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Situational analysis as a tool for interpreting within-discipline linguistic variations in disciplinary writing

ORCiD logo with link | Lycée Français International de la Louisiane
ORCiD logo with link | Georgia State University
Published online: 5 December 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/rs.24023.mbo
Abstract
Situational analysis (SA), defined by (2019). Register, genre, and style (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar as the description of the characteristics of use of registers, is a key step in any corpus study of text varieties. Register SA is essential not only for the collection of a representative corpus, but also for the interpretation of the linguistic characteristics of the register, i.e., the description of the relationship between the situational characteristics and the linguistic features. The present paper reports the SA that was conducted as the first step of a comparative study of the formulaic profiles of two registers in the medical field: the research article and the case report. The findings revealed that both registers share the overarching goals of advancing medical research and practice and have medical pathologies and treatments as general topics but differ fundamentally in their specific communicative purposes, channels, and production circumstances, resulting in noticeable linguistic variations in the two registers.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Theoretical frameworks
      • 2.1.1Genre perspective of situational analysis
      • 2.1.2Register perspective of situational analysis
      • 2.1.3Text-level approach to situational analysis
    • 2.2Frameworks for register situational analysis
    • 2.3MRAs and MCRs in the medical field and in medical writing research
  • 3.Methods
    • 3.1Corpora
    • 3.2Situational analysis frameworks
  • 4.Findings and discussions
    • 4.1Situational characteristics of MRAs
      • 4.1.1Participants
      • 4.1.2Textual organization and layout
      • 4.1.3Topic and purpose
      • 4.1.4Explicitness of research design
      • 4.1.5Nature of data and methodology
    • 4.2Situational characteristics of MCRs
      • 4.2.1Participants
      • 4.2.2Setting
      • 4.2.3Topic
      • 4.2.4Communicative purposes
      • 4.2.5Channel
      • 4.2.6Production circumstances
    • 4.3Similarities and differences between MRAs and MCRs
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
References (38)
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