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recent years.So this study can provide some evidence for the applicability of Appraisal Theory inBRs. Another point to be noted is that this thesis is a contrastive analysis betweenEnglish and Chinese BRs. Appraisal Theory was originally established based on Englishdata and whether it is truly suitable for the analysis of Chinese data needs more researchpractice. So the present study can be a tentative test for the feasibility of AppraisalTheory in the analyses of Chinese discourses.Practically, the examination of appraisal resources in LBRs can provide someinstructions in the reading and writing of LBRs. It helps us gain an in-depthunderstanding of how the reviewer expresses his/ her attitude and to what extent thewriter engage with the evaluation. The different distributions and realizations ofappraisal resources may provide some useful evaluative strategies for students or noviceacademic writers who would like to get involved in the academic debate and make theirown contributions to the mainstream of the academia. Besides, the present study can alsohelp us learn the differences in the use of evaluative strategies constructed by employingdifferent appraisal resources, which can be helpful for those Chinese writers who want topublish BRs on leading English journals.
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Chapter Two Literature Review

Chapter two will review the previous studies of four subjects. First, the researchdata, ABR, will be defined from the perspective of genre. Then the previous studies ofABRs will be introduced. The application of Appraisal Theory in genre analysis andthe review of contrastive discourse analysis will also be introduced.

2.1 Academic Book Reviews as a Genre
Although neglected for such a long time in linguistic research, the BR has a verylong history. To be specific, it has been part of the academic landscape for almost2000 years in English culture (Hyland, 2000). In China, there also exists awell-established book reviewing tradition, which can be traced back to almost 2000years ago (Xu Zhaoxun, 1994). It was not until mid-17th century that this genreevolved as a modern one. Nowadays, the BR has played an important role in our dailylife as a vital index for readers. It is such an important language and social activitythat different kinds of media can be found with published BRs, such as in academicjournals, newspapers, magazines, and even on some websites in this technology era.Among those kinds of BRs mentioned above, ABRs, as one sub-genre ofacademic discourse, refer to those that are published on the academic journals orwebsites. It is a critical evaluation of the works written by fellow researchers. It“describes and characterizes not only the book in question, but also the topic withwhich it is dealing” (Nicolaisen, 2002: 129). Therefore, it can support “both themanufacture of knowledge and the social cohesiveness of disciplinary communities”(Hyland, 2000: 43) and thus provide academics and students majoring in the specificacademic field an important vehicle to keep up with the latest professionaldevelopment of that academic area. Different from research articles, ABRs “do notsimply respond to a general body of impersonal literature but offer a direct, public,and often critical, encounter with a particular text and its author.” (Tse & Hyland,2008: 1235). In summary, ABRs serve two purposes: introducing and evaluating newworks in a specific field (Motta-Roth, 1995). It is th