Register, Epistemic Authority, and Argumentative Credibility
Understanding the difference between formal and informal language and when to use each in various writing contexts.
Key Questions
- Evaluate how the choice of academic versus journalistic register signals different claims to epistemic authority and shapes the reader's willingness to accept an argument.
- Analyze how stylistic features such as nominalisation, hedging, and passive construction function as rhetorical strategies that position a writer within or outside an expert community.
- Construct an argument for why command of formal register is not merely a stylistic preference but a precondition for legitimate participation in public intellectual discourse.
MOE Syllabus Outcomes
Suggested Methodologies
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