Genre Analysis Of Data Commentary—A Corpus-based Approach

Nowadays, mass media has entered a more competitive era, and people are paying more attention to information communication. Compared with other visual information, figures, tables and graphs play a key role in making information vivid and visualized. That is, figures, tables and graphs reveal information, and data are reflected in figure, tables and graphs. In addition, the commentary describes, analyzes and evaluates the data presented in figures, tables or graphs. Two corpora of 600 samples(300 in testing field and 300 in non-testing field) are collected to support this study. Based on ESP genre analysis approach, this research modifies its top-down analysis framework into a synthesized theoretical framework, i.e. a CDRL genre analyzing framework. Thus, samples of data commentary both in testing and non-testing field will be analyzed from the perspectives of discourse structure, rhetorical modes and linguistics features. This study will also make a comparison between testing and non-testing field, and among five different disciplines in non-testing field in respects of macro features, rhetorical features and micro features.