Date: 02-May-2005 From: K. van den Heuvel <lotlet.uu.nl> Subject: Culture and Conventions: Writing and Reading Dutch Scientific English: Burrough-Boenisch
Title: Culture and Conventions: Writing and Reading Dutch Scientific English
Series Title: LOT Dissertation Series 59
Publisher: Utrecht Institute of Linguistics / LOT Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistic
Author: Joy Burrough-Boenisch, CLS Nijmegen
Electronic: ISBN: 9076864209 Pages: 349 Price: U.S. $ free
Paperback: ISBN: 9076864209 Pages: 349 Price: Europe EURO 26.52
Written by an experienced authors' editor, this doctoral thesis in applied linguistics investigates the English written by Dutch scientists. Does such English contain distinctive Dutch (rather than learner) traits? And how and why do readers from the discourse community react to it?
Tracing the outward spiralling of a text from a Dutch scientist's computer screen to the journal page reveals the persons involved along the way. Theories on writing, reading and translation that help explain their textual interventions are discussed, as are the culture and conventions that influence Dutch scientists' writing. Empirical evidence is presented for discernable Dutch traits in scientific writing.
Two studies in which language professionals react to aspects of cohesion in Dutch-authored English texts pave the way for an account of a large-scale reception study in which the Discussions of three Dutch-authored manuscript biology articles were read and annotated by biologists from eight countries. These readers' reactions, in particular to aspects of cohesion, hedging and verb tense, are related to whether or not they are English native speakers and whether or not they have reviewed papers for English-language scientific journals.
This book is intended to foster communication between applied linguists and language professionals. The theoretical insights and practical implications presented will therefore interest researchers of nonnative writing, ESP and EAP teachers, authors' editors, and editors and reviewers of scientific journals.