Description
Book SynopsisA collection of 15 essays examining the real effects of texts on professional practices, in academic, scientific and business settings. The authors describe textual dynamics as an interaction in which professional texts and discourses are constructed by, and in turn construct, social practices.
Table of ContentsPart 1 Textual construction of the professions: how natural philosophers can co-operate, Charles Bazeman; stories and styles in two molecular biology review articles, Greg Myers; the rhetoric of literary criticism, Jeanne Fahnestock and Marie Secor; medieval art of letter writing, Les Perelman; the role of narrative structure on the transfer of ideas, Ann Harleman Stewart; scientific rhetoric in the 19th and early 20th centuries, James P.Zappen. Part 2 The dynamics of discourse communities: toward a sociocognitire model of literacy, Cheryl Geisler; social context and socially constructed texts, Carol Berkenkotter et al; meaning attribution in ambiguous texts on sociology, Robert A.Schwegler and Linda Shamoon; texts in oral context, Gail Stygall. Part 3 The operational force of texts: text and action, James Paradis; understanding failures in organizational discourse, Carl G.Herndl et al; creating a text - creating a company, Stephen Doheny-Farina; intertextuality in tax accounting, Amy J.Devitt; a psychiatrist using DSM-III, Lucille Parkinson McCarthy.
