’s
organization. While texts may simultaneously carry out multiple functions, Kress
(2003) has illustrated how different modes (written, visual, oral) may be more or
less effective at carrying out particular functions. Multimodal genre analysis offers
a way to analyze what Kress calls the “affordances” of different modes.

3.7.2. Genre and identity

While historically genre analysis has been used to understand trends among com-
munity uses of texts, more recently, interest has turned to individual writers and the
ways in which they play within (and beyond) generic conventions, asserting iden-
tity within a text. This work acknowledges that writers do not merely operate
within social systems but also as individuals. Research in this area is still relatively
rare, but a few examples demonstrate the interesting directions that future work
may take.
Hyon (2008) examines the relatively occluded genre of tenure and promotion
reports, not for their typical move structures or textual features that carry out the
genre’s purpose of evaluating faculty but instead for the “playful strategies” that
individual writers employ to entertain and show solidarity with readers. In her
study, Hyon begins by describing the genre’s conventions in terms of move struc-
ture, intertextual strategies, content, and tone. She then explores categories of “in-
ventiveness” which are marked for their departure from these conventions; these
categories include the use of hyperbole, irony or humor, and informal language
(exclamations, fragments, and direct questions). After identifying instances of in-
ventiveness in a corpus of 34 sample texts, Hyon goes on to analyze the functions
of these inventive or playful strategies and the frequency of the strategies across
groups of writers who hold different levels of status (interestingly, writers with
higher levels of status appear to make less use of these playful strategies). Hyon’s
study provides an approach to examining the variation that individuals bring to
generic conventions.
A handful of other studies have similarly explored exertions of individuality
within generic conformity. Hyland (2008a), for instance, takes a corpus-based
approach to analyzing self-representation in a corpus of John Swales’ writings in
comparison with a broader corpus of applied linguistics work. Hyland uses fre-
quency, keyword, and concordancing strategies to reveal ways in which Swales’
writing is distinct vis-à-vis larger disciplinary conventions. A study by Matsuda
and Tardy (2007) analyzed individual voice within generic conventions from the
perspectives of readers. Through a case study which simulated a blind peer review
of an academic article, they found that the readers constructed author identity pri-
marily through the ways in which generic expectations were carried out. In this

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 Genre analysis 175

case, the writer’s choice of references, omission of particular theoretical perspec-

tives, and stylistic features led the readers to (accurately) construct the writer as a
white male graduate student who was a relative newcomer to the discipline. While
these studies do not analyze genres per se, they do suggest methodological ap-
proaches to understanding the role of individuals as both writers and consumers of
genres.

4. Sample analysis

In this section, we carry out an analysis of a short but common academic genre: the
biographical data statement, commonly referred to as a biodata or a bio-statement.
Academic bio-statements appear in venues as diverse as journals, conference pro-
grams, guest speaker announcements, and professional websites. A bio-statement
summarizes certain characteristics of an author or speaker for the audience at hand,
usually in a relatively brief text. On one level, the genre may serve to provide rel-
evant background information that the audience will find relevant, useful, or inter-
esting. At the same time, however, the bio-statement provides the writer with an
opportunity to build his or her credibility and establish a particular identity or
ethos.
In this study, we focused on bio-statements published in academic journals in
conjunction with an author’s published work. While this genre appears only rarely
in journals dealing with science, it is relatively common in journals in the hu-
manities and in some social sciences. We compiled a corpus made up of 30 bio-
statements from the journal Applied Linguistics (AL) and 30 bio-statements from
the ELT Journal (ELTJ). In each case, these were the first 30 bio-statements pub-
lished in the year 2007 by the journal. Both journals address issues of language,
language learning, and language teaching, yet they differ in their goals and genres.
While AL is a research-focused journal, ELTJ is oriented toward practical issues in
the teaching of English, and authors’ bio-statements reflect these divergent goals.
Though in many cases the same individuals may read these journals or write for
both of these journals, they do so with different expectations and goals.
In their on-line submission guidelines, AL instructs authors to include with
their manuscript submissions “a brief biodata of about 90 words listing main inter-
ests, recent publications, and a contact address.” (Contact information was deleted
from our corpus.) ELT Journal does not ask authors to include a bio-statement with
an initial submission, but once a manuscript is accepted, the journal asks authors to
submit “your bio-data, with email contact address if you wish this to be published”
(personal communication, 20 March 2009). In our sample genre analysis, we ana-
lyze these statements using a range of genre analytic approaches to illustrate the in-
sights gained through different methods.

