Textual Genre Analysis and Identification - Ambient Intelligence for Scientific Discovery - page 147

Fig. 4. A “Business Analysis” Piece (Not21) Shown in DocuScope.
6.4 Understanding Underlying Language and Culture
in Tech Reviews
Tech reviews are quite different. They are product- rather than event-driven
and they ground their authority in the subjective evaluation of the reviewer.
DocuScope's analysis helps us to understand the rhetorical features of language
that set these tech reviews apart: Self disclosure (+6.005), Subjective Perception
(+6.813), Interacting (2.834), and Negative Standards (+2.279).
Figure 5 shows the opening of a fairly typical tech review by Wildstrom, a
review of wireless technology. Scattered throughout are linguistics strings that
tell us we are being let in on the subjective perceptions of the reviewer himself:
I'm a big fan of Wi-Fi on laptops . . . , my experience with Palm Solution
... my Tungsten C
And a whole set of subjective judgments:
the ability to exchange data isn't enough anymore . . . at least not for
many mobile workers, even when they'renowhereneartheirPC's...Wi-
Fi may not be the best choice ...there is no easy way to roam from one
network to another, . . . this system is just barely tolerable .
In the reviews in this study, self disclosure were seven times more common in
tech reviews than in other journalistic pieces (0.21 self disclosures per 100 words
in tech reviews versus 0.03 per 100 words in other journalistic pieces). Subjective