Constructing Interpersonality: Multiple Perspectives on Written Academic Genres
Editor: Rosa Lorés-Sanz, Pilar Mur-Dueñas and Enrique Lafuente-Millán
Date Of Publication: May 2010
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-1981-7
Isbn: 1-4438-1981-6
The view that academic discourse is, by definition, impersonal has long been superseded. It seems unquestionable now that the interpersonal component of texts, that is, the ways in which the writers project themselves and their audience in the discourse, is an essential factor determining the success of scholarly communication and has become a fundamental issue in the field of English for Academic Purposes (EAP).

Interpersonality is the key issue around which the articles in this edited book focus on. The eighteen contributions included in this volume provide a wide exploratory view of the many academic genres in which interpersonality is manifested and the various analytical approaches from which the textual manifestation of that interpersonality can be studied. The varied origin of the contributors is also representative of the global interest that the issue of interpersonality arouses in the field of academic discourse analysis at an international level.

The present volume constitutes a highly valuable tool for applied linguists and discourse analysts with an interest in EAP as well as for students, instructors and language teachers interested in academic discourse. The book may also be of interest to other agents intervening in the research publication process, such as translators, proofreaders, reviewers and editors.

Rosa Lorés-Sanz is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English and German Studies, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain. She has co-edited books and published several articles on pragmatics, corpus analysis and contrastive rhetoric applied to academic and specialized languages. Her articles have appeared in journals such as English for Specific Purposes, Multilingua, ESP across Cultures, etc. Her present research focuses on the exploration of written academic genres both from an intercultural and an intergeneric perspective. She is a member of the research group InterLAE (www.interlae.com).

Pilar Mur-Dueñas holds a PhD from the Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain, where she is Lecturer in the Department of English and German Studies. Her main research interests are written academic discourse, intercultural rhetoric, metadiscourse and corpus studies. She is a member of the research group InterLAE (www.interlae.com). The results of her research have been published in journals such as Journal of English for Academic Purposes, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, English Text Construction, etc.

Enrique Lafuente-Millán has carried out most of his research on interpersonal resources in research articles published in international journals, adopting an interdisciplinary perspective. This was also the topic of his PhD thesis which he completed in 2007. He is part of the interLAE research group (www.interlae.com) at the Univerdad de Zaragoza, Spain. At the moment his research focuses on the cross-cultural exploration of evaluation and engagement in research articles.

"This is a wide-ranging volume in terms of the academic genres it covers, but yet remains tightly-focussed on what the editors call “interpersonality”. For them, this is an “umbrella term” for all the various means, covert, discreet and overt, employed by academic writers to establish their presence in their own texts. In consequence, this collection will be of interest to all those involved in written academic discourse, especially in English, whether as producers, analysts or instructors. Although the chapter authors come from many European countries, a majority are based in Spain, once again underlining that country’s current pre-eminence in this important and fast-growing field."

- Professor John M. Swales, University of Michigan, USA

"Interpersonality is now widely recognized as a key feature of academic discourse. To create knowledge, to get their ideas accepted and to establish their reputations, academics must present themselves and engage with their peers in ways readers find familiar and persuasive. Exactly how this is done in different contexts has become a hot topic in applied linguistics and this book is a timely and authoritative contribution to the debate. Constructing Interpersonality: Multiple perspectives on written academic genres provides an accessible and thought-provoking dimension to the issues surrounding questions of interpersonality, bringing together contributions from top scholars in the field to investigate the theoretical and empirical implications of taking interpersonality seriously. Featuring an array of theoretical positions, exploring contrasts across disciplines, languages, and genres, and covering a range of genres from research articles to academic weblogs, this book will be of considerable interest to students and researchers in EAP, discourse analysis, and applied linguistics."

- Professor Ken Hyland, City University of Hong Kong

Focusing on a very specific theme, interpersonality in written academic discourse, was a major strength of the conference and consequently of the present volume too. The conference managed to create the perfect atmosphere for a fruitful dialogue among people in a perfect communication of ideas, metalanguage and goals. The present result is a monograph that provides authoritative, updated and forward-looking perspective on a major issue in the LSP and EAP fields. The different papers in the volume are not only of an outstanding academic robustness but also of much practical relevance for both EAP teachers and students. In our view, this brilliantly edited volume will be a landmark in the field, and an invaluable source of inspiration for researchers and scholars."

Javier Fernandez Polo, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela in Miscelanea Journal, Vol. 41 (2011)

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