Gêneros digitais: Apresentando livros na Internet

this paper explores, from a socio-rhetorical perspective, the introductory text genres found in the introduction of digital academic books, considering both their transmutation from the printed to a virtual medium and the subsequent changes in the meaning they take on in this new medium. the purposes of this research was twofold: to map on the websites of several publishing houses the occurrence of genres, such as forewords and book blurbs linked to academic books, and to analyze the peculiar aspects they assume in the new rhetorical context. fifty instances of such genres in books on linguistics were selected, and they were analyzed following swales's (1990) socio-rhetorical model. findings show a high frequency of the book blurb, among others, and a considerable number of changes when web-mediated. multimodality is one of the most distinctive features they acquire in the new media. the role of the media in the occurrence of mixed communicative purposes, combining academic and promotional interests, is also prominent.