Writing Business: Genres, Media and Discourses

Writing Business: Genres, Media and Discourses offers an analysis of the genres and functions of written discourse in the business context, involving a variety of modes of communication. The evolution of new forms of writing is a key focus of this collection and is only partly attributable to the ever increasing application of technology at work. Alongside machine-mediated texts such as electronic mail and computer-generated correspondence, the contextualised analyses of both traditional genres such as facsimiles and direct mailing, and of lesser studied texts such as invitations for bids, contracts, business magazines and ceremonial speeches, reveal a rich complexity in the forms of communication evolved by organisations and the individuals who work within them, in response to the demands of the social, organisational and cultural contexts in which they operate. This rich textual variation is matched by a discussion of a range of methodological approaches to the development of business writing skills, including rhetorical analysis, organisational communication analysis, social constructionism, genre analysis and survey and experimental methods. Using authentic data and benefiting from a fresh, interdisciplinary approach, the volume will be of interest to students and researchers of business communication, Language for Specific Purposes (LSP), English for Specific Purposes (ESP), and sociolinguistics.

1. Business Writing as Social Action, Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini and Catherine Nickerson

PART ONE: ELECTRONIC MEDIA AND WRITING IN ORGANISATIONS

2. The Use of English in Electronic Mail in a Multinational Corporation, Catherine Nickerson

3. E-mail: Uses, Issues and Problems in an Institutional Setting, Joan Mulholland

4. The Mass Production of Unique Letters, David Sless

PART TWO: IDENTITIES, DISCOURSE COMMUNITIES AND RHETORICAL STYLES

5. Discourse Community, Culture and Interaction. On the Writing of Engineers, Karl-Heinz Pogner

6. Identity Creation Across Cultures: British and Italian Human Resource Managers, Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini

7. Words of Women: A Study of Executives' Texts, Carol David

PART THREE: BUSINESS GENRES AND THEIR LANGUAGE

8. `Can We Count on your Bookings of Potatoes to Madeira?'. Corporate Context and Discourse Practices in Direct Sales Letters, Miriam van Nus

9. Towards a New Genre: A Comparative Study of Business Faxes, Didar Akar and Leena Louhiala-Salminen

10. Homing in on a Genre: Invitations for Bids, Leila Barbara and Mike Scott

PART FOUR: THE BUSINESS OF RELATING: EFFECTIVENESS, ADAPTION AND EMOTION IN WRITING

11. Spanish Language Billboard Advertising in the US: Are there Effects on Anglos?, Ellen Touchstone, Pamela Homer and Scott Koslow

12. English as a Lingua Franca in Corporate Writing, Sonja Vandermeenen

13. Managerial Perceptions of Effective Writing, Florence Davies, Gail Forey and David Hyatt

EPILOGUE: AT THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN WRITING AND SPEAKING

14. Intertextual Networks in Organisations: The Use of Oral and Written Business Discourse in Relation to Context, Eugène Loos