CHAPTER 1 Introduction
1.1 Backgroundofthe Study
1.2 Purposes of the Study
CHAPTER 2 Literature Review
2.1 Contrastive Rhetoric (CR)
2.1.1 Background of CR
2.1.2 Development of CR
2.1.3 Aristotle's Rhetoric Theory and CR
2.2 Genre Analysis
2.2.1 Definition of Genre
2.2.2 Definitions of Move and Step
2.2.3 Features ofGenreAnalysis
2.3 Systemic Functional Linguistics
2.3.1 Theory of Context
2.3.2 System of Interpersonal Function
2.3.3 Hasan's Contextual Configuration
2.4 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
2.4.1 Principles of CDA
2.4.2 Methodology of CDA
2.4.3 Fairclough's CDA
2.4.4 Critiques ofCDA
2.5 Studies in Writing of English for Specific Purposes (ESP)
2.5.1 Definition ofESP
2.5.2 Studies in ESP Writing
2.6 English Job Application Letters
2.6.1 Functions
2.6.2 Previous Studies
CHAPTER 3 Research Design
3.1 Participants
3.2 Instruments
3.3 Data Analysis
3.3.1 Analysis of Moves and Rhetorical Structures
3.3.2 Analysis of Linguistic Features
3.3.3 Analysis of Persuasive Appeals
CHAPTER 4 Results and Discussions
4.1 Analysis of Moves and Rhetorical Structures
4.1.1 Moves, Steps, and Sub-steps
4.1.2 Rhetorical Structures
4.2 Analysis of Linguistic Features
4.2.1 Statistics of Wordlists
4.2.2 Person
4.2.3 Mood
4.2.4 Modal Auxiliaries
4.2.5 Interpersonal Metaphors
4.3 Analysis of Persuasive Appeals
CHAPTER 5 Conclusions
REFERENCES
APPENDIX A Informed Consent Forms
APPENDIX B Task Assignment for Chinese College Students
APPENDIX C Examples of English Job application Letters in Corpora A, B and C
APPENDIX D Extracts of Concordance List
INDEX
EPILOGUE