ФУНКЦИОНАЛЬНЫЕ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ РЕЧЕВОГО ЖАНРА «ЧИТАТЕЛЬСКИЙ ОТКЛИК»

Introduction

The article is devoted to the study of one of the most popular speech genres in the field of journalism - the reader's response. Reader’s response is the analysis of hot topics that have been discussed in recent magazine publications. Any creative team is flattered when its activity is of interest, therefore, readers' responses are the most important mail for any magazine staff.

Attentive attitude to the readers’ responses and the conclusions drawn from them allow the staff to avoid mistakes in the future and improve their activity, so, for the magazine, the response is an incentive to work further. The material of the research was taken from the texts of readers' responses from such world famous glossy English-language women's magazines as “Cosmopolitan”, “Marie Claire”, “Red”, “Seventeen”, “Vanity Fair” and “Zest”. The sample size was 248 responses for the period from 1996 to 2011.

Discussion

The study of the functional qualities of readers’ responses is impossible without the analyzing of the genre system in which they take place. “Genres” constitute a certain system due to the fact that they are generated by a common set of causes and because they also interact and maintain the existence with each other [1. P. 145]. The analysis of the readers' responses showed that they have incorporated the functional qualities of such speech genres as "letter" and "review".

On the one hand, the reader's response is a letter, i.e. “text sent to message something to someone” [2. P. 668]. Researchers distinguish the following types of letters:

1) business letters (business communication documents: correspondence between organizations or organizations and an individual; legal, commercial letters, etc.);

2) scientific letters (professionally oriented: correspondence of scientists, connected by research interests, not by friendship; for example, linguistic letters, philosophical, etc. depending on the field of science);

3) literary letters (as a fact of fiction);

4) everyday letters (limited to the sphere of everyday communication);

5) publicistic letters (letters to the editors of magazines and newspapers) [3. P. 88].

On the other hand, the evaluative-critical nature of the reader's response makes it similar to the speech genre “review”, which is interpreted as “the expression of an opinion about something or someone, giving an assessment of something or someone” [2. P. 618]. Sociological studies have recorded the following motives for readers' appeals to the magazine staff :

- informing the magazine staff and its consumers of new and important facts, drawing public attention to them;

- the desire to share their feelings and thoughts on the problem of interests, express their opinion, proposal for its solution;

- the aspiration to influence, to impact on the work of various organizations with the help of the magazine staff , in order to take part in the government of a state and public affairs;

- the desire to express their opinion, attitude to the work of the magazine staff and to influence on its work;

- the aspiration to receive any information (cognitive, actionable, reference) or  help in the social orientation of the individual or to take an advice in a difficult situation;

- the aspiration  for self-expression, public recognition, creative aims;

- the desire to establish communication with journalists as with correspondence interlocutors, to alleviate their psychological state [4].

In accordance with the foregoing, the speech genre "reader’s response" is defined as an expedient way of processing, storing and transmitting information in the journalistic sphere of communication, designed as an evaluative and critical reaction to materials published in media. [5]

The external, composite structure of the reader’s response is composed of the subsequence of introductory, explicating and summarizing parts, integrated into a whole by the theme of the response.

The composite structure includes the headline. For the author who wrote the response, the headline reflects his intention; for the magazine audience, it is the initial semantic unit, which, reflecting the intention, contains the information about the content of the response itself. The headline is often framed in the form of a short question or thesis (premises or conclusions), e.g.: ‘Don’t forget the groundbreaking work of Erin Pizzey” [Marie Claire 2011: № 11], “The career women too scared to have babies” struck a chord [Marie Claire 2011: № 11], “Who needs words?” [Marie Claire 2002: № 12], “No bull, please” [Seventeen 2001: № 2], “Dial a Love Spy” [Cosmopolitan 2008: № 1], “Full-time fulfillment” [Red 2007: № 12], “Heartbreak help” [Zest 2007: № 4], “No business like war business” [Vanity Fair 2008: № 1].

The introductory part assumes a problem statement and may contain an appeal as an argument from the personality of the speaker (the author of the response), e.g:

I thought that I could not be any more depressed about the war in Iraq until I read David Rose’s article [“The people vs. the Profiteers’, November] on the unmitigated fraud and profiteering being perpetrated by private contractors in Iraq and the cover-up, if not willful disregard, of these crimes by the Justice Department. – “No business like war business” [Vanity Fair 2008: № 1];

Thank you for dispelling the myth you can’t work and be a good mum in your feature Does Career + Kids Have To = Guilt? (October). – “Full-Time Fulfilment” [Red 2007: № 12];

I enjoyed every last mouthful of your naughty dieter’s exploits in “The Dukan diaries’. It was refreshing to find another Bridget Jones-style dieter, confessing to starting to fall by the wayside doing it the “Dukan” way after three days of compliance. – “The letters just keep coming about September’s “The Dukan diaries” [Marie Claire 2011: № 11].

