ABSTRACT
This chapter will analyze the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) theory of genre and will juxtapose it with other, related paradigms, including rhetorical genre theory, genre as understood in corpus linguistics, and genre theory in the systemic functional linguistics tradition. This chapter will explain the differences, showing how they grow out of different aims each tradition has in conducting research. The chapter will also offer a critical evaluation of ESP genre theory and will respond to these criticisms, arguing that the ESP genre tradition is a valuable research paradigm for scholars aiming to carry out a genre analysis of academic writing.
