ความเป็นภาษาพูดในสารโน้มน้าวใจ ‘How-to Book’ ความแตกต่างระหว่างนักเขียนเพศชายกับเพศหญิง

Abstract

Persuasive language contains oral features to a high degree and these are powerful mnemonic devices in most persuasive messages. The aims of this research were to study and compare oral features used by male and female writers in persuasive messages in self-development how-to books. Two main oral features, which were the language used in expressing the writer’s emotions and that showing interactions between readers and writers, were analyzed. Six how-to books, three written by males and three by female writers, were selected on the basis of their high ranking on best seller lists followed by a purposive sampling method. The data were analyzed based on orality and literacy concept proposed by Walter J. Ong (1982) and Peter Dickinson (1994).

The findings show that how-to book writers used five strategies to express their emotions; 1) emoticons communicating the writer’s feelings 2) repetition of words and phrase 3) interjections 4) emphasizing the meaning by using diverse words 5) alterations of the spelling of words. In addition, female writers tended to use more word and phrase repetition and various interjections when compared with male writers. Moreover, male writers tended to use emoticons to convey vocal expressions while female writers tended to use them to represent facial expressions.
To show interactions between readers and writers, writers of how-to books in this study used 1) writer-oriented strategies 2) reader-oriented strategies and 3) strategies emphasizing engagement between the writer and the reader. Furthermore, male writers tended to use engagement strategies more than female writers.