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176 Christine M. Tardy and John M. Swales

4.1. Textual features

Our corpus of bio-statements from AL totaled 2,093 words, while the corpus from
ELTJ included 1,762 words in total. The bio-statements were similar in length,
with the AL statements averaging 69.8 words and the ELTJ statements averaging
58.7 words. The shortest bio-statement in the corpus was only 22 words long,
while the longest was 222 words, both of these examples coming from AL. These
extremes indicate that both the authors in and the editors of AL interpret the request
for a statement “of about 90 words” fairly liberally!
A simple search of the most frequently occurring content words (see Table 1)
indicates the importance attached to institutional affiliation and degree names,
demonstrated by the high frequency of the nouns University, Language, and Edu-
cation. The much greater frequency of research in the AL corpus reveals a greater
emphasis on the author’s research interests or activity in comparison with ELTJ,
likely related to the journals’ different emphases on research in comparison with
pedagogical practice respectively.

Table 1. High frequency words in the AL and ELTJ bio-statement corpora

Applied Linguistics ELT Journal

University 41 Language/language 39
language 36 University 36
research 28 English 26
English 20 teaching 14
interests 17 research 11
professor 16 Education 10
teaching 15 teacher 10
Education 14 PhD 9
linguistics 12 published 9

One interesting lexico-grammatical feature of this genre is its use of the third per-
son singular in reference to the author. In other words, although the author has
written the statement about him or herself, the use of the first person I never ap-
pears. In most cases, authors refer to themselves first through their full name and
then later through the pronoun he or she. While all of the bio-statements begin with
the use of the full name, a few cases in the corpus deviate from the later use of pro-
nouns. In AL, two Anglo male authors refer to themselves by their title (Professor)
plus last name, while in ELTJ two Anglo female authors refer to themselves by
their first name only. While these instances are certainly rare, they may hint at dif-
ferent values or practices of the communities in which these journals circulate. AL
readers, for example, may be more firmly situated within an academic discourse
that tends to value hierarchy, as reflected by the use of formal titles. In contrast,
with its emphasis on practice, ELT Journal may reflect a greater tendency toward

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 Genre analysis 177

familiarity and collegiality in the ESL teaching [Link] bio-statements

may be considered a self-promotional genre, at least in part, they generally achieve
this goal through their move structure (described in the next section) rather than
through, for example, attitude markers or evaluative adjectives. There are few in-
stances of overtly evaluative expressions in the corpus; however, a small number
of evaluative adjectives and adverbs do appear in AL, emphasizing the authors’
scholarly strengths:
… he is also well known for his research into teaching and learning … Professor
[Name] is a prolific writer and he has published twelve books …
He is internationally well known for his research and publications in … He was director
of a major international project … was co-editor of the main international journal in the
field of language testing …
… he has published widely in the leading Applied Linguistics, Language Teaching and
Discourse Analysis journals …
An additional strategy for emphasizing the author’s strengths is to quantify his or
her experience or scholarship. As a result, lists, numbers and dates are fairly com-
mon in this genre, either emphasizing the author’s publications or years of experi-
ence:
He worked as a teacher educator in China from 1984 until 1996, and has taught in South
Korea since the inception of primary level English teaching in 1997. [AL]
[Name] began his ELT career in Fiji in the early 1960s, retiring from the directorship of
the Centre for Applied Language Studies at the University of Reading in 2000 to work
as a freelance. [ELTJ]
[Name] has been teaching English in Japan for more than ten years. [ELTJ]
He has taught in seven countries and published over 120 articles and 11 books on lan-
guage teaching and academic writing. [AL]
While authors do have the opportunity to use quantification, evaluative language,
and self-mention in ways that may establish their authority or credibility, the tex-
tual variations in this genre remain somewhat limited due to the very restricted text
length. Instead of varying their textual choices significantly, writers tend to use
rhetorical moves to represent themselves in more or coherent ways.

