Towards A Taxonomical Structure of Book Reviews in Applied Linguistics: A Move Analysis
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Abstract
Practice in writing book reviews (BRs) is considered beneficial for graduate students as it helps them develop academic argumentation skills prior to writing their dissertations. Taxonomical differences in BRs exist across disciplines, particularly in their generic and rhetorical structures. As part of a material development initiative in Applied Linguistics, this paper analyses BRs published in the RELC Journal between 2015 and 2020 to establish their taxonomical structures. A total of 32 book reviews were examined, and both their generic and rhetorical structures were analysed using Swales’s (1990) move analysis approach and the framework proposed by Gezegin (2015). The communicative functions of each move were also identified to enhance students’ genre awareness. The analysis revealed four dominant generic structures and their associated rhetorical moves: introducing the book (General topic^, Author(s)^, Readership^, Book insertion^), outlining the book (Organisation^, Topics^, Extra text material^), highlighting parts of the book (Focused evaluation^), and providing a closing evaluation (Recommendation^). Furthermore, the analysis identified four distinct compositional approaches employed by BR writers, generating novel insights and offering pedagogical benefits for second-language writing instruction.
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