Joe McVeigh's Research

I research marketing and linguistics. I have written on email marketing and how linguistics tools and methods can be used to understand marketing on a deeper level. I compiled several corpora of email marketing texts, one of which includes success metrics for each email. My research combines these metrics with linguistic analyses.

I have also created a genre analysis of texts in the email marketing genre. The framework that I created is designed so that it can be applied to any email marketing text.

In 2019, I pointed out some major methodological issues with an academic paper in PLOS One. My comments led to the journal issuing an Expression of Concern for the article. You can read my comments on the EoC at Retraction Watch.

For some casual research that I’ve done, you might be interested in learning that the word nerd is not just an insult anymore. Or maybe you’d like to know why people should not use Flesch-Kincaid test. One time I wrote about what’s wrong with the research claiming that language is getting more positive (also called the Pollyanna Hypothesis). And did you know that Wonder Woman speaks a creole?

Interwebs

ORCID: 0000-0002-6183-0847

Metropolia University of Applied Sciences personal page

University of Helsinki research portal

Media

2022

Retraction Watch: Comments about the Expression of Concern issued for the article “Liberals lecture, conservatives communicate: Analyzing complexity and ideology in 381,609 political speeches” (Schoonvelde et al. 2019). https://retractionwatch.com/2022/11/28/liberals-lecture-conservatives-communicate-paper-gets-lengthy-expression-of-concern/

Interview on Words and Actions podcast, episode 24. “Selling hard and soft”. https://wordsandactions12342078.wordpress.com/2022/08/12/episode-24-selling-hard-and-soft/

2021

Interview with W Radio in Bogotá, Colombia, on the topic of the open letter to the LSA regarding Steven Pinker (“La carta de la LSA contra Steven Pinker no pide su expulsión: Joseph McVeigh”). https://www.wradio.com.co/noticias/internacional/la-carta-de-la-lsa-contra-steven-pinker-no-pide-su-expulsion-joseph-mcveigh/20200716/nota/4055552.aspx

Articles

2020

“Thanks for subscribing! A genre analysis of email marketing”. Language@Internet 18, article 4. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/li/article/view/37792

2018

“Join us for this: Lexical bundles and repetition in email marketing texts”. In Joanna Kopaczyk & Jukka Tyrkkö (eds.), Patterns in Text: Corpus-driven Methods and Applications, pp. 213–250. doi:10.1075/scl.82.09mcv

2017

“Congratulations, You WON!!! Exploring trends in Big Data marketing communication”. In Turo Hiltunen, Joe McVeigh & Tanja Säily (eds.), Big and Rich Data in English Corpus Linguistics: Methods and Explorations (Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English 19). Helsinki: VARIENG. https://varieng.helsinki.fi/series/volumes/19/mcveigh/

“How to turn linguistic data into evidence?” (with Turo Hiltunen & Tanja Säily). In Turo Hiltunen, Joe McVeigh & Tanja Säily (eds.), Big and Rich Data in English Corpus Linguistics: Methods and Explorations (Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English 19). Helsinki: VARIENG. https://varieng.helsinki.fi/series/volumes/19/introduction.html

2014

“Apples and oranges: A comparative analysis of blogs and marketing texts which share an audience”. In Jukka Tyrkkö & Sirpa Leppänen (eds.), Texts and Discourses of New Media (Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English 15). Helsinki: VARIENG. https://varieng.helsinki.fi/series/volumes/15/mcveigh/

Talks

2023

“Do some research, fanboy”: On the Changing Meanings and Uses of fangirl and fanboy
2023 Annual Conference of the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
https://mapaca.net/conference/2023/p/do-some-research-fanboy-changing-meanings-and-uses-fangirl-and-fanboy

2021

Believe the Hype – Marketing emails (sometimes) follow style guides. A linguistic analysis
ABC Regional Conference
Vienna, Austria
https://www.wu.ac.at/en/2020abcvienna

2018

This is CRAZY! Please DON’T Share This: Describing the complex nature of non-standard features in email marketing
ICS.2 - Second International Conference on Sociolinguistics
Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
http://ics2.elte.hu/

“Just go easy on my accent”: Literary Code-switching and Costumed Superheroes. 29th Annual Conference of the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association
Baltimore, Maryand, USA
https://mapaca.net/conference/2018/p/just-go-easy-my-accent-literary-code-switching-and-costumed-superheroes

“You’ll LOVE This Offer! 💗 A linguistic study of email marketing”. Invited guest lecture. West Chester University.

“A Series of Unputdownable Reads: The Promotional Post”. Invited guest lecture for Nordic Editors and Translators (NEaT). http://nordicedit.fi/?p=416

2016

It’s the Little Things: How Microstories Affect Continuity in Superhero Comics
27th Annual Conference of the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association
Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA
https://mapaca.net/conference/2016/p/its-little-things-how-microstories-affect-continuity-superhero-comics

2015

Too Much to Say in One Subject Line...: Exploring trends in Big Data marketing communication
d2e From Data to Evidence: Big Data, Rich Data, Uncharted Data
Helsinki, Finland
https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/varieng/d2e-from-data-to-evidence

Days of Our Super Lives: Continuous Narratives and Storytelling in Superhero Comics
26th Annual Conference of the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
https://mapaca.net/conference/2015/p/days-our-super-lives-continuous-narratives-and-storytelling-superhero-comics

2014

A Superman for All: The truth and justice of America’s most famous mythical hero
15th Biennial Maple Leaf & Eagle Conference on North American Studies
Helsinki, Finland

Emerging v. Established: The case of legal genres in new and traditional media
The Changing Landscape of Professional Discourse
Ostrava, Czech Republic
https://konference.osu.cz/professionaldiscourse/english.php

Lex communitas: Lexical bundles in email marketing directed at lawyers
12th ESSE Conference
Košice, Slovakia
http://kaa.ff.upjs.sk/en/alumni-club/4/12th-esse-conference