Looking forward: A research agenda for a multidimensional understanding of genres in discourse

The purpose of this book was to advance our understanding of the concept of genres involving discourse by investigating a number of longstanding theoretical and empirical problems in genre research. This chapter summarises and synthesises the findings reported in the previous chapters. It can be read as an agenda for genre research in the next decade, discussing hypotheses accounting for the conceptual status, variability, cognitive nature, and practical application of discourse genre from a multidisciplinary perspective.