A argumentação em cartas produzidas por alunos de ensino médio: relação entre gênero do discurso e estilo

Resumo

This paper presents some results of research invilving the relation between discourse genre and style in the process of written language acquisition. The analysis is based on Bakhtin's concept of discourse genres, especially on the idea of relative flexibility and on the concept of style as choice and work on language. The methodology adopted is based on Ginzburg's "indiciary paradigm", since the research is focused in details in singular data that may be significant. The data is composed of fourteen letters written by ten high school students who were asked to write argumentative letters in response to a middle-aged man who has criticized Brazilian youth, whith the purpose of convincing him that his opinions are wrong. The analysis shows that the students develop three basic argumentative strategies in their letters: they question or deny the arguments or reasons presented in the original letter, they present new arguments which contain either criticism of the writer or praise of the youth, and finally they present the alternative of a reconciliation of the opposite points of view. In this paper an analysis of the first strategy is presented, since it is the most frequently employed. It can be seen that in spite og the generalities and recurrences that are present in most letters. Is is possible to affirm that when the students argue they manifest individual choices in the strategies employed, i.e. they employ what can be considered stylistic choices.