Genre and Change

This book contributes to our understanding of genre theory,communities of practice (COP) and workplace writing. The analysisof a business letter genre considers theories from appliedlinguistics, psychology and rhetoric. Textual analyses and anethnographic approach based on COP provide a subtle and detailedanalysis of a particular and distinct workplace and the writing atthe centre of its practice. The tension between stasis and changein regular textual practice is explored, and the genre isdemonstrated to be both stable and dynamic simultaneously. Thisleads the author to propose that traditional dichotomies within thegenre debate (social action/textual analysis, fixed/dynamic genres)should be replaced by a relationship of duality involving allelements at the same time. The notion of communicative purposetends to assume that purpose is primarily the provision ofinformation. Here, relationships are equally important and movesand acts are identified in part on the basis of the relationshipset up between writer and reader. This work will be of interest tothose involved in analysing non-academic texts, and thoseconsidering organisational change in writing styles.