Act as a peer reviewer and write a detailed review of this research paper. Be strict and critical. Follow the template below: FUNCTIONS OF ENUMERATIONS IN PROMOTIONAL ACADEMIC DISCOURSE:
INQUIRY INTO GRADUATE PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENTS
 
Abstract: The study explores functions of enumerations in promotional academic discourse represented by graduate program announcements designed by top Russian universities for international potential applicants. Therefore, the purpose of the research is to identify functions of enumerations in promotional academic discourse. A mixed method approach is used to examine the discourse of graduate program announcements and uncover possible patterns in how enumerations are used in the analyzed discourse. The announcements are obtained from the Keystone Masterstudies website (www.masterstudies.com). By purposive sampling, 10 announcements in Humanities were selected. The universities, whose announcements were included in a research corpus, are on the “RAEX-100” list. An effort was made to include announcements from different universities. The results demonstrate that graduate program announcements strongly rely on enumerations as means of informing and persuading. Their main functions are describing, clarifying, and impressing the addressee. The describing and clarifying functions of enumerations are predetermined by their location within the announcement. The impressing the addressee function is used in combination with either of the functions. Positive lexis, numeric data, proper names, connecting words and parallel constructions intensify these functions. The findings expand our knowledge about the discourse of promotional academic writing, specifically graduate program announcements, and the role that enumerations as a means of expressive syntax play in this discourse. The findings also enhance our perception of the features of effective promotional academic discourse.
Keywords: Enumerations, Expressive syntax, Promotional academic discourse, Graduate program announcement, Inform and persuade
 
1. INTRODUCTION
Academia, as any other professional field, experiences competition at the international scale and, as a result, feels the need to promote all kinds of academic activities. Scholars and academic institutions are using marketization strategies to promote themselves to stand out and cope with over-competitiveness that has been common for recognition and advancement in academia (Carson, Bartneck & Voges, 2013). The fact that academic discourse has been affected by promotional culture was noticed by Fairclough as early as 1993. He compared texts of an undergraduate prospectus with undergraduate prospectus entries of 1967-1969 and observed that the discursive practices of British universities had become highly affected by promotional culture. The study of university course descriptions showed that although their communicative purpose seemed to inform students about the course content, at the same time, this discourse was highly influenced by consumer advertising practices turning course descriptions into a promotional academic genre striving to “‘sell’ the university and its courses to potential applicants” (Fairclough, 1995, p. 156).
According to Bhatia, promotional values have modified all forms of discourse, “even academic genres” (Bhatia, 2005, p. 213). Just like other businesses, universities compete for funding, prospective students, and other resources (Stašková, 2013) by means of promotional discourse, the aim of which is “to sell ideas, goods or services to a selected group of people” (Bhatia, 2005, p. 214). Similarly, in their academic writing scholars rely on linguistic resources (boosters, self-mention, citation, etc.), which allow them to positively evaluate and promote their research (Afros & Schryer, 2009).
In 2005, Bhatia summarized the main features of promotional discourse singling out description and evaluation as the most important discursive features for product differentiation narration. Bhatia noticed that product differentiation is typically achieved with positive and favorable language (Bhatia, 2005) similar to advertising announcement (Sholikhah, 2019). Likewise, academics use positively charged lexis in academic articles to describe their research – its importance, uniqueness, and novelty (Afros & Schryer, 2009). Scholars carefully explain their research impact to make sure their findings stand out as particularly important. As a result, new practices of subjectivization have appeared in academic writing to incorporate impact description into scholars’ narratives (Wróblewska, 2021).
Zhang (2017) studied “About Us” section of university website homepages in China. By means of critical discourse analysis, she identified lexical, grammatical, and syntactic features of the homepage section, as well as the structure, rhetorical moves, and communicative purposes of texts from “About Us” of five Chinese universities. The results of the study show that university website homepage has mainly three functions – to welcome, inform, and promote. These functions are fulfilled by seven rhetorical moves: “welcoming, establishing credentials, describing administration, attracting attention, offering extra services, locating the service and soliciting responses” (Zhang, 2017, p. 76). Interestingly, the author discovered that these texts demonstrate discursive hybridization combining authoritative and conversational discourse. This seems to be a special detail of the Chinese academic promotional discourse, which is trying to establish a friendly relationship with prospective students and at the same time reflect “the centralized operation of Chinese universities” (Zhang, 2017, p. 64). Therefore, it is quite possible that academic promotional discourse has culturally specific features as it reflects people’s values and their expectations from academic sphere.
