Academic Writing: At the Interface of Corpus and Discourse

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Contemporary research into written academic discourse has become increasingly polarised between two approaches: corpus linguistics and discourse analysis. This volume presents a selection of recent work by experts in academic written discourse, and illustrates how corpus linguistics and discourse analysis can work as complementary approaches. The overall introduction setsthe volume against the backdrop of current work in English for Academic Purposes, and introductions to the each section draw out connections between the chapters and put them into context. The contributors are experts in the field and they cover both novice and expert examples of EAP. The book ends with an afterword that provides an agenda-setting closing perspective on the future of EAP research. It will appeal to reserachers and postgrduates in applied linguistics, corpus linguistics, discourse analysis and EAP.

Reviews

"This rich collection of papers explores the complementarity of corpus and discourse approaches to written academic discourse, with examples given both of corpus investigations that are augmented by discourse analysis and also of corpus-assisted discourse analyses. As such, it makes a major contribution to the development of a combined corpus and discourse analytic approach to textual analysis. The papers contained in this collection present thorough, evidence-based descriptions of language use in a range of disciplines, which extend our understanding of how writers construct texts and interact with their readers, in diverse disciplinary contexts. This book is essential reading for students and researchers of academic discourse, and for those involved in the teaching of English for Academic Purposes. It will also interest applied corpus linguists and discourse analysts." -- - Paul Thompson, Lecturer, University of Reading, UK
The volume's clear structural and conceptual divisions, along with the various introductions, provide a helpful scaffold for the reader, particularly those less familiar with the issues under discussion. The comprehensive subject and author indexes are also reader friendly and facilitate access to the volume's many interconnecting themes. -- Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, Issue 1
Given the growing importance of the discourse and corpus analytic approaches in combination, the examination of the interaction between the two approaches in this volume provides an important addition to the emerging body of literature in the area. The individual research reports provide important insights into features of academic writing, and the collection of research reports richly illustrates ways that corpus and discourse analytical approaches can be fruitfully combined. -- Discourse Studies, 13(5)

Author Bio

Maggie Charles is Tutor in English for Academic Studies at Oxford University Language Centre, Oxford, UK. Susan Hunston is Professor of English Language at the University of Birmingham, UK. Diane Pecorari is a Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of Englishin the Department of Modern Languages, Mlardalen University, Sweden.