The Discourse of Blogs and Wikis

by Greg Myers, Ken Hyland (Editor)

Overview

Blogs and wikis have not been with us for long, but have made a huge impact on society. Wikipedia is the best known exemplar of the wiki, a collaborative site that leads to a single text claimed by no-one; blogs, or web-logs, have exploded into the mainstream through novelisations and film adaptations and have gathered huge followings.

Blogs and wikis also serve to provide a coherent basis for a discourse analysis of a specific web language. What makes these forms distinctive as genres, and what effects does the technology have on language use? Myers looks at how blogs and wikis:

allow for easier than ever publication

link to texts, images, sounds, and video

provide alternate perspectives on events

exemplify glocalization

challenge demarcations between the personal and the public

redefine knowledge and authority

construct new communities.

Drawing on a blogroll of a wide range of popular blogs, and on some of the most debated articles in Wikipedia, the book works alongside an author blog that contains regularly updated links, references and a glossary. Each chapter has a guide to projects and reading. This is an essential textbook for upper level undergraduates on linguistics and language studies courses that will elucidate, inform and offer insights into a major new type of discourse.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781847064134
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/11/2010
Series:	Continuum Discourse , #8
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Ken Hyland is Professor of Applied Linguistics in Education at the University of East Anglia, UK.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Chapter 1 Introduction: A linguist in the blogosphere 1

Chapter 2 Genre: What is a blog? What is a wiki? 15

Chapter 3 This text and other texts: Creative linking 28

Chapter 4 Place: Where is a blog? 48

Chapter 5 Time: Now and then 65

Chapter 6 Audiences: A checklist on engaging readers 77

Chapter 7 Opinions: Where do I stand? 95

Chapter 8 Evidence: How do we know? 114

Chapter 9 Collaboration: 'History' pages on Wikipedia 129

Chapter 10 Arguing: 'Talk' pages on Wikipedia 145

A note on studying the language of blogs and wikis 160

Glossary 164

Blog addresses 169

References 171

Index 177