The media genre of the personal account: rhetorical and linguistic construction of the socio-cultural setting

Abstract

Genre studies are of high relevance to media discourse in general and women's magazines discourse in particular if one considers their pervasiveness in our lives. This study presents a genre analysis of the personal account, endemic in women's magazines. The paper identifies the generic structure of the personal account and the rhetorical strategies of its textual implementation. More specifically, it focuses on the rhetorical strategies of the first element of the generic structure, the Summary and Orientation move, and on its most conspicuous linguistic features. The paper examines how the conventions of the move participate in the construction of the socio-cultural setting of the personal account. The study utilizes personal accounts from The Cosmopolitan, which was chosen due to its global international status and general thematic orientation.