How do we design sentences to fit their purposes and how do we combine them to communicate complex, contextualized meanings? In this witty and incisive book, Scott Thornbury takes discourse apart to show how it is organized and how it aids communication. Starting with an examination of genre, he goe...

How do we design sentences to fit their purposes and how do we combine them to communicate complex, contextualized meanings? In this witty and incisive book, Scott Thornbury takes discourse apart to show how it is organized and how it aids communication. Starting with an examination of genre, he goes on to look at how we structure written and spoken text and how we use these structures in comprehending meanings.