The emergence of the identity of a fictional expert advice-giver in an American Internet advice column

Abstract This paper is a contribution to research on the expression of expert advice-giving (e.g., Heritage and Sefi 1992; Silverman et al. 1992). We present a linguistic analysis of the ways in which the identity of the fictional expert advisor Lucy emerges in an Internet advice column run by professional health educators as part of a university health service. In discourse-analytical close readings of 280 question–answer records, we identify and discuss seven recurring strategies (the advisor's name, self-reference and use of address terms; expert information-giving; giving options and making readers think; the choice of vocabulary; offering opinions; the use of empathy; the display of humor), which together contribute to Lucy's voice as an expert advice-giver if the readers repeatedly access the question–answer exchanges. This emerging identity is in line with the site's mission to provide information designed to facilitate independent and responsible decision processes and corresponds to an ideal of nondirectiveness, as also identified in the literature on other advisory settings (He 1994; Sarangi and Clarke 2002; Vehviläinen 2003). The constructed identity of Lucy thus makes ‘Lucy Answers’ an attractive site to (re)turn to for advice and complements the other services provided by the health educators.

[1]  Julien Green,et al.  If I were you , 1949 .

[2]  A. Koller,et al.  Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language , 1969 .

[3]  W. C. Hendley.  Dear Abby, Miss Lonelyhearts, and the Eighteenth Century: The Origins of the Newspaper Advice Column , 1977 .

[4]  Angela Mcrobbie.  Jackie: Ideology of Adolescent Femininity , 1978 .

[5]  F. Erickson,et al.  The counselor as gatekeeper : social interaction in interviews , 1982 .

[6]  Anna Wierzbicka,et al.  Different cultures, different languages, different speech acts: Polish vs. English , 1985 .

[7]  Brian Wildsmith.  If I Were You , 1987 .

[8]  T. Hudson.  The discourse of advice giving in English: ‘I wouldn't feed until spring no matter what you do’ , 1990 .

[9]  B. Davies,et al.  Positioning: The Discursive Production of Selves , 1990 .

[10]  Diatextual analysis of the advice column , 1991 .

[11]  S. Sefi.  Dilemmas of advice: Aspects of the delivery and reception of advice in interactions between Health Visitors and firsttime mothers , 1992 .

[12]  D. Silverman,et al.  Obviously the advice is then to keep to safer sex: advice-giving and advice reception in AIDS counselling. , 1992 .

[13]  The construction of gender in a teenage magazine , 1992 .

[14]  Mary Bresnahan.  The Effects of Advisor Style on Overcoming Client Resistance in the Advising Interview , 1992 .

[15]  Mary Talbot,et al.  A synthetic sisterhood: false friends in a teenage magazine , 1992 .

[16]  Ted Dunning,et al.  Accurate Methods for the Statistics of Surprise and Coincidence , 1993, CL.

[17]  A. DeCapua,et al.  Strategies in the discourse of advice , 1993 .

[18]  'Guilt over games boys play': coherence as a focus for examining the constitution of heterosexual subjectivity on a problem page , 1993 .

[19]  R. Kreuz,et al.  The assumptions behind questions in letters to advice columnists , 1993 .

[20]  A. He.  Withholding academic advice: Institutional context and discourse practice , 1994 .

[21]  Eli Hinkel,et al.  Appropriateness of Advice as L2 Solidarity Strategy , 1994 .

[22]  Ian Hutchby,et al.  Aspects of recipient design in expert advice‐giving on call‐in radio , 1995 .

[23]  A. DeCapua,et al.  ‘If I were you ...’: Advice in American English , 1995 .

[24]  Deborah Schiffrin,et al.  Narrative as self-portrait: Sociolinguistic constructions of identity , 1996, Language in Society.

[25]  Stories As Academic Counseling Resources , 1996 .

[26]  Ratgebende Aufklärungstexte. Überlegungen zur linguistischen Beschreibung ratgebender Beiträge der Massenmedien , 1996 .

[27]  The Conversationalisation of Political Discourse: a Comparative View , 1997 .

[28]  Eli Hinkel,et al.  Appropriateness of Advice: DCT and Multiple Choice Data1 , 1997 .

[29]  D. Silverman.  Discourses of Counselling: HIV Counselling as Social Interaction , 1997 .

[30]  Vesa Leppänen.  The Straightforwardness of Advice: Advice-Giving in Interactions Between Swedish District Nurses and Patients , 1998 .

[31]  Guy Aston,et al.  The BNC Handbook: Exploring the British National Corpus with SARA , 1998 .

[32]  Bring on the little Japanese girls , 1999 .

[33]  A. Pilnick.  “Patient Counseling” by Pharmacists: Advice, Information, or Instruction? , 1999 .

[34]  Who is Cindy? Aspects of identity work in a teacher–parent–pupil talk at a special school , 2000 .

[35]  E. V. Roosmalen.  Forces of Patriarchy: Adolescent Experiences of Sexuality and Conceptions of Relationships , 2000 .

[36]  Erina L. MacGeorge,et al.  The Impact of Politeness and Relationship on Perceived Quality of Advice about a Problem. , 2000 .

[37]  Jennifer Hay.  Functions of humor in the conversations of men and women , 2000 .

[38]  K. Mutongi.  "Dear Dolly's" advice: representations of youth, courtship, and sexualities in Africa, 1960-1980. , 2000, The International journal of African historical studies.

[39]  G. Leech,et al.  Word Frequencies in Written and Spoken English: based on the British National Corpus , 2001 .

[40]  A. Pilnick.  The interactional organization of pharmacist consultations in a hospital setting: a putative structure , 2001 .

[41]  D. Currie.  Dear Abby , 2001 .

[42]  S. Vehviläinen.  Evaluative Advice in Educational Counseling: The Use of Disagreement in the "Stepwise Entry" to Advice , 2001 .

[43]  Interpersonal meaning and the discursive construction of action, attitudes and values: the global modal program of one text , 2002 .

[44]  Jacqueline Grennon.  , 2nd Ed. , 2002, The Journal of nervous and mental disease.

[45]  A. Clarke,et al.  Zones of Expertise and the Management of Uncertainty in Genetics Risk Communication , 2002 .

[46]  Kay P. Richardson.  Health risks on the internet: Establishing credibility on line , 2003 .

[47]  Anna De Fina,et al.  Identity in Narrative: A study of immigrant discourse , 2003 .

[48]  S. Vehviläinen.  Avoiding Providing Solutions: Orienting to the Ideal of Students' Self-Directedness in Counselling Interaction , 2003 .

[49]  S. M. Alexander.  Stylish Hard Bodies: Branded Masculinity in Men's Health Magazine , 2003 .

[50]  Miriam A. Locher,et al.  Politeness Theory and Relational Work , 2005 .

[51]  Miriam A. Locher.  Advice Online: Advice-giving in an American Internet Health Column , 2006 .

[52]  J. Sadock.  Speech acts , 2007 .