[Reseña] Engagement in Professional Genres

Abstract

The notion of engagement is a broad concept that explains how writersrhetorically acknowledge the presence of the readers in their text. Based onthe Bakhtinian view that all verbal communication is dialogic (1982), thestudy of engagement centres on the different forms of interaction that takeplace through text. When a writer tells a story or sets out an argument,he/she uses a range of strategies to involve readers. This often meansdrawing on shared beliefs and experiences, making use of arguments thatpeers could recognize as effective, and bearing the interests, backgroundknowledge and expectations of readers in mind. Consideration ofengagement also focuses on discursive features such as the use of pronouns,hedging or boosting, and modality, which shape the relationship betweenwriter and reader. In the case of professional groups, engagement isparticularly interesting in what it reveals about how this community, therelationships within it, and its activities are conceptualized and materialized discursively.