An analysis of structural moves in Chinese sales letters

This study sets out to explore the general principles of structural moves in Chinese sales letters by using a combined approach of genre analysis (Swales, 1990) and contrastive rhetoric (Kaplan, 1966). Data consisting of twenty authentic letters are analyzed in two steps: (1) a description of structural moves in a twenty-letter corpus; and (2) a detailed structural analysis of the most successful letter in the corpus identified by native speakers. The analysis will focus on the general structure and development of each individual move in the letter. Both of these levels of analysis try to determine which style Chinese sales letters follow. The findings show that all sales letters in the corpus follow a linear development and that most sales letters follow a direct approach and speak to the point, although some are indirect, providing introductory or transitional sections. This indirectness is basically linear in structural development and is not related to 'circularity' or 'digression'.