Writing Language-based Trade Books
Making Linguistics Accessible to Lay Audiences
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4441190 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jeffrey Reaser (0000-0003-0275-9275, North Carolina State University, corresponding author), Caroline Myrick (North Carolina State University) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 198-208 |
| Publication date | 2015-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Language and Linguistics Compass (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1749-818X • E-ISSN: 1749-818X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/lnc3.12135 |
| OpenAlex | W1945316508 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 8 |
New publishing models and increased interest in "popular science" books have converged to make it increasingly viable for linguists to write language-based trade books focusing on regional and social speech varieties. In order for such books to reach a broad audience, authors must make writing choices that are quite dissimilar from those made when writing for academic peers. In this article, we examine a number of recent sociolinguistic trade books and consider the effects of the authors' choices on the effectiveness in engaging and conveying technical information to non-academic audiences. From our investigation of issues of audience, prose, images, citations, etc., emerge some guidelines that might help others be more successful in appealing to a popular readership. Though we offer no prescriptions, we hope that our investigation begins a conversation of best practices for engaging the public in linguistic investigations of regional and social speech varieties via trade books. In doing so, we also examine issues related to research ethics and the value in the academy of trade books specifically and linguistic gratuity projects in general
Academic writing · Art · Audience measurement · Conversation · Linguistics · Literature · Media studies · Pedagogy · Political science · Publishing · Sociology · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,4 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2023 (8) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |