A Genre-Based Investigation of Book Reviews in Applied Linguistics and System: An Analysis of Rhetorical Structure

Book reviews play an essential role in helping researchers and authorities keep up with the newest advancements in their respective field. Most genre-based reviews in the past have focused their analysis on linguistic characteristics of book reviews, dismissing rhetorical structures. Therefore, the current study aims to rectify this belief by looking for obligatory and conventional moves in two of the most famous linguistics journals, Applied Linguistics and System, while also comparing the sequencing of their rhetorical structures. Seventy book reviews, thirty-five from each journal, were investigated in this study. The rhetorical structures used in this investigation were based on Motta Roth’s (1995) Model. Data coding was done by utilizing MAXQDA. The results were as follows: while none of the four rhetorical move was obligatory in these journals, they were all at least used in more than 70% of the book reviews investigated. Move 2, outlining the book, was utilized in every book review. On the matter of move sequencing, it was observed that book reviews in both journals generally adhere to the conventional linear move sequencing. These findings show that rhetorical structures are still widely used by book reviewers and can provide a good starting point for researchers interested in doing book reviews.