ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses one of a forum's functions in the development of an academic community's discourse. Using case study techniques combined with textual and linguistic analyses of the various issues, it traced the evolution of a scholarly forum, Reader, from its inception as a newsletter in the late 1970s to its present status as a journal included in the Arts and Humanities Citation Index and Current Contents/Arts and Humanities. Reader's title, format, and objects of study have changed over the last 17 years, as have the conventions that its contributors employ. Some of these changes occurred as the journal changed in format from a newsletter to a refereed journal. It is a historical, text-based study of the evolution of a scholarly journal from newsletter to full-fledged academic forum. The changing genre features that we examine in this chapter provide evidence of the textual character of institutionalization of the forum and, by implication, of the discourse community.
