Search results for "Rhetorical modes"

Letters to the editor: Still vigorous after all these years?

2006

Abstract This paper investigates Letters to the Editor, a section in biomedical journals used by scientists since the early 19th century to question already validated research. The aim of this study is to highlight some of the discursive strategies and to bring to the fore the linguistic characteristics of this particular genre, to analyze its goal, role and use within a community of French researchers. It is based on a corpus of 200 letters selected from two scientific journals in the fields of biology and medicine: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and The Lancet published between 1999 and 2002. The strategy of questioning is analyzed as an explicit and implicit mode of criticism…