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178 Christine M. Tardy and John M. Swales

4.2. Rhetorical moves

Despite an average text length of around 65 words, authors carry out several rhe-
torical moves in the bio-statement genre, as outlined in Table 2.

Table 2. Common moves and steps in the bio-statement genre

Move Steps
Describe position • List current position held
• List institutional affiliation
• List city or country where position is located
Establish formal • List degree(s) received
qualifications • Identify institution from which degree was granted
Mention publications • Make general reference to the fact that the author has
published
• List publication types and/or journal titles
• List titles and publishers of books
Describe research areas • List areas of research interest or projects
Describe professional • Describe past or current job types or professional respon-
activities sibilities
• Describe specific professional projects carried out in the
past or present
• List past or current roles in professional organizations
• List geographic locations where the author has lived and
worked
Describe honors • List awards, grants, or honors received

The first move, describing position, may include the author’s job title, institutional
affiliation, and/or city or country of employment. This information is typically in-
cluded in the first sentence of the bio-statement, though it also occasionally ap-
pears at the end. Examples are:
[Name] is a lecturer in linguistics in the Centre for Language and Communication at the
Open University, UK. [AL]
[Name] works at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. [ELTJ]

In some cases, the author describes his or her position while also establishing formal
qualifications; in other cases, authors include a separate sentence focusing solely on
their qualifications:
[Name] (PhD) is a Lecturer at the English Department of the Universidad Autónoma de
Madrid. [ELTJ]
[Name] holds a PhD in English and linguistics from the University of New South Wales,
Sydney, Australia. [AL]

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 Genre analysis 179

The AL guidelines specifically ask authors to include recent publications in their

bio-statement, and this is in fact a common move in both journals. This move may
be carried out simply as a somewhat vague reference to work published or it may
take the form of a detailed list of publication titles and publisher information:
He has published course books, teachers’ handbooks, and articles, with a particular focus
on the teaching of writing. [ELTJ]
She has published articles in Language Learning (Vols 53 and 54) and The Reading
Matrix (Vol. 4). [AL]
Publications include Critical Discourse Analysis and Language Cognition (Edinburgh
University Press, 2003), Applying English Grammar: Functional and Corpus Approaches
(Hodder Arnold, 2004 with Coffin and Hewings) and The Art of English: Literary Cre-
ativity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006 with Goodman). [AL]
In a few cases, as described in section 4.1, authors in the corpus quantified their
publishing credentials:
[Name] is a prolific writer and he has published twelve books and over 250 papers. [AL]
These three moves – describing position, establishing formal qualifications, and
mentioning publications – illustrate that the author is formally qualified and is an
active researcher holding a scholarly position.
Many authors also include a description of their research agenda, either as “in-
terests” or areas in which they are actively carrying out projects. Commonly, this
move is carried out through a list of relatively specific areas:
His main research interests are in English teaching methodology and language learning
strategies. [ELTJ]
… she specializes in instructed second language acquisition and intersections between
SLA and language testing. [AL]
In some cases, authors provide even more insight into their professional selves by
describing professional activities that they engage in, including teaching, current
or past research projects, or roles they have taken on in professional organizations.
For example:
In the UK he has recently worked as linguistic advisor to the Ministry of Education and
QCA on English in the National Curriculum and the Adult ESOL Core Curriculum. [AL]
[Name] is currently conducting a study to examine parents’ perspectives and opinions
concerning Young Learner ELT instruction including the use of materials written for
native English speakers. [ELTJ]
A Past President of TESOL Greece, she is currently President of the Australian Council
of TESOL Associations. [ELTJ]
In some cases, experience living and working in various countries worldwide is
included as an aspect of professional activity. It is not uncommon for authors, es-
pecially in ELTJ, to list the countries in which they have worked, thus drawing at-
tention to their international experiences:

