In the above, therefore, I have described the individual sub-systems of Engagement essentially as a list. In order, however, to be able to apply the system usefully to critical text analysis, we need more systematically to consider what consequences for the arguability of a given utterance result from choosing one Engagement option, and hence one mode of dialogistic positioning, over another. In order to do this, I will explore two parameters by which rhetorical effect and terms of arguability can vary across the Engagement options. The first parameter relates to what I term dialogistic expansion/contraction and turns on the degree to which the text acts to engage with the diversity of view point (the heteroglossic diversity) activated by the current utterance - whether the text is opening up or closed down to this diversity. The second parameter relates to what I previously termed extra-vocaliations/intra-vocalisation (or externalisation/ internalisation), a distinction which turns, as already indicated, on whether the voice of the current proposition/proposal is represented as external or internal to the text, whether or not the voice is that of the author/speaker or that of some external source. I will discuss each of these parameters in turn.
