[RESEÑA] Engagement in Professional Genres. C. Sancho Guinda. John Benjamins, 2019, 373 pages. ISBN 9789027202185 and 9789027262943

Abstract

The notion of engagement is a broad concept that explains how writers rhetorically acknowledge the presence of the readers in their text. Based on the Bakhtinian view that all verbal communication is dialogic (1982), the study of engagement centres on the different forms of interaction that take place 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 means drawing on shared beliefs and experiences, making use of arguments that peers could recognize as effective, and bearing the interests, background knowledge and expectations of readers in mind. Consideration of engagement also focuses on discursive features such as the use of pronouns, hedging or boosting, and modality, which shape the relationship between writer and reader. In the case of professional groups, engagement is particularly interesting in what it reveals about how this community, the relationships within it, and its activities are conceptualized and materialized discursively.