ABSTRACT
In addition to creating an effective stance, developing an appropriate relationship with readers is central to successful research writing. The ability to craft a text which establishes solidarity, or at least a disciplinary affiliation, both supports a writers’ community credentials and helps to head off objections to arguments. Readers want to feel they are being taken into consideration as much as they need to follow an argument set out in a familiar way. Engagement is how writers rhetorically acknowledge their readers. It is a reader-oriented aspect of interaction addressing the degree of rapport which holds between participants. Engagement is therefore rhetorical, concerned with galvanizing support, expressing collegiality, resolving difficulties and heading off objections. The significance of engagement and its relationship to the research practices of different disciplines has been demonstrated in several studies. Comparisons have been made in how engagement varies by genre and language, revealing the ways writers shape their texts to the expectations of different audiences.
