THE QUESTION/ANSWER FORM OF REPRESENTING MATERIAL IN POPULAR SCIENTIFIC TEXTS (DATA OF ENGLISH)
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2017-11-100-103
The immense interest of the ordinary person in the latest scientific and technological breakthroughs generated a great number of instructional/reference books which are intended to present plain language guides for persons new to the topics covered. Most of the books are organized into series, such as The Complete Idiot’s Guide, For Dummies, Missing Manual. There are several series of For Dummies books. At first the series included only step-by-step instructions focused on computers and their software, laptops, Windows, Linux, virus protection, the Internet, blogging, etc. Later there appeared more general-interest titles, with topics as diverse as Advertising for Dummies, Small Business for Dummies, House Selling for Dummies, The Leadership Brain for Dummies, etc. There are also books focused on science and technology topics, e.g. Physics for Dummies, Trigonometry for Dummies, Telecom for Dummies, Research Methods in Psychology for Dummies, Nanotechnology for Dummies, etc. The language of these books is simple and direct, but at the same time most of the texts are loaded with various stylistic devices. Their function is to make the information not only beginner-friendly, but also interesting and entertaining. The authors use metaphors, hyperboles, allusions, etc. One of the effective stylistic devices is using questions. Addressing the reader, the author can make him or her feel more involved and active as an information receiver.
Keywords: scientific popular literature, stylistic devices, question/answer form, instruction, expressivity
References:
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Issue: 11, 2017
Series of issue: Issue 11
Rubric: GERMANIC LANGUAGES
Pages: 100 — 103
Downloads: 1280