Austin, J. (1962) How to Do Things with Words. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press
Bhatia, V.K. (1993) Analysing Genres: Language Use in Professional Settings. London: Longman.
Bloomer, A., Griffiths, P. & Merrison, A.J. (2005) Introducing Language in Use. London: Routledge
Chaney, L.H., Martin, J.S. (2007) Intercultural Business Communication, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall
Cruse, A. (2006) A glossary of Semantics and Pragmatics, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd.
Cutting, J. (2002) Pragmatics and Discourse: A resource book for students. London: Routledge
The economist online, (2010), Google and antitrust, Searching questions, Microsoft and other rivals cry foul against the internet-search giant. Accessed on the 24th February 2010. URL: http://www.economist.com/business-finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15576821
Johnstone, B. (2008) Discourse Analysis. 2ndedn. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
Jones, S.G. (1998) Cybersociety 2.0 Revisiting Computer-Mediated Communication and Community. USA: Sage publication.
Kerr, E.B. and Hiltz, S.R. (1982) Computer-Mediated Communication systems: Status and evaluation. London: Academic press.
Kress, G., Van Leeuwen, T. (2001) Multimodal discourses: The modes and media of contemporary communication, London: Hodder Arnold.
Levinson, S., C. (1983) Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
The Oxford Dictionary of English:
"Medium noun" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Aston University. 21 February 2010 http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t140.e47454
"Computer noun" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Aston University. 24 February 2010 http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t140.e15726
Paltridge, B. (2006). Discourse analysis: An introduction. London: Continuum.
Richards, J. C. And Schmidt, R. (2002), Longman Dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics (3rd edn). Harlow, UK: Longman.
Schiffrin, D. (1994) Approaches to Discourse. Oxford: Blackwell.
Sadowski-Rasters, G., Duysters, G. And Sadowski, B.M. (2006) Communication and cooperation in the virtual workplace. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
Searle, J. R., Kiefer, F. and Bierwisch, M. (1980) Speech act theory and pragmatics. Dordrecht: D. Reidel
Swales, J.M. (1990) Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: CUP
Thurlow, C., Lengel, L. & Tomic, A. (2009) Computer Mediated Communication: Social Interaction and the Internet. London: Sage
Trosborg, A. (2000) Analysing Professional Genres. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
Wintour, P., (2010) Gordon Brown hit by fresh bullying allegations, the guardian, URL:http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/feb/21/gordon-brown-fresh-bullying-allegations
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Conclusion
All good things come to an end, and sadly this is the last entry into my blog. I hope you have enjoyed reading my thoughts on Genre, Pragmatics and Mediums and that this blog will enrich your views on the matter. I had chosen those topics as I believe they were the most representative of the steps to follow when analysing but also writing discourse. Of course the three concepts could have been reflected on in more depth and from a different angle which means that the blog is open for discussion.
Sunday, 21 February 2010
Discourse and medium
Imagine that you are on business trip in China. You have just arrived at your hotel after a 15 hour flight. You check in, get your luggage to the room and finally you can relax and take a shower, however there is no hot water. Rather angry you decide to communicate your discontent to the hotel manager. First you would decide what genre to use: a letter, a note, etc... As seen in the genre analysis blog entry. Then you may consider the context of the situation as well as the cultural context: there is no hot water in your room, you are the client, and you pay for the room, thus you are allowed to complain, get compensation, and get the water fixed or a new room. However you are aware of the cultural differences between your country and China and will therefore try to be polite and quite indirect so that no one looses face. At last, you would choose the medium.
A medium is a mean by which something is communicated or expressed (Oxford Dictionary). In linguistic terms, medium or media are the material resources used in the production of semiotic products and events, including both the tools and the materials used (e.g. the musical instrument and air; the chisel and the block of wood) (Kress, G., Van Leeuwen, T. (2001:22). According to Johnstone (2008:195) discourse is shaped by its medium. For instance the social relationships created over email or in “virtual” environments online may be different from those created in face to face talk or written letters (Johnstone, 2008:195).
In our case scenario, a letter sent via an email may be an appropriate mean of communication. A telephone call could be more direct thus the message communicated may be perceived differently.
The medium can be compared to the channel discussed in Shannon and Weaver’s communication model as shown in the image below. Thus needs to be carefully chosen in order to communicate the intended meaning of a message accurately.
Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)
With the considerable technological progress made over the last fifty years, one medium of communication that has become increasingly popular is the computer.
By definition a computer is “an electronic device which is capable of receiving information (data) in a particular form and of performing a sequence of operations in accordance with a predetermined but variable set of procedural instructions (program) to produce a result in the form of information or signals” (Oxford dictionary). In more simple terms a computer is a programmable device under which we will include mobile phones, desktops, laptops, “smart phones”, notebooks, etc...... We can therefore define CMC as “any human communication achieved though, or with the help of, computer technology” (Thurlow et al., 2009).
CMC has revolutionized the way we do business and modified human relationships. It is an asynchronous medium, meaning that time and space has been minimized as barriers to interaction (Kerr and Hiltz, 1982:3). People from all over the world can now communicate share their lives and opinions or build social networks through platforms such as facebook, myspace or twitter. Governments, politicians and companies can make information available to the public by creating their web page or blogs. You can not only read a newspaper but also comment on it and discuss about articles with others that are interested. See below
Companies have also managed to cut costs as video conferencing, online sales, online banking, etc have reduced the need for resources or extensive travelling.
Over all, computers have become a direct and indirect efficient medium of communication. They have created new genres such as blogs, emails or web pages that interlink spoken and written discourse, leading to a new field of study for sociolinguists!
For readers interested in CMC, I would recommend Elaine B. Kerr and Starr Roxanne Hiltz’s Computer-Mediated Communication Systems (1982). Although the book is nearly 20 years old and considerable progress in technology has been made since, it still offers a fascinating view on the effects and use of CMC.
_____________________________________________________
References
The economist online, (2010), Google and antitrust, Searching questions, Microsoft and other rivals cry foul against the internet-search giant. Accessed on the 24th February 2010. URL: http://www.economist.com/business-finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15576821
Johnstone, B. (2008) Discourse Analysis. 2ndedn. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
Kerr, E.B. and Hiltz, S.R. (1982) Computer-Mediated Communication systems: Status and evaluation. London: Academic press.
Kress, G., Van Leeuwen, T. (2001) Multimodal discourses: The modes and media of contemporary communication, London: Hodder Arnold.
The Oxford Dictionary of English:
"Medium noun" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Aston University. 21 February 2010. http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t140.e47454
"Computer noun" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Aston University. 24 February 2010 http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t140.e15726
Thurlow, C., Lengel, L. & Tomic, A. (2009) Computer Mediated Communication: Social Interaction and the Internet. London: Sage
A medium is a mean by which something is communicated or expressed (Oxford Dictionary). In linguistic terms, medium or media are the material resources used in the production of semiotic products and events, including both the tools and the materials used (e.g. the musical instrument and air; the chisel and the block of wood) (Kress, G., Van Leeuwen, T. (2001:22). According to Johnstone (2008:195) discourse is shaped by its medium. For instance the social relationships created over email or in “virtual” environments online may be different from those created in face to face talk or written letters (Johnstone, 2008:195).
In our case scenario, a letter sent via an email may be an appropriate mean of communication. A telephone call could be more direct thus the message communicated may be perceived differently.
The medium can be compared to the channel discussed in Shannon and Weaver’s communication model as shown in the image below. Thus needs to be carefully chosen in order to communicate the intended meaning of a message accurately.
Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)
With the considerable technological progress made over the last fifty years, one medium of communication that has become increasingly popular is the computer.
By definition a computer is “an electronic device which is capable of receiving information (data) in a particular form and of performing a sequence of operations in accordance with a predetermined but variable set of procedural instructions (program) to produce a result in the form of information or signals” (Oxford dictionary). In more simple terms a computer is a programmable device under which we will include mobile phones, desktops, laptops, “smart phones”, notebooks, etc...... We can therefore define CMC as “any human communication achieved though, or with the help of, computer technology” (Thurlow et al., 2009).
CMC has revolutionized the way we do business and modified human relationships. It is an asynchronous medium, meaning that time and space has been minimized as barriers to interaction (Kerr and Hiltz, 1982:3). People from all over the world can now communicate share their lives and opinions or build social networks through platforms such as facebook, myspace or twitter. Governments, politicians and companies can make information available to the public by creating their web page or blogs. You can not only read a newspaper but also comment on it and discuss about articles with others that are interested. See below
Companies have also managed to cut costs as video conferencing, online sales, online banking, etc have reduced the need for resources or extensive travelling.
Over all, computers have become a direct and indirect efficient medium of communication. They have created new genres such as blogs, emails or web pages that interlink spoken and written discourse, leading to a new field of study for sociolinguists!
For readers interested in CMC, I would recommend Elaine B. Kerr and Starr Roxanne Hiltz’s Computer-Mediated Communication Systems (1982). Although the book is nearly 20 years old and considerable progress in technology has been made since, it still offers a fascinating view on the effects and use of CMC.
_____________________________________________________
References
The economist online, (2010), Google and antitrust, Searching questions, Microsoft and other rivals cry foul against the internet-search giant. Accessed on the 24th February 2010. URL: http://www.economist.com/business-finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15576821
Johnstone, B. (2008) Discourse Analysis. 2ndedn. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
Kerr, E.B. and Hiltz, S.R. (1982) Computer-Mediated Communication systems: Status and evaluation. London: Academic press.
Kress, G., Van Leeuwen, T. (2001) Multimodal discourses: The modes and media of contemporary communication, London: Hodder Arnold.
The Oxford Dictionary of English:
"Medium noun" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Aston University. 21 February 2010. http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t140.e47454
"Computer noun" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Aston University. 24 February 2010 http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t140.e15726
Thurlow, C., Lengel, L. & Tomic, A. (2009) Computer Mediated Communication: Social Interaction and the Internet. London: Sage
Thursday, 18 February 2010
Pragmatics
The concept of pragmatics
Unlike the idea of genre, pragmatics in discourse is a notion slightly newer to me which I find a lot more difficult to label. This is not so surprising as Searle, Kiefer & Bierwisch (1980:viii) even suggest that “ Pragmatics is one of those words that gives the impression that something quite specific and technical is being talked about when often in fact it has no clear meaning” (Levinson,1983:6).
Unlike the idea