The explicating part of the reader's response contains an evaluative and critical analysis of the subject of discussion. The subject is viewed in parts by parts in their use, and in general. This is a systemic critical analysis that depends on the intention of the reasoning speech, e.g.:

My father felt that people should always be given “the benefit of the doubt” – and I feel that’s what Congress and the American people gave the Bush administration at the start of this now botched situation. It saddens me to see that trust trampled on in the most heinous ways imaginable. – “No business like war business” [Vanity Fair 2008: № 1];

I come from France, where it is the norm to go back to work after having a baby, so I found it shocking that over half my British NCT group didn't plan to. First, I went back part-time, which was great until I got bored of being given second-grade projects. Now, I am back full-time, have been promoted and have never felt so fulfilled. I run home at 6pm to spend time with my two-year-old daughter, who gets my undivided attention until bedtime. Seeing how smiley she is, there is no doubt she is a balanced child - and that's my benchmark. – “Full-Time  Fulfilment” [Red 2007: № 12];

Daniel Hine has inspired me to own up to my dieting crimes at my next slimming club weigh-in, where my “I’m so bloated with water retention”, or “This new gel bra seems to be weighting me down” excuses are wearing really thin. – “The letters just keep coming about September’s “The Dukan diaries” [Marie Claire 2011: № 11].

The summarizing part (conclusion) in the readers' responses is an appeal to the hearts of magazine audience and to their emotions, e.g.:

My only hope is that the appropriate people will eventually be held accountable, but I will not hold my breath (4). – “No business like war business” [Vanity Fair 2008: № 1];

I strongly believe a happy working mum can bring up fantastic kids. Please keep spreading the word! – “Full-Time Fulfilment” [Red 2007: № 12];

Go Danielle, be naughty, be happy. – “The letters just keep coming about September’s “The Dukan diaries” [Marie Claire 2011: № 11].

The speech genre "reader's response" as a functional object takes place in a particular system. In our case its a publicistic style. To achieve their goal, publicistic texts must be accessible, understandable to the mass audience: emotive, convincingly logical, not run counter to the everyday practical life experience of those to whom they are addressed. Breach of any of these requirements creates a "barrier" for the effective impact of the publicistic word.

Being integrated into the context of evaluative critical sub-style of the publicistic style, the readers’ responses get its impact and possess all its specific qualities such as the “open”, “emphasized” expressiveness of the author's “I”, the social-evaluative nature of presentation, the alternation of standard and expressive linguistic means, equality of logical and figurative elements in the narration, wide introduction of elements of colloquial speech [6. С. 84].

The qualities above, which are accumulatively defined in the article as "evaluativity", are framework for the speech genre "reader’s response" and as a result provide rational-informational as well as emotional-evaluative nature of communication in the readers’ responses.

The publicistic style as an environment for the functioning of speech genres is presented in institutional bodies (newspapers, magazines, books, electronic media) that organize written and oral communication. In this article, the institutional environment for the speech genre "reader's response" is a women's glossy magazine, which serves as a channel of communication between the magazine staff and the reader, the consumer of information.

Women's magazines, having their own "macrostyle", in our case publicistic, have their own special "microstyle", determined by the magazine audience. The women's magazine is a holistic, complex, multi-genre composition and a unique, original unity. It has its own set of milestones with its own specifics, its own set of speech genres, its own composition, designed for the tastes of a particular reader.

Readers' responses are published, as a rule, in the milestone "Letters", which are composed of responses of various content or devoted to a specific topic. In the first case, they are called general, and in the second, thematic [7. С. 232]. Readers' responses devoted to one and the same magazine publication (articles, photographs, interviews) are called thematic.

Readers' responses in women's magazines differ in a wide thematic range. Along with the list of topics included in the purely female competence (for example, children, family), women's responses discuss issues of social and political life, such as the war in Iraq, technogenic disasters, terrorism, etc., which is caused by  women desire to present  themselves as a socially active person.

All responses coming to the magazine staff are read, analyzed and selected for publication in the letters department. Each response is carefully edited in order to improve the framework and style of the material, to make the response language clear, clearly reflecting the author's idea, lexically and grammatically correct. At the final stage, the readers' responses go before the consumers as the texts specially created for the sphere of mass media, i.e. structurally and substantively focused on mass perception.

Editing of coming responses is due to the fact that the format and the magazine capacity, provided by its specifity, its content and purpose, enforce particular size norms to the content and the composition of  readers’ responses. Outraging these norms will inevitably outrage the composition of the magazine. Many of the responses during the editing process have to be shortened by crossing out parts of the text.

Conclusion

Thus, on the one hand, a women's magazine as a mass media, is a social organization, that collects, stores and converts information. On the other hand, it is a technical means, that helps the magazine staff to present information in a certain way. In the first case the content of the readers’ responses is of a great value. In the second case, the design and technical arrangement of the magazine, its composition, which serves as the system of construction, the connection of dissimilar parts of the magazine into an organic unit play an important role.