Reports on an analysis of the forms, strategies, and functions of complimenting in one genre of written discourse. It is argued that writers use complimenting discourse strategies to establish and maintain rapport and to mitigate both global and genre-specific face-threatening acts and that these social purposes help account for both their…

Study of the pragmatics of politeness conventionally draws on conversational data, but can be extended to some genres of written text. A framework is described that analyzes politeness strategies in terms of impositions (claims and denials of claims) and reveals some stylistic features in scientific papers and in popularizations. (Author/CB)

This study investigated register features of 164 foreign students' English writing before and after full-time courses in English for academic purposes. Results indicate the major changes were from features of spoken English to those more typical of formal writing, both in surface detail and in more fundamental characteristics. Less change occurred…