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Article published In: Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 34:2 (2021) ► pp.671–711

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Authoring support for Spanish language writers

A genre-restricted case study

ORCiD logo with link | University of León
ORCiD logo with link | University of Valladolid
ORCiD logo with link | University of Deusto
Published online: 15 December 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.19048.rab
Abstract
Authoring support consists of (semi)automated aids to be used at different stages during the writing process. Language information, however, tends to be restricted to areas such as spelling and grammar checking or term banks, and text construction difficulties that writers face concerning the structure of particular genres, associated sentence formulations or genre-specific vocabulary have not received proper attention. An additional gap in the research is that this support is generally addressed to English language users. This paper addresses these concerns focusing on a particular genre: the company’s directors’ report, and on Spanish language writers writing in English. A custom-made monolingual corpus has been analyzed using Bhatia (Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analysing genre: Language use in professional settings. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, (2004). Worlds of written discourse: A genre-based view. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and Swales (Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis. English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, (2004). Research genres: Exploration and analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) definitions of genre and move combined with theme characterization. Recurrent strings for each move/step, which are conventionally associated with each rhetorical unit, were identified and formulated as “meta-strings.” The bilingual glossary includes domain-specific items as well as move/step or genre-specific lexical and phraseological options, i.e., elements used irrespective of the business, places or people involved. The results are valuable by themselves, as an analysis of the genre, but also as the empirical basis for the authoring support tool that we present here, and as language training materials.
Resumen
Un asistente de redacción en inglés para hispanohablantes aplicado a un género: Estudio de caso
Los asistentes de redacción son ayudas (semi)automatizadas que se activan en el proceso de redacción. Sin embargo, la información suele limitarse a revisión ortográfica y gramatical o soporte léxico, sin prestar atención a la organización retórica, las estructuras oracionales típicas o el vocabulario de géneros concretos. Además, suelen estar diseñados para hablantes de inglés. Este artículo aborda ambos problemas en un género particular: el directors’ report, y en los redactores de lengua española que escriben en inglés como lengua extranjera. Analizamos un corpus ad hoc utilizando las definiciones de género y movimiento retórico de Bhatia (Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analysing genre: Language use in professional settings. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, (2004). Worlds of written discourse: A genre-based view. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) y Swales (Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis. English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, (2004). Research genres: Exploration and analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Las oraciones-tipo asociadas con cada unidad retórica se han formulado como “meta-oraciones”. El léxico bilingüe recoge terminología especializada y vocabulario específico de movimiento retórico o género. Los resultados tienen valor como análisis del género textual, como base empírica del asistente de redacción que presentamos, y como material docente.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The case study: The genre Directors’ Report
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1The corpus
    • 3.2Annotation: Moves and steps
  • 4.Move structure and rhetorical database
    • 4.1Obligatory moves
    • 4.2Expected moves
    • 4.3Optional moves
  • 5.The glossary database
  • 6.The “meta-string” database
  • 7.Authoring support
    • 7.1Using the tool
  • 8.Conclusions and further work
  • Notes
  • References
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