作为世界第二大经济体，中国越来越多的与国外经济互动。其深入参与全球经济，中国必将面临越来越多的法律纠纷从贸易交流或其他种类的相互作用与其他国家，尤其是英语与中国的商业贸易代表社区SA比例显著。在全球化的背景下，对涉外法律事务的中国律师提出了更高的要求，要求他们在法律实践中经常掌握用英语准备各种法律文书。请求函作为律师的一种有力工具，被认为是法律界最广泛使用的书面文书之一。在法律的日常实践中，律师需要为各种目的准备各种函件。通信是法律公司与外界之间主要的书面交流形式。除了法院提供的文件和合同等交易文件之外，信件是为律师事务所以外的听众设计的一种书面形式。
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Background of the Research
As the second largest economy in the world, China is increasingly involved ineconomic interactions with the foreign countries. With its deepening participation in theglobal economy, China is bound to be confronted with growing legal disputes arising outof the trade exchanges or other kinds of interactions with the other countries, especiallywith the English-speaking communities whose commercial trading with China representsa significant proportion. Against this background of globalization, there are growinglyhigher demands imposed on the Chinese lawyers specialized in foreign-related legalaffairs who are often required to have a good command of preparing various legaldocuments in the English language in their practice of law. Demand letter, as a powerfultool in lawyers’ arsenal, is found to be one of the most widely written and usedpaperwork in the legal profession community.In their daily practice of law, lawyers are required to prepare various kinds ofcorrespondence for a variety of purposes. Correspondence is a major form of writtencommunication between the law firm and the outside world. Other than the documentsfurnished to courts and transaction documents such as contracts, correspondence is aprimary form of writing designed for an audience outside the law office. According toPutman (2009), there are mainly three types of lawyer’s letters, namely, informationletters, opinion letters and demand letters. Demand letter, according to his definition, is aletter designed to persuade someone to take the action favorable to the interest of theclient or cease acting in a manner that is detrimental to the client. Further legal action isthreatened if the demand is not satisfied within a specified period of time. Thus, ademand letter in a sense is a kind of persuasive letter addressed to the opposing partywith an aim to settle the dispute amicably. In practice, a well-conceived, well-written, andwell-sent demand letter contributes tremendously to a prompt, efficient, and satisfactoryend to a civil dispute.
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1.2 Significance of the Research
In the field of linguistics there are growing studies of different analysis approachesto specific genres, including business letters, job application letters, abstracts of academicpapers and etc. However, few genre analysis have been extended to lawyer’s demandletter, which is one of the most widely used paper work in attorney’s daily practice of law.Current researches on demand letter are not systematic and only confined to its formatspecifications, basic steps and general writing principles. Few researches have touchedupon the genre structures and functional linguistic features of demand letter. In fact, thesegenre features reflect the strategies lawyers typically adopt in the preparation of demandletter to realize their intended purposes.China’s deepening integration into the rest of the world in economy and other fieldsbrings not only opportunities but also challenges for Chinese lawyers. Lawyers whospecialized in foreign-related legal affairs are expected to have a good command of the skills or ability to prepare in English various legal documents, including demand letter. AChinese lawyer experienced in writing demand letter in his or her native language mightbe stuck on preparing a professional and effective English demand letter if he or she isignorant of the conventions pertaining to this genre in English legal language. Thus, itwill be of great help for their career if the Chinese foreign-related lawyers are fully awareof the genre structures and linguistic features of English demand letters. In addition, theresearch of lawyer’s demand letter in terms of its ge
