How to Write an American Death Notice: Some Guidelines for Novice Obituarists Cover Image

How to Write an American Death Notice: Some Guidelines for Novice Obituarists
How to Write an American Death Notice: Some Guidelines for Novice Obituarists

Author(s): Grzegorz Cebrat
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Foreign languages learning, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Language acquisition, Comparative Study of Literature, Other Language Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: American obituary; death notice; genre analysis

Summary/Abstract: The article aims at helping non-native speakers of English to write death notices, following the requirements of American tradition of the genre. It is based on the theoretical research into the genre, carried out by its author, who analyzed 1076 contemporary New York Times notices, according to Moves and Steps model of genre analysis by J. Swales and V. Bhatia. Having distinguished the death notice from the obituary, the author presents the communicative functions of the genre and its structure, consisting of seven moves, each made up of one to seven steps. Their presentation and brief analysis is accompanied by 100 patterns and templates, which allows intermediate (B1–B2) students of English to create their own texts successfully step by step.

  • Issue Year: 2/2016
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 101-123
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: English