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180 Christine M. Tardy and John M. Swales

… has taught EFL for 15 years in Spain and the Balkans …[ELTJ]
… has experience teaching EFL in China and Japan. [AL]
He has previously lived and worked in Singapore, Britain, Nigeria and France. [ELTJ]
Finally, a rare move but one that did appear in a handful of the AL bio-statements
was to describe honors that the author has received. For instance:
[Name] is a fellow of both the British Psychological Society and the American Psycho-
logical Association. [AL]
Bio-statements in the corpus we examined nearly always included the first move.
In even the briefest bio-statements, this move was paired with at least one other
move. In the AL corpus, most scaled-down statements typically described the auth-
or’s position and listed his or her research areas:
[Name] is assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where
she specializes in instructed second language acquisition and intersections between
SLA and language testing. [AL]
Whether authors use just two of these rhetorical moves, or combine all six (which
some authors did), they do so in order to build their credibility as a published writer,
illustrating their credentials as well as their experiences that they hope are valued
in the field.
While the bio-statements in the AL and ELTJ corpora are largely similar in
terms of the moves that they include, they do differ somewhat in the frequency
with which some moves appear, as illustrated quantitatively in Table 3.

Table 3. Presence of moves in the AL and ELTJ bio-statement corpora

Applied Linguistics (n=30) ELT Journal (n=30)

Describe position 93 % 100 %
Establish formal qualifications 33 % 33 %
Mention publications 53 % 50 %
Describe research areas 90 % 60 %
Describe professional activities 50 % 70 %
Current 20 % 30 %
Past 40 % 57 %
Professional roles 13 % 7%
Geographic locations 10 % 27 %
Describe honors 10 % 0%

Notable is the higher inclusion of the move describing the author’s research areas
in the AL bio-statements. On the one hand, increased attention to research may
not be surprising, as the submission guidelines specifically ask authors to include
“main interests” in their bio-statements. At the same time, this emphasis in AL
likely also reflects the journal’s research focus as opposed to ELTJ’s orientation to-

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 Genre analysis 181

ward classroom practice. In contrast is the higher presence in ELTJ of descriptions

of the author’s professional activities. Authors in ELTJ included this move more
frequently overall and put a much greater emphasis both on past professional
activities and on their experiences living and working in diverse geographic lo-
cations, aspects of their professional identities that are likely to be highly valued in
this venue. Such experiences show the author to be an active practitioner and to po-
tentially understand a range of contexts in which ESL/EFL instruction takes place.

4.3. Identity
While the bio-statement has most certainly taken on a recognizable form within
the constraints of its unique rhetorical context, authors do still have some room to
negotiate the ways in which they represent themselves. By selecting which moves
they include or exclude, or what order to include them in, authors may draw on
what Hyland (2008a: 158) calls “the cultural resources their communities make
available to them” in this genre. For example, an author who lacks a formal qualifi-
cation and prior publications but who has many years of teaching experience in
multiple countries has the option of foregrounding this practical experience. The
ELTJ texts seem to provide particular flexibility in the type of information that
authors may present about themselves. Within this journal, authors may highlight a
teaching persona, a publishing persona, or a research persona (or a combination
thereof), as evident from the following bio-statements, all from ELTJ:
[Name] has been on the Faculty of the Central Institute of English and Foreign Lan-
guages, Hyderabad, India since 1979. At present she is Professor in the School of Dis-
tance Education, CIEFL, Hyderabad. She has produced teaching materials for English
and non-English medium schools at the primary level and secondary levels as well as
teacher education materials in the self access mode. She is involved in Resource Per-
sons’ Training and teacher training of English language teachers in India.
[Name] is author of The Internet and ELT (Summertown Publishing) and co-author
(with Scott Windeatt and David Hardisty) of The Internet (Oxford University Press).
She teaches at the State College of Education in Vienna.
[Name], EdD, is a professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Nevada,
Reno. Her research interests are in the areas of cognitive and moral development.

