In memoriam: John Swales

Applied linguist, author and friend John Swales passed on 18 March. 

Many of our members learned of John’s scholarly contributions through his plenary talk at METM08 in Split, through his preconference “practical class” on writing results and discussions at METM15 in Coimbra, and through MET workshops and talks – where his work has been discussed and used to analyze texts. John is remembered as a careful observer of how successful texts work on readers: he gave us a lens for looking at authors’ argumentative moves in research genres and a vocabulary for talking about them among ourselves and with the authors we support. We also remember him as a generous encourager of younger colleagues – and of MET in its earliest years. We thank you, John. And will greatly miss you.

Text by Mary Ellen Kerans

See this obituary from the University of Michigan: https://lsa.umich.edu/eli/people/in-memoriam--john-swales.html