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The art of writing a successful conference proposal is an important task for many TESOL professionals. If the proposal is not accepted, they will not be able to present their paper, and thus may not be able to get funds to attend the conference. Despite its importance, there is little research regarding this genre. In the present study we describe the genre characteristics of the one-page "summary" in the TESOL conference proposal, using a corpus of proposals submitted to the 1996 TESOL Conference. We identified rhetorical moves in each proposal ("territory," 'gap," "goal," "means," "reporting previous research," "outcomes," "benefits," "competence claim," "importance claim") and compared the use of these moves in proposals of three different subgenres (Research, Pedagogical and Administrative). Although we found certain combinations of moves in all three subgenres, we also found that variation in the sequencing of these moves depended not only on the specific audience but also on writers' individual style. These discoveries will help writers of proposals for future conferences attend to aspects of form, content and audience. (Contains 1 figure and 3 tables.)

This paper proposes a set of new methods for intercultural rhetoric research that is context-sensitive and, in many instances, goes beyond mere text analysis. It considers changes in the field as intercultural rhetoric has moved from the EAP study of student essays to the study of writing in many disciplines and genres. New developments in text, genre, and corpus analyses are introduced to enable researchers and teachers in the field to consider these new writing products and processes in their specific contexts. It is emphasized that future intercultural rhetoric research continues using a variety of research tools to determine base line comparisons, with appropriate "tertia comparationes," to explain differences and similarities in written products, as well as in the activity of writing through a number of qualitative approaches. (Contains 1 table.)

Argues that corpus-based text analysis should be going beyond the analysis of lexicogrammatical features to investigate the specific genre features of text. A study of politeness strategies used by Finns, Americans, and Belgians in a learner corpus of letters of application found that Americans tended to be much more patterned--even formulaic--in their politeness strategies. (Author/VWL)

Analysis of 34 European-Union research-grant proposals written mainly by Finnish-led teams used genre analysis and a social constructionist theory of genre to investigate characteristic features of grant proposals, especially those not covered in academic writing courses. Ten recurrent moves were identified, reflecting the generic affinity of grant proposals to both academic research papers and promotional genres. (Author/MSE)

Describes a course in international business writing that has been taught simultaneously since 1994 at institutions in Belgium, Finland, and the United States. Describes the course's three components: instruction; simulation, in which students exchange business documents internationally; and case studies of business people who communicate internationally in writing. (SR)

Connor comments on Raimes' research on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) essay component, the Test of Written English (TWE), and the practices of the Educational Testing Service. Raimes' response is directed toward the TWE research agenda. (five references) (Author/LB)

A study of the relationships between intermediate English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students' reading and writing of both persuasive and descriptive texts found very complex effects involving such previously unresearched areas as differences among genres, student proficiency levels, student academic levels, and measurement instruments. (33 references) (CB)

Reviews two areas of cross-cultural research (sociolinguistic research on oral interaction and the applied linguistic research area of contrastive rhetoric). Makes recommendations for using collaborative peer response groups successfully with multicultural classes. (MG)

Reviews research concerning instructional applications of discourse analysis for student reading and writing, including large-scale studies of student writing, text-based studies, reading comprehension, and semantic mapping. A large unannotated bibliography is included. (CB)

Topical structure analysis of English-as-a-Second-Language essay tests identified two topical structure variables, proportions of sequential and parallel topics in the essays, that differentiated the highest-rated essays from the lower-rated essays. (46 references) (Author/CB)

Identifies a set of linguistic/rhetorical measures which were developed to analyze cross-cultural differences in student argumentative/persuasive writing at the same age level. Compares the writing achievement of students from America, England, and New Zealand to test these measures, and contrasts these results with those produced by holistic rating. (KEH)