Instructional Writing in English
Studies in honour of Risto Hiltunen
Editors
The history of English writing is, to a considerable extent, the history of instructional writing in English. This volume is the first collection of papers to focus on instructional writing throughout the history of the language. Spanning a millennium of English texts, the materials studied represent procedural and behavioural discourse in a variety of genres. The primary texts, from Ælfric’s homilies to medieval cooking recipes to seventeenth-century American conduct literature to present-day language textbooks, display a variety of linguistic devices typical of instruction. The materials nonetheless differ with respect to the explicitness of their instructive purpose. Bringing together a broad range of instructional writing from the Old, Middle and Modern English periods, this collection celebrates the sixtieth birthday of Risto Hiltunen, who has successfully combined discourse-linguistic approaches with the history of English in his research, and inspired the colleagues and former students contributing to this volume.
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 189] 2009. xiii, 240 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgments | p. vii
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In honour of Risto HiltunenBruce Mitchell | p. ix
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Tabula gratulatoria | pp. xi–xiii
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Approaching instructional writing in EnglishSanna-Kaisa Tanskanen, Janne Skaffari and Matti Peikola | pp. 1–11
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Teaching by stories: Ælfric's instructive narrativesBrita Wårvik | pp. 13–34
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The WOMANual: Ancrene Wisse on instructionJanne Skaffari | pp. 35–53
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Vague language in the medieval recipes of the Forme of CuryRuth Carroll | pp. 55–82
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Instructional aspects of the calendar in later medieval England, with special reference to The John Rylands University Library MS English 80Matti Peikola | pp. 83–104
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Authority and instruction in two sixteenth-century medical dialoguesIrma Taavitsainen | pp. 105–124
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"Proper to their sex": Letter-writing instruction and epistolary model dialogues in Henry Care's The Female SecretarySanna-Kaisa Tanskanen | pp. 125–140
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(Un)Becoming conduct: Cotton Mather's Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion and the Salem witchcraft crisisKathleen L. Doty | pp. 141–160
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"Instruction with delight": The narrator's voice in John Newbery's early English children's booksLydia Kokkola | pp. 161–185
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Doing what the doctor said: Constructing an authoritative voice in William Buchan's Domestic MedicineEllen Valle | pp. 187–209
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Instructional writing on English: What guides the textbook writer?Paivi Pietila, Leena Taanila-Hall and Sonja Vainio | pp. 211–232
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Index | pp. 233–240
“[...] as an introduction to the evolution of instructional writing in English, the collection proves to be enlightening and also highlights the breadth of the work by Risto Hiltunen, a major scholar in the field of historical discourse to whom the book is dedicated, broadening the understanding of the reader as to the changes in instructional writing in English over time.”
Rachel Varshney, Macquarie University, Australia, in Discourse Studies, Vol. 13(1), 2011
“The contributions show the facets of instructiveness as encoded in the language and/or purpose of texts, with some features of instructiveness bridging periods and genres, and others being genuinely specific to particular texts. It is this comprehensive perspective on instructional writing that makes the volume interesting for scholars of modern and historical pragmatics and discourse analysis, genre studies and text type studies.”
Birte Bös, Universität Rostock, in Journal of Historical Pragmatics, Vol. 12:1/2 (2011)
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Shvanyukova, Polina
2020. Transgressions as a socialisation strategy in Samuel Richardson’s The Apprentice’s Vade Mecum (1734). In Manners, Norms and Transgressions in the History of English [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 312], ► pp. 166 ff. ![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
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Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CFG: Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General