Why are doctors’ prescriptions illegible and why is the language of the law considered impenetrable to outsiders? Need they be so? Is it more difficult for non-native speakers of English than native speakers to access the discourse of professions such as law and medicine? These are some of the questions covered by this book, which uses the lens of stylistics to shed light on how the discourse of professional communities is used not just to convey meanings, but also to construct identity and demark membership. From the language of education to that of the law and healthcare, a range of professional discourses are examined, with the aim of showing how a knowledge of stylistics can provide the key for appropriate and acceptable language use, enabling successful communication and potential membership of professional communities.

The volume revisits the pioneering work of Dell Hymes (1996) on the relationship between communicative competence and inequality, and that of David Crystal and Derek Davy (1969) on stylistics in non-literary texts, in order to focus on the discourse of professional communities in the light of the changes that have taken place over the last twenty or so years in the age of globalisation and with the growing expansion of English. It starts with an overview of the rapidly developing field of stylistics and its potential for analysing texts, then goes on to examine the stylistic features of three specific areas of professional discourse (healthcare, law and education), in addition to looking at the language of new technologies.

In the various chapters, I draw on my ongoing research into how members of professional discourse communities communicate successfully to both insiders and outsiders, that is to both specialists in their field and to the world at large, in order to examine the role of stylistics in professional discourse. The book explores the relationship between linguistic competence and membership of professional communities, and also addresses a number of related issues, such as the importance of creating a professional identity and the evolving nature of professional discourses under the effects of globalisation; as well as linguistic inequality and marginalisation caused by a lack of communicative competence; and the possibility of challenging the gatekeepers who control access to professional domains.