Authors in this corpus also included small details about themselves that served to
accentuate unique aspects of their authorly and professional selves. For example,
one ELTJ author wrote, “She is especially interested in helping young learners
develop a love for both fiction and non-fiction children’s books,” using emotional
words and specific details that give readers a glimpse into the author’s personal
goals as an ELT professional. Another ELTJ author described himself as “a non-
native teacher, teacher trainer, and researcher of ELT,” listing the various profes-
sional labels that he ascribes to. And an author in AL included the information that

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182 Christine M. Tardy and John M. Swales

he “translate[s] contemporary literary works from Chinese into English,” illustrat-

ing his own skills and interests beyond applied linguistics research.

4.4. Critical analysis

Although the genre does allow for individuals to choose from available options
in representing themselves in ways that favor their strengths, it must be noted that
certain aspects of identity are privileged in this genre. Take, for example, the near-
obligatory move of describing one’s position. Particular positions, institutional af-
filiations, and even geographic locations of the institution are all assigned some
symbolic value, depending on the publication venue and its community of readers.
In AL, for example, positions of “professor,” “director,” or “senior lecturer” sym-
bolize greater prestige and experience than, for example, “doctoral student” or “as-
sistant professor,” though readers may be equally impressed when newer scholars
are published in the journal. Similarly, authors who can list their affiliation with well
known research institutions or with programs that have a strong disciplinary repu-
tation can accrue some additional symbolic capital by virtue of such connections.
What is perhaps the most important point to emphasize, then, is that in this brief
genre, certain forms of capital are privileged: Position, pedigree, affiliation, pub-
lishing record, and experience are some clear examples. In privileging these aspects
of a professional identity within this very brief genre, the bio-statement simulta-
neously reproduces the power structure that lends prestige to these characteristics.

4.5. Summary
Even this brief analysis of the bio-statement genre reveals the range of strategies
that writers use to carry out the genre’s rhetorical goal of positive self-represen-
tation. Our textual analysis reveals the relatively predictable nature of the genre’s
textual form, while also showing that authors do find opportunities to build their
ethos through evaluative language, quantification of strengths, or self-mention.
Somewhat more revealing, our move analysis illustrates the different rhetorical
strategies that writers employ to build their credibility. Our analysis reveals a rela-
tionship between these strategies and the focus of the publication venue, with AL
authors emphasizing their research backgrounds and ELTJ authors placing more
emphasis on their teaching experience and worldly backgrounds. This match may
result from a conscious effort on the part of authors to emphasize the aspects of
their person that they feel are most valued by the readers; alternatively, the match
may be a result of similarities in the values of the authors who publish in these dif-
ferent venues. Finally, our analysis reveals that authors do find ways to individual-
ize the genre, despite its very short length. However, as we have noted, the genre
does impose a set of values, reproducing certain features of an academic persona as
holding more capital than others.

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 Genre analysis 183

Using a multi-method approach to genre analysis has allowed us to understand

different dimensions of the genre. In a more in-depth analysis, interviews with
authors and editors might shed further light on some of the considerations that
authors take into account when writing their bio-statement – for example, striking
a balance between self-promotion and boasting. Interviews with readers could
further probe reactions to author’s choices, such as the use of self-descriptive
modifiers like “prolific.” We might also investigate differences related to authors
and readers’ genders and the choices and interpretations made in this self-repre-
sentational genre.

5. Conclusion

As we hope to have illustrated here, genre analysis may be best thought of not as a
single method of discourse analysis but as a set of methods for understanding
genres, their users, and their uses. Our sample analysis also demonstrates how dif-
ferent methodological approaches shed light on different generic patterns and fea-
tures, giving the genre analyst a repertoire of complementary tools from which to
choose. In today’s information-saturated world, teeming with global and local
genres, the fields of genre analysis and pragmatics are increasingly aligned in their
attempts to understand how people accomplish tasks though language. We imagine
that genre analysis will continue to adopt and develop approaches that take into ac-
count the multiple modes and interlinked genres that people use to carry out these
tasks.

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