Written professional discourse

1. Written professional discourse Part 1

2. Plan for today’s session • Dig deeper into ‘what is professional discourse?’ • Provide some examples of written professional genres • Start developing tools for identifying genres of professional discourse

3. Professional discourse • What is professional discourse? • “ text and talk – and the intertwinement of these modalities – in professional contexts and for professional purposes.” (Gunnarsson 2009: 5) • Exercise: • Is example 1 an instance of professional discourse? • Who are participants (how do you know)? • What is the context of this exchange (how do you know)?

4. Example 1 • Subject: Coffee? I am for coffee (and sandwiches!) outside in the sun in about 30 minutes or so – anybody want to join? Anna • RE: Coffee? hi my dears, i am at home, marking my assignments 9today and tomorrow) emjoy the sun, as much as i do as i am actually sitting in the garden – have already marked 4! cheers Bella

5. Conceptualising professional discourse • Front stage versus back stage encounters • Interactions between professionals • Interactions between professionals and lay people/clients • Clear distinction? • Frequent moving between regions • Transactional versus relational • Getting things done, achieving outcomes • Enhancing relationships, creating positive working atmosphere • Focus on transactional outcomes but any benefits of relational aspects?

6. Example 2 Dear Rebecca, Thanks so much for your prompt reply and for agreeing to review one of the papers! And congratulations on the new baby!! […] Is it a little boy/girl?? A while back, I sent you a Facebook friend request, not sure whether you received it or whether you useFB at all, but if you do, I would love to see some pics of the children... I attended [name of conference], but did not go to [name of city1]. I do hope to get to [name of city2] next year though. I am also organizing a conference in [name of city3], for [topic]. I will be sending info out in the next month or so... I know it is a long way to travel, but it'd be great if you could come... I have attached the paper and the evaluation form. Great to hear that mid-September works for you.As I mentioned, the special issue focuses on [topic]. Thanks again! All best wishes, Nina • Back stage or front stage encounter? • Identify transactional and relational aspects

7. Spoken versus written genres • What is a genre? • “relatively stable forms of communication which develop in the course of production and reproduction of communicative practices, and which are recognized by the members of that community” (Bargiela-Chiappini and Nickerson 1999: 8) • No “straightforward correspondence between form and function” (Yeung 2007: 158) • Consider: • Typical communicative practice • Typical participants • Typical situations • Typical social communities

8. Identifying genres • Identify similarities and differences between the documents in example 3 and 4. • You may want to consider: the communicative purpose of the texts, the discursive strategies used to achieve these purposes, author and addressee and anything else you consider relevant. • Would you say, example 3 and 4 are the same or different genre(s)? Why?

9. Distinguishing spoken and written genres • Examples of written genres? • Examples of spoken genres? • What about email? Internet sites? → multimodality

10. Multimodality • Shift from monomodality towards multimodality due to digitization: business letters vs online commercial websites • Examples: www.warwick.ac.uk • http://www.rsc.org.uk/whats-on/the-taming-of-the-shrew/#trailer • Distinction between ‘spoken’ and ‘written’ not always clear-cut • Multimodal analyses (e.g. of Warwick website): • Consider text (words) • But also nonverbal, visual and sound components

11. Interaction of genres • Use of multiple (spoken and written) genres to achieve workplace objectives • “spoken and written communication were totally intertwined, there was hardly any activity in either mode where the other would not be present as well; many of the email messages referred to phone calls, and they were constantly discussed in face-to-face communication with colleagues” (Louhiala-Salminen 2002: 217)

12. Interaction of genres at work

13. Summary • Conceptualising and describing professional discourse: • Backstage vs. frontstage • Relational vs. transactional • Blurry boundary between spoken/written genres • Multimodal analysis considering text, visual, nonverbal and acoustic elements etc

14. Some suggestions for further reading • Gunnarsson, Britt-Louise (2009). Professional Discourse. London: Continuum. • Bargiela-Chiappini, Francesca, Catherine Nickerson & Brigitte Planken (2007). Business Discourse. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. • Yeung, Lorrita (2007). In search of commonalities: Some linguistic and rhetorical features of business reports as a genre. English for Specific Purposes 26: 156-179. • Dos Santos, Valeria B.M (2002). Genre analysis of business letters of negotiation. English for Specific Purposes 21: 167-199. • Flowerdew, John & Alina Wan (2006). Genre analysis of tax computation letters: How and why tax accountants write the way they do. English for Specific Purposes 25: 133-153. • Gimenez, Julio (2002). New media and conflicting realities in multinational corporate communication: A case study. IRAL 40: 323-343.