Abstract
This study investigated the rhetorical structure of the “About Us” page on North American universities’ engineering website based on move analysis developed by Swales (1990). Promotional genres tend to promote products for potential audiences as communicative purposes. The university “About Us” page is considered as one type of promotional genres (Bhatia, 2004). It aims at attracting future students who are interested in studying engineering by providing a variety of information and therefore promotes its professional image. The samples of the “About Us” page were collected from the top 20 engineering websites in North American universities listed on the QS Top University’s World University Ranking 2013 by Engineering and Technology. Two coders, the researcher and a graduate student, hand-coded the “About Us” pages and identified a seven-move structure. They are Self-promotion, Mission statement, Status quo of college, Vision statement, Source of consultation, Invitation, and Giving extra details of college.
Author Information
Shih-Jen Huang, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Taiwan
Yu-Ling Chang, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Taiwan
Comments
Powered by WP LinkPress