Professional Ethos in Action: Rhetorical Move Variation in Turkish C2C Vehicle Listings

This study investigates how professional identity influences persuasive strategies in Turkish consumer-to-consumer (C2C) vehicle ads. Using a corpus of 5208 rhetorical instances from sahibinden.com, the study employs move-step analysis to identify rhetorical patterns across eleven professions. Ads were annotated according to established and emergent moves, and chi-square tests were conducted to examine significant associations. Results reveal that while moves like “User Information” and “Creditableness” are common across groups, professions differ in specific rhetorical preferences. For example, doctors frequently use documentation to build trust, mechanics employ assertive tones, and imams favor religious appeals. Although the statistical associations are modest (Cramér’s V ≈ 0.15–0.24), they indicate that profession shapes discourse strategies in C2C communication. The study concludes that these ads are not merely functional but also reflect professional ethos and cultural discourse patterns. This research contributes to genre analysis by extending move-step methodology to informal, customer-to-customer e-commerce discourse.