Annotation to scientific articles as the miniature genre of the English scientific medical discourse

The article deals with the analysis of the genre of annotation to the English scientific medical article. There are revealed the functions and purposes of communication in annotation. The author defines the status of the annotation genre and the characteristics of the communicators. There is demonstrated the variation of the interpretation of the key characteristics of annotation. There is proved that the appeal to the text of the scientific medical article depends on the successful and unsuccessful communication in the genre.