The aim of this study is to investigate the discursive strategies of polarized discourse in engineering websites. These are expressions of corporate culture and reveal ways doing and communicating across national boundaries. Corporate websites, however, have so far received little attention in linguistic studies and may be considered as peripheral discourse. This paper draws attention to the range of different modes used with the aim to provide persuasive arguments for stakeholders (Kress and Van Leeuwen 1996; Stöckl 2005; Van Leeuwen, 2005a, 2005b, 2006) and in doing so, offer new ways of communicating meaning.
The "about us" section of corporate engineering websites (as multimodal public communication using different semiotic resources) and their discourse strategies to persuade customers is investigated. To this end, not only rhetorical and multimodal strategies should be seen, but also how social, cognitive and linguistic characteristics that could be ascribed to the epistemological interests of the engineering community and their shared communicative purposes interact (Van Dijk 2008; Fairclough 1992, 2003; Wodak 2013).
The main purpose of this paper is to explore thirty representative samples of the "about us" section published in international engineering websites, paying attention to the ideational, textual and interpersonal aspects in which engineering companies try to involve readers in the website, in terms of stance and engagement (Martin and White, 2004).
Results indicate that many of these "about us" sections share several themes that present engineering companies in a positive light in mission statements, outlines of a company's status, sustainability issues, external validation (awards and positions in engineering company rankings), including words implying positive judgement and appreciation (Martin and White, 2004). At the same time, companies defend against potential criticisms and include multimodal legitimation strategies in their discourse by acknowledging problems in business practices, products or sustainability issues but highlighting the changes they have made to overcome them.
Finally, there is an epideictic rhetoric at play in strengthening the adherence of the company's audience to the ideas and products presented in the engineering website, which establishes credibility and builds the corporate "ethos".
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