Textual AnalysisAn approach to analysing professional textsaf Bodil Helder

Firms, organisations, political parties etc. try to bring their messages home to the reader through communication, but by means of language. Therefore it is crucial that the reader is able to evaluate not only the communicative issues, but also the language used in such texts. To that end, appropriate tools to analyse and understand these texts are of vital importance, e.g. for the purpose of evaluating the sender’s credibility, persuasive skills and strategic deliberations in general. The book makes an attempt to meet this need.The basic assumption of the book is that, whatever the purpose, persuasion is always involved in text production. If a text producer cannot establish credibility, he/she will not be able to persuade the reader that what is presented in a text is reliable. To illustrate the persuasive nature of professional texts, from instructions to advertisements and sales promotion letters, key aspects from rhetoric are combined with elements from communication and genre theory, text linguistics, pragmatics, grammar and M.A.K. Halliday’s Systemic functional linguistics. The book is suitable for all communication students at university level.