Persuasion in smoking cessation online: an interpersonal pragmatic perspective

Persuasion in smoking cessation online analyses persuasive discourse strategies from an interpersonal pragmatics perspective within a range of online public smoking cessation sites in the UK. The book employs a mixed methodology approach to study persuasion on multiple levels, comparing professional, institutional websites with peer-to-peer sources. It shows how a content analysis can be successfully combined with a discursive moves analysis, laying the ground for in-situ, qualitative close-readings of relational work, of linguistic patterns and their link to persuasion. In this vein, the book provides a comprehensive picture of how the persuasive intent pervades the selected sources, ranging from the choice of topics, discursive moves to the relational work used. It reveals how persuasion is an intricate linguistic and relational endeavour, far from simply presenting information or resorting to scare tactics. Instead, interpersonal concerns take a centre stage in these sources, where the necessity of quitting smoking is boosted while the connection with addressees is always maintained. With its detailed linguistic analyses and its interdisciplinary treatment of persuasion, this book is interesting for researchers in discourse analysis, interpersonal pragmatics as well as health communication in general.