Medical academic writing versus general writing: a systemic grammar perspective

Abstract

Peter R. R. White, describes ‘systemics’ as that which provides an ‘account of the grammar of the language as it is used in actual social situations and hence is concerned at all times with the meaning, communicative functionality and rhetorical purposes of language’ (2000). This analysis examines two scientific texts, one for specialists and one for a general audience using the systemic framework devised by M. A. K. Halliday. Through the identification and analysis of the lexico-grammatical differences between the two texts using aspects of the systemic framework, this paper seeks to determine the stylistic and communicative consequences of these differences.