This book describes the most important kinds of texts in English and introduces the methodological techniques used to analyse them. Three analytical approaches are introduced and compared, describing a wide range of texts from the perspectives of register, genre and style. The primary focus of the book is on the analysis of registers. Part 1 introduces an analytical framework for studying registers, genre conventions, and styles. Part 2 provides detailed descriptions of particular text varieties in English, including spoken interpersonal varieties (conversation, university office hours, service encounters), written varieties (newspapers, academic prose, fiction), and emerging electronic varieties (e-mail, internet forums, text messages). Finally, Part 3 introduces advanced analytical approaches using corpora, and discusses theoretical concerns, such as the place of register studies in linguistics, and practical applications of register analysis. Each chapter ends with three types of activities: reflection and review activities, analysis activities, and larger project ideas.

'A recent addition to the series Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics, Biber and Conrad’s Register, Genre, and Style introduces methodological techniques for analysing text varieties in English. With practical analytical frameworks and thoroughly illustrated examples, this book provides an accessible and generalized treatment of register/genre/style analyses to senior undergraduate and graduate students in linguistics and related fields. There is every prospect that this book will become a standard text for students and scholars studying register/genre analysis for the first time.'

Source: Discourse Studies

' … a remarkably accessible and comprehensive book, which will also be appropriate for more advanced students, as well as for scholars from a range of areas who may be looking for a state of the art but practical introduction to empirical research on register, genre and style.'

Source: The Journal of English Language and Linguistics