The feature of highly positive narrative of academic promotional writing was also discovered by Askehave (2007), who analyzed the discourse of international student prospectus from Australia, Finland, Japan and Scotland trying to see what discursive features appeared due to marketization of higher education. Having studied the rhetorical moves and the most important rhetorical features of the discourse of international student prospectus, the author concludes that the discourse of student prospectus imitates discursive practices of market advertising. The international student prospectus promotes the university stressing its ability to provide students with unique experiences and innovative practices. Thus, the author describes the university prospectus as a “highly promotional genre” reflecting the values of a free market (Askehave, 2007, p. 723).
Lee focuses on promotional features of mathematics education discourse stressing that all kinds of posters and worksheets add more value to practices connected with mathematics education trying to break it into consumable fragments and connect them with “basic human desires such as beauty, power, and community” (Lee, 2023, p. iii).
Another study has been devoted to selected Ghanaian universities with the purpose of identifying how they express their stance under the influence of marketization practices.  Having studied mission statements of 59 universities, the authors identified six main marketization strategies in high education discourse. These are: “(1) trumpeting excellence, global aspirations and partnerships; (2) highlighting niche specialisations; (3) declaring commitment to knowledge creation and dissemination; (4) pledging positive societal impact; (5) promising holistic and quality education; (6) emphasising ethical, value-based education” (Hu, Asafo-Adjeu & Bonsu, 2024). The authors point out that marketization discourses of universities rely actively on boosters, attitude markers and hedging expressions (just like research articles).
This research is devoted to the study of enumerations in graduate program announcements designed for international potential applicants. Graduate program announcement is both descriptive and persuasive. Stašková (2013) mentions that written academic genres of educational and research support have been paid less attention as compared to the studies of research genres of academic discourse. She classifies university course catalogues, course description, university mission statements and other types of academic discourse as (semi) occluded written academic genres.
As the analysis demonstrates, this type of academic discourse informs and promotes with the help of enumerations: constructions with enumerations are detected in each of the analyzed announcements and sometimes in each of the sentences of the announcement. The study will focus on the following research questions: 1) What are the functions of enumerations in graduate program announcements designed for potential overseas applicants? 2) Which linguistic means enhance the communicative qualities of enumerations? 3) Can enumeration be described as a feature of expressive syntax typical of academic promotional writing? The results will provide us with better understanding about the role of enumerations in academic announcements as a genre of promotional academic writing. Gaining more insights into how academic promotional genres can be adjusted for international audiences by studying the experiences of top Russian universities seems to be currently of a great importance. Universities are trying to engage more overseas students into their academic programs as their ability to attract international students is taken into consideration for national ranking.
 
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Enumeration as a rhetorical device has been primarily studied in literary texts. It was characterized as “an expressive syntax device” helping to create strategies for fictional text development (Melnichuk, 2013). In Arabic prose, the act of enumeration, according to Junge (2019), creates new aspects of the meaning fulfilling several functions as a distinctive device. Junge identifies these functions as follows: 1) epistemic function represented by its attempt to expand knowledge and 2) aesthetic function creating the effect, which, according to Eco, produces the feeling of “infinity and abundance” (Eco, 2012, p. 371, Cited by Junge, 2019, p. 280). Mainberger views enumeration as “a versatile performative act that matters in different ways” (Mainberger, 2013, p. 6). Junge develops Mainberger’s perspective on enumeration as a performative act that makes you do things rather than describes things. Junge interprets enumeration as “a complex epistemic and aesthetic device of literature that makes different things in different texts and contexts” (Junge, 2019, p. 282).
Maiakova explored the role of enumeration in landscape descriptions in “The Magus” by John Fowles. She concludes that enumeration presented by homogeneous sentence parts enhances expressivity of narration. Enumeration adds vividness, liveliness, and detail to narration (Maiakova, 2014). Wasserman inspects enumerations in Akkadian literary texts and notices the varieties of their expression, for example, “from the whole to its components” or “from outside to inside” (Wasserman, 2021, p. 69). Summing up his finding, Wasserman concludes that enumeration can be described as “a vector in the narrative” mostly used to create some specific meaning, for instance, to emphasize “the universal power of attraction” (Wasserman, 2021, p. 70).
Glazko described enumeration as one of the most often used expressive means in blogs and columns both in American and Belarus media discourse. American authors used enumeration to focus the readers’ attention on the information because it rhymes the text, makes it dynamic and detailed. In media discourse of Belarus, enumeration also helps authors to build new semantic connections. Summing up the results of the study, Glazko describes enumeration as a stylistic means that enhances the expressivity of media discourse (Glazko, 2022).
A few studies analyzed expressive features of enumeration in institutional discourse. It was discovered that in spiritual letters enumeration boosts pictorial and persuasive effect (Smolina, 2016). Savchuk (2019) studied the use of enumeration in scientific oral discourse. She made a conclusion that constructions with enumeration help the speaker to intensify the object qualities.
Enumeration builds a special structure for the narrative. The expressive potential of enumeration is created by extension of the initial sentence and seeming “redundancy of the sentence pattern that results from the addition of some sentence elements” (Umurzakova, 2024, p. 50). Text structuring relations of enumeration can be presented by contrast and parallel constructions (Vergez-Couret et al., 2011). It was pointed out that text relations structure represented by enumeration is different from the content level relations represented by narration, elaboration, and explanation (Ibid.). Obviously, together they enhance the meaning and make it more vivid and memorable for the reader. That is why Vergez-Couret et al. consider enumerative structures an essential component of discourse coherence (Ibid).
As it can be seen from the previous research, enumeration has been primarily studied in fiction and in media discourse. It was established that enumeration is an instrument of expressive syntax with primarily epistemic and aesthetic functions: it develops new meaningful connections in the text and intensifies the described qualities; it structures the information producing the effect of “plentifulness”. Longer structured sentences together with expanded content create coherent discourse. Before we observe these qualities of enumeration in the research corpus including graduate program announcements, the notion of enumeration should be clarified. According to Meriam-Webster dictionary, enumeration is “1: the act or process of making or stating a list of things one after another, also the list itself; 2: the act or process of counting something or a count made of something”. Also, as a stylistic device, enumeration is supposed to link semantically homogenous objects or properties, which can illustrate author’s subjective perception. In this study, any chain of stating things and consisting of more than one component will count as a case of enumeration.
 
3. MATERIALS AND METHODS
The research was carried out on 10 graduate program announcements featured by the Keystone Masterstudies website. This is an information resource about graduate programs available all over the world. It allows potential students effectively search for the graduate program best suiting their aspirations by specifying a set of preference criteria.
The data for this study were obtained from the graduate program announcements posted by leading Russian universities for international audiences. Graduate programs from 16 Russian universities were found on Keystone. Out of those 16 universities, those that are included in the recent university rating “RAEX-100” of 100 best universities of Russia were chosen for the analysis. By purposive sampling, 10 announcements primarily in Humanities (mostly in language studies) were selected. As a result, all the selected announcements were posted by universities rated as 100 best Russian universities and 8 out of 10 announcements posted by those ranked as 20 best universities. Therefore, the purposive sampling allows to study graduate program announcements of the best and most efficient Russian universities.
The study relies on a mixed method approach, which integrates interpretative (qualitative) and quantitative approach to analysis. This approach contributes to research design and its implementation as it creates a set of methodologies, which complement each other. A mixed method approach verifies the results (Afshar & Ranjbar, 2023) and is often chosen by contemporary linguists for its “flexibility, reliability, validity, strength, and comprehensiveness” (Mohammad & Alkhafaji, 2024, p. 1683). The qualitative methods include structural text analysis, functional and stylistic analysis, pragmatic analysis with descriptive-analytical and systematization methods. The quantitative approach is represented by statistical processing of the linguistic data.
After being selected for the study, the texts of academic announcements were analyzed in terms of their structure and linguistic features at the grammar and lexical levels. At this stage, it became obvious that enumerations play a very important role in constructing this type of discourse as they were discovered in abundance in each structural segment of the announcement. Other features of promotional writing were also identified such as expressive lexis, proper names and numeric data, parallel constructions and words and expressions connecting elements of enumeration chains.
Pragmatic analysis implies interpretation of the message taking into consideration context and addresser’s intentions. It helps the researcher to uncover systematic discursive practices and in this particular study revealed functions of the enumerations and its persuasive nature. Further analysis relied on statistical processing of the data obtained to prove numerically that enumerations are an integral part of promotional academic discourse with 2 to 8 elements of enumeration.
 
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Before we proceed with description of functions, which enumeration performs in graduate program announcements, it should be mentioned that although the analyzed announcements differ in word counts and specifics of description, they have some common features conditioned by their similar communicative aim. The largest announcement in the research corpus has 532 words with 21 examples of enumerations. The shortest announcements consists of 152 words with 7 examples of enumeration. Thus, the average length of an announcement is 277 words with 12 cases of enumeration.
The structure of the announcement has two main parts. In the first part, the focus of the program is usually explained, for example: The Master’s program in Linguistic Theory and Language Description trains students in methods of linguistic analysis and the interdisciplinary study of language and language documentation. With a focus on sociolinguistics and typologically informed language description, students gain hands-on linguistic research experience. At this initial stage, the title and the focus of the program are introduced. All the analyzed announcements use enumeration in the first sentence. As can be seen from another example of the first sentence of the announcement from Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, prospective applicants can read the title of the program, learn about theoretical and practical orientation of the program, and the professional settings in which they will be able to apply acquired knowledge and skills: The programme “Foreign Language of Professional Communication and Specialised Translation” is designed to provide students with a theoretical and practical knowledge and skills, which can be used for communication in professional settings, translation and interpreting, as well as for teachers and professionals in Economics, Management and Business. This part of the graduate program announcement describes program features. As we can see from the examples above, enumerations are actively engaged in the description. Thus, we can say that at this stage they perform a descriptive function.
The second part of the announcement specifies program features in more detail. At this point, more information about disciplines is provided; highly professional lecturers, engaged in the program, may be mentioned; again, skills that the program graduates are expected to master described thoroughly. The announcement from RANEPA, for example, explains a special emphasis of the program (international environment; multicultural environment); and the opportunity to pursue a double degree track. To make the information realistic for the addressee, names of partner universities are mentioned and numeric information about international students is included: Studying in a multicultural environment (international students constitute 20% of the student body, 30% of the teaching is delivered by international faculty); The opportunity to pursue a double-degree track and be awarded, in addition to the Russian government-accredited master degree, a master degree from a partner University of IBS in Europe or the USA; 16 partner universities for student exchange programs… . The enumerations in this part of the announcement perform a clarifying function as they strive to provide more details about the program.
Obviously, the announcement informs about the content of the program, explains what courses will be taught and what skills the program graduates will acquire. The announcement also mentions work placement opportunities, and how the program is organized. As the examples illustrate, some of the announcements mention partner universities and characterize the teaching staff of the program. Besides informing, the announcements try to persuade prospective students of the importance of the program.
All the analyzed announcements in the program description actively rely on enumerations: in 5 announcements out of 10, enumeration is used in each sentence. It helps to carry out the main function of the announcement as a genre – to inform, usually wider audiences, about some event. A promotional announcement not only informs but also persuades the reader to complete a certain action (Mironova, 2008). Enumerations, enhanced with certain linguistic means, for instance, parallel constructions or positively charged lexis, assist in making the message noticeable and memorable. The pragmatic analysis of the content of the announcements revealed that enumerations fulfil the functions of describing, clarifying, and impressing the addressee. The first two functions – describing and clarifying – are determined by their location within the text of the announcement: at the initial stage, they help to describe the program. At the final stage, they clarify the benefits of the program. These functions overlap with impressing the addressee function and are singled out for theoretical purposes. It seems that impressing the addressee function usually accompanies describing or clarifying function: combination of these two functions makes the information persuasive.
In the next example, clarifying function is realized together with impressing the addressee function. The sentence is taken from the second part of the announcement about the Master in International Relations. It clarifies how the knowledge that prospective students will obtain can be applied in real life: Institute graduates successfully adapt to the situation on the labor market, and successfully apply their knowledge and abilities both in research and pedagogical activities and in various consulting organizations, in administration structures and law enforcement agencies, newspaper and magazine offices, television, etc. We can find two chains of enumerations in this example: the first one clarifies how program graduates can apply their knowledge and abilities successfully. The second chain of enumerations has eight components describing where program graduates can apply their knowledge and abilities. The adverb successfully repeated two times in one sentence makes the information more impressive. Connections are drawn between knowledge and how it can be integrated in real life. Therefore, it is possible to say that in this case the clarifying function is used together with the function of impressing the addressee. Let’s analyze more examples illustrating these functions of enumerations.
Describing function. This function is used to explain the general content (focus) of the program to potential applicants. Enumerations that perform this function are located at the beginning of the announcement (first paragraph usually). The announcement about Master in Russian Culture from St. Petersburg University starts with the following sentence: The special focus will be on the formation and development of Russian cultural identity, the acquisition of research methods in the study of Russian culture, and the specific character of the Russian mentality. In this sentence, the enumeration describes the main features of the program content. It creates the effect of a broad thematic and disciplinary scope and is supposed to impress the readers and persuade them to choose this particular program for studying. This is one of the shortest announcements. It consists of 9 sentences, 7 of which contain enumerations.
In longer announcements, as in the description of the program in Digital Linguistics, the phenomenon of Digital Linguistics is explained through enumeration of a variety of spheres with which the students will deal and actions they will be able to perform during their studies: Join the Digital Linguistics master program. This program reveals the models of language theory, Big Data analysis, theory and practice of machine translation, algorithms for automatic text improvement. The students experiment with the phenomenon of speech, voice recognition, automated text analysis, develop digital language guides and other pioneering technologies. In the third sentence of the example, we can see several enumeration chains. The first one recounts what the students will do to master the knowledge (experiment, develop) and the second chain describes what the students will experiment with (phenomenon of speech, voice recognition, etc.).
Another announcement posted by RANEPA university starts with description of who the program is designed for: IBS Master in International Management is designed for students with a bachelor's degree, proficient in the English language, and aspiring to a successful career in international business. In this sentence, enumeration stresses a very wide audience of prospective students who can enroll in this program in the Institute of Business Studies in Moscow. Let’s compare this description with a similar representation of the program from Southern Federal University, in which target audience is also mentioned: Thus, the program is intended for those who want to simultaneously gain modern in-depth knowledge in the field of financial management and a broad professional outlook necessary for a financial manager. However, it was discovered in the second part of the announcement, where clarifications are provided. The adverb “Thus” stresses the clarifying aim of the description.
Clarifying function. The clarifying function of enumerations is observed in the second part of the announcements. It is aimed at providing more details about what is included in the program or how the teaching process is organized. For example, this function can be expressed through enumeration of variety of courses that the program offers and explaining knowledge applicability that one gains from taking these courses. Thus, the program content is clarified and the applicability of knowledge is explained: Upon graduation, the student masters the methodology of scientific research in the field of financial management in combination with the skills of qualified use of financial technologies. Or: You will develop skills in research projects, gain experience in using mathematical methods to create Natural Language Processing applications, including speech recognition, artificial intelligence, machine translation, big data, automated text analysis, and web search in a wide variety of research labs informal workshops on digital linguistics).
Stressing a multitude of work places of the future program graduates is a very important aspect of the academic announcement as it not only clarifies knowledge applicability of prospective students, but also promotes the program. In the next example, enumerations provide a detailed description of a multitude of job opportunities for program graduates. The emphatic syntax construction “not only … but also” is used to enhance the meaning of the sentence:  It does not only prepare lecturers of Russian as a foreign language, but also and foremost multi-skilled experts who have a good command of Russian, who are familiar with Russian literature and culture, who are able to work in joint ventures, and also in their country’s educational, scientific and cultural organizations interacting with Russia. Parallel construction in the sentence helps to zoom in on numerous skills of program graduates. Enumeration is an essential instrument in clarifying a variety of job opportunities that program graduates will have, as it can be seen from another example taken from the Master in Linguistics announcement: After graduation, the student will be able to engage in direct translation, including automated translation, teach in universities, work in research institutes, laboratories or research centers.
Obvious clarifications, introduced through enumerations, are used in sentences with a general term followed by a colon and a chain of enumerations. In the next example, enumerations from the announcement about graduate program in Digital Linguistics expand the meaning of language technology applications used in business contexts: Applications involving language technology are defining contemporary business culture: document relevance ranking and filtering (in e.g. search engines and social media), automatic translation, writers' aids, business intelligence, and profiling of individuals.
Impressing the addressee. Another program in Linguistic Theory and Language Description from HSE University zooms in on its interdisciplinary nature. To make this feature truly prominent and impressive, the announcement of 410 words repeats this adjective 4 times in enumerations depicting the area of study, what is meant by an interdisciplinary perspective and what kind of activities students will be engaged in thanks to this interdisciplinary perspective. In the second sentence of the following example, enumerations expand the meaning of the interdisciplinary perspective (clarifying function): Some of these activities are pursued in cooperation with the Laboratory of Language Convergence and the Center for Language and Brain. It is one of the few master’s programs in theoretical linguistics that includes a strong interdisciplinary perspective, including acoustic phonetics and variationist sociolinguistics. In the first sentence of the example, names of important organizations (the Laboratory of Language Convergence and the Center for Language and Brain) are used in cooperation with which the interdisciplinary component is implemented. The announcement of this program also includes geographic names to impress the audience with its numerous research partnerships: The program has research partnerships with the University of Tromsø, University of Helsinki, University of Stockholm, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Pavia. All the enumerations are used not only to clarify the information, but also to impress potential applicants with how remarkable the program is.
Depending on the desired outcome of the program, the announcement highlights (and enumerates) some qualities with the purpose of presenting a program as unique. For instance, MA in Political Philosophy from Ural Federal University, similarly to RANEPA University, announces its international orientation as a prominent feature of the program by repeating this adjective in several enumerations. The announcement of 278 words mentions the word “international” three times: international program; hold international graduate degrees; international acclaim. As we can see from the example, geographic names are enumerated to enhance the connection of the program with the international feature: In addition to the prominent faculty members, many of whom hold international graduate degrees, classes are taught by visiting professors from the Central European University (Hungary), Utrecht University (Netherlands), and other partner institutions. The announcement connects the program with being international as its impressive feature and combines the impressing the addressee function with the clarifying one.
Thus, the function of impressing the addressee relies heavily on the use of enumerations and is represented usually together with other functions – describing or clarifying. In this function, enumerations connect the program with some unique qualities stressing one-of-a-kind feature of the program. Other examples of such impressive connections include: connecting the program with the demand for the profession that future graduates will be able to obtain (Master in Linguistics); being practice-oriented and providing students with numerous career choices (Master in Financial Management); being successful in knowledge and skills application (Master in International Relations). The unique feature of the program is highlighted through a lexeme that is repeated several times in the announcement and is engaged in enumerations. The announcement of the Master in International Relations program is one of the shortest in the research corpus: it consists of 159 words. It contains 5 sentences, each of which features enumerations. In the next sentence, we can see adverb successfully repeated two times and a detailed explanation through enumeration where successful graduates scan apply their knowledge and abilities: Institute graduates successfully adapt to the situation on the labor market, and successfully apply their knowledge and abilities both in research and pedagogical activities and in various consulting organizations, in administration structures and law enforcement agencies, newspaper and magazine offices, television, etc. The sentence is introduced in the second part of the announcement in which enumerations carry out the clarifying function together with the impressing the addressee function.
Another vivid example of a combination of these two functions demonstrates how the program announcement can try to impress future students with the information that only the best teachers will be teaching them: Our students benefit from being taught by the best teachers, lecturers and professors of the Foreign Languages Department of PFUR Economics Faculty, visiting professors of the leading Russian universities (Lomonosov MSU, MSIFA) and specialists of language-service agencies. Rather than using one generic term, for instance, saying “Our students benefit from being taught by highly skilled specialists…”, the announcement relies on enumeration to impress the addressee with the information about teaching staff.
Thus, describing, clarifying, and impressing the addressee – these are the functions the enumerations help to achieve in academic announcements characterized in this study as promotional academic discourse. A variety of linguistic resources enhances these functions in the analyzed announcements. These are:
- positive lexis that may be used together with a key lexeme. It helps to focus on a unique feature of the program. Evaluative adjectives such as substantial, contemporary, strong, useful, state-of-the-art, innovative, effective, skilled, strategic, acclaimed, influential, world-class, unique, rich, original and others are used to create a positive impression about the program and persuade prospective students to study there. Positive lexis is used with enumerations in all of the functions. Next example features the first two sentences of the announcement from Novosibirsk State University. This is the beginning of the information about the program and the enumerations in both sentences fulfil the role of describing. In the second sentence, adjectives foremost, multi-skilled (experts), good (command) are used to produce a favorable impression on the potential applicants impressing them with a multitude of expert knowledge that the program will provide them with. Simultaneously, the announcement also promises to turn them into multi-skilled experts able to work in a broad variety of professional contexts: This program integrates the study of Russian language, literature, and culture. It does not only prepare lecturers of Russian as a foreign language, but also and foremost multi-skilled experts who have a good command of Russian, who are familiar with Russian literature and culture, who are able to work in joint ventures, and also in their country’s educational, scientific and cultural organizations interacting with Russia;
- parallel structures and other examples of expressive syntax. The above example from the announcement about Master in Russian Language, Literature and Culture for foreigners has also parallel structures making the information more noticeable to the reader. Again, the same example above includes an expression not only … but also to add emphasis to the information about the program;
- numeric data and proper names, for example, names of partner universities. These words, when enumerated, make the announcement sound reliable, true to life and, just like the following example, create the feeling of multitude of opportunities that prospective students will have while studying: Students enrolled in the programme can take an opportunity to join a dual diploma scheme (PFUR and London Metropolitan University), or/and have a training course abroad (Great Britain, Germany, Spain, China or France);
- connecting words assisting the reader to properly comprehend enumerations and the announcement information in general. The most widespread among these words and expressions are: coordinating conjunction and; adverbs as well as and such as; preposition including. The most typical word used to connect the elements of enumerations is a conjunction and.  In the research corpus of 2772 words (10 announcements) and was used 106 times, which constitutes almost 4% of its use. And can be used several times in the same sentence to connect different chains of enumeration as it can be demonstrated by the next example: The academic program is designed according to professional standards and employers' opinions on the correlation of graduates' competencies and functions in the field of professional activity. In this sentence, conjunction and connects several enumerations: 1 – to clarify how the academic program is designed and 2 – to explain what employers’ opinions are based on. Other examples of words and expressions involved in enumerations are: as well as – used in 7 out of 10 announcements (total 12 cases); preposition including – used to introduce in enumerations parts of the whole in 4 announcements (6 cases); conjunction or – used in 3 announcements (6 examples); expression such as – found in 3 announcements (5 examples). Other words that helped to connect the elements of enumerations are: (but) also (4 times); other (3 times); in addition to (2 times); in combination with (2 times); and so on; not only …but; etc.
Combination of the functions of enumerations mentioned above with these language resources makes the text of the announcement informative and persuasive and transfers this type of academic writing into promotional discourse. The findings show that enumeration is an important feature of this genre. Enumerations help to make the announcement informative and persuasive and can be characterized, based on the results of the study, as a feature of promotional academic discourse. The results of the study mostly correlate with the previous studies of enumeration as an expressive means of syntax that helps the addresser make the object qualities more vivid and obvious for the recipient (Savchuk, 2019).
Graduate program announcement, just like other types of promotional academic discourse, contains a detailed product narration aimed at making it different from other similar products with the help of positive and favorable language (Bhatia, 2005). Just like academic articles, in which authors try to promote themselves and their research with such features as importance, uniqueness, and novelty (Afros & Schryer, 2009), and international student prospectuses, stressing the ability of the university to provide students with unique experiences and innovative practices (Askehave, 2007), graduate program announcements for international audiences include these features in their descriptions. However, they also stress the choice and opportunities that students can be provided with, wide applicability of the skills that they will master while studying. Most of the announcements emphasize combination of theoretical knowledge with practical hands-on experience, interdisciplinarity of the program and being internationally oriented. Positive narrative is constructed by means of positively charged lexis and emotional syntax typical of promotional discourse.
Enumeration as a feature of academic program announcements has similar functions to those that enumeration plays in fiction. It enhances the vividness of narration (Maiakova, 2014) and, just like in media discourse, enumerations focus the audience’s attention on important information, create new connections and enhance the expressivity of the text (Glazko, 2022) making it more memorable to the reader (Vergez-Couret et al., 2011). In a similar way, in academic announcements, enumerations intensify the qualities of some features of graduate programs as in oral scientific discourse (Savchuk, 2019).
Thinking back to Christian Junge’s study (2019) of enumerations in Arabic prose, where he identified its two main functions – epistemic and aesthetic – it is possible to classify enumeration functions in graduate program announcements in a similar way. The epistemic function sees the language as “a way of access and transmission of knowledge” (Miranda & Olivares, 2024, p. 62). In previous studies of this function, linguists discovered a multitude of verbal means transmitting epistemicity – that is the verbal support for the communicated idea or “how knowledge is encoded in language and grammar” (Grzech, Schultze-Berndt & Bergqvist, 2020, p. 281). Such functions of enumeration as describing and clarifying reflect knowledge transfer about the academic program and its disciplinary features and, thus, can be described as epistemic.
Aesthetic function, which is supposed to create the effect of infinity and abundance, is conveyed in the analyzed academic announcements by the impressing the addressee function. Enumerations transmit the meaning of a great variety of possibilities for a wider range of future specialists. For example, when stressing the interdisciplinary nature of the program, a great variety of disciplines and partner universities is mentioned; when narrating a range of possibilities for future specialists, multitude of skills that they will master can also be characterized as the aesthetic function – it makes the message more memorable and persuasive.
The research shows that enumerations can be described as a typical feature of promotional discourse in general and promotional academic writing in particular. This syntactic feature makes the message more detailed and at the same time more memorable. Positively charged lexis, proper names and numeric information, parallel constructions, and words connecting the elements of enumeration enhance their persuasive effect. Of course, these findings should be tested on a more varied research corpus, containing, for example, graduate program announcements in different languages. Earlier, Zhang (2017) identified some culturally specific features of a Chinese university website discourse, which combines authoritative and conversational characteristics. It seems to be interesting to compare the role of enumeration in academic announcement in different languages. This will give us a better understanding of how enumeration functions as a means of persuasive syntax in different cultures. Further, the results about the persuasive properties of enumeration can be tested on other genres of academic writing, for example, on research article and monograph.
 
5. CONCLUSION
This research is devoted to the study of graduate program announcements as a type of academic promotional writing. The aim of graduate program announcements is to inform and persuade potential applicants to enroll in the advertised graduate programs. This aim is very similar to what other types of promotional discourse are intended to do, that is to sell products and ideas to target audiences. Positive evaluation and expressive description, just like in advertising discourse, turn graduate program announcements into promotional academic discourse.
Enumeration as a means of expressive syntax plays an important role in graduate program announcements expanding information and making it more memorable. The analysis has been carried out on the research corpus that included 10 announcements aimed at international prospective students and posted by top Russian universities. The findings show that in promotional academic writing, enumerations function similarly to how they function in literary discourse adding details and emphasis to narration. In graduate program announcements, they fulfill three main functions – describing, clarifying, and impressing the addressee. The first two functions are predetermined by their location within the announcement. A describing function is found at the beginning of the announcements, where prospective students are introduced to the program and get acquainted with its content. The clarifying function is represented by the information in the second part of the announcement, where more details are provided about courses that are included in the program, how the teaching process is organized, how program graduates will be able to apply their new knowledge. Enumerations are used in all parts of the announcement impressing the target audience with unique features of the program, thus fulfilling the impressing the addressee function. This function is usually combined with either describing or clarifying function. Their meaning is enhanced by positive lexis, proper names and numeric data, constructions of expressive syntax, and connecting words.
The results expand our knowledge about the role of enumeration as an expressive syntax construction featured in contemporary types of discourse. In particular, this research shows that enumerations can effectively add clarity and persuasion to communication. These results might have practical applications for academic writing strategies, for example, when academics want to draw more attention to their stance or when universities are trying to describe their courses and programs as one-of-a-kind and, thus, highly desirable for potential audiences. However, this association of enumerations with promotional academic writing should be further verified in other genres of academic writing such as research articles and/or monographs. REFERENCES
 
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