Conclusion

As the register analysis has shown, the high frequency of the declarative clause type in Blog 1 makes this blog more informative than interactive. In addition, the language used in it

signifies the linguistic features of both the spoken and written modes of language. This analysis has shown that although this blog-writer is separated from her audience spatially, she has tried to construe a relation with her audience through her particular choice of Subject, the imperative and interrogative patterns, and addressing the audience directly. Also, placing the old or given information at the beginning of clauses and producing long sentences are both characteristics of speech. On the other hand, this blog-texts have shown a high tendency to be more monologic than dialogic due to the high number of declarative non-elliptical clauses and lack of interpersonal tenor meanings. To sum up, this blog is an informative type of blog with a few linguistic indications of tenor and a blend of features typical of both the spoken and written modes. As a result, it is true to say that blog-space can provide an environment where writers feel able to shift from one mode of language to another in their texts to achieve their purpose, which is communication. This might raise the question of whether other factors can affect the mode of language in Blog 1. Switching from one mode of language to another may have other reasons such as the blog-writer’s lack of linguistic competence; this could mean that the blog-writer as an EFL learner is unable to control the channel of information and role of the language due to her limited lexico- grammatical knowledge; however, this style might be a culturally appropriate and accepted mode of discourse within the community and a deliberate strategy to communicate effectively. These issues need further attention and need to be investigated in the socio- cultural context where the discourse is happening.

The genre analysis suggests that this blog contains various genres with different stages and sub-stages. Half of the texts were analysed as an instance of Arguments genre and the rest belonged to Self-introduction, Recounts, Narrative and Exemplum genres. The schematic stages of the dominant genre in the texts were sometimes mixed with other genres. This has led some texts to contain the features of two or more genres simultaneously. This could be because of writing in the virtual environment of blogs where the blog-writer is not limited to formal language patterns. This provides evidence of how the mode of writing can affect the construction of discourse. Furthermore, the role of audience and purpose in determining the schematic stages of blog-texts is striking in the analysis. Thus, it seems rather simplistic to associate all of the blog-texts with a particular genre.

The analysis of the hyperlinks and comments did not show any particular discourse community in this blog. However it indicated that the blog-writer was engaged with her audience through the small talks happening in the comments. Considering the wide audience of blogs, who can lurk and not leave any comments, it is rather hard to apply the notion of a discourse community to blogs.

The talk-around-text interview showed the reason for some of the blog-writer’s linguistic choices in her texts and provided a better understanding of the purpose of this blog. As the blog-writer said, she used her blog to publish her life stories, talk about her family and tell people about her beliefs and feelings; this resembles McNeill’s (2003) online diary, and Herring et al.’s (2004) and Puchman’s (2010) personal journal/diary, where blog-space is used to record the blog-writer’s internal and external personal experiences, reflections and emotions. Considering the blog-writer’s point of view, it can be suggested that blogs can influence the linguistic features of the discourse and give the blog-writer the freedom to voice her opinion and feelings when necessary. The use of the first person pronoun, which the blog-writer feels is inappropriate in a real face-to-face discourse, confirms this issue. Judging from the responses, the blog-writer used the second person pronoun to draw the audience into the text and relate with them (Ye, 2010, p.146); by using the first person plural inclusive pronoun ‘we’ and its derivations, she shows solidarity and persuades the readers to agree with her opinions. The blog-writer’s response regarding her choice of modality indicates the importance of audience in constructing the discourse; she stressed that, as the audience of her blog is not certain, she used the medium low obligation modal ‘should’ to show how she avoids sounding authoritative in her texts and to give space to the readers’ opinion.

Active declarative clauses had the main role in construing the blog-writer’s self-expression and stance in texts; through this she expressed things as facts that did not leave any space for the readers’ opinion. In a few instances, she constructed her textual position with the help of imperative and interrogative clauses; through such clauses, she engaged with the readers and pulled their voice into the texts. In some instances, she expressed herself and construed her authorial stance by using the first person pronoun; through this she assigned herself the role of a knower or an advisor. Using the first person plural pronoun inclusive (we) helped her show her solidarity and align her voice with her readers. She also used different types of modality to reinforce her voice and stance, to state her uncertainty, to negotiate with the readers, to recommend something and sometimes to bring the readers’ voice into the text. She sometimes expressed her proposition through negation and sometimes challenged her readers’ thoughts. This analysis also showed that the blog- writer’s self-expression, voice and stance were construed in relation to the social purpose of the blog-texts, and that is there is a constant interaction between the genre and register of discourse. Overall there is a strong tendency to descriptive register and genre in Blog 1 and the main topic of the blog-texts is the writer. A possible way to help the student-writer develop more complex genres and reflective language can be blogging along with writing instructions as a scaffold that needs more investigation.