‘Small bits of textual material’: A discourse analysis of Swales’ writing

Despite his considerable influence on the development of ESP and all our professional lives, almost nothing has been written about John Swales’ distinctive prose style. Based on a 340,000 word corpus comprising 14 single-authored papers and most chapters from his three main books, this paper sets out to identify the main features of this style. Using frequency, keyword and concordance analyses, I compare the Swales’ corpus with a broader applied linguistics corpus of 710,000 words and identify self mention, hedging and attitude, reader engagement and considerateness as characteristic of Swalesian rhetoric. I conclude with the view that this is a disciplinary voice informed by a keen assessment of his readers and representing an independent creativity shaped by an accountability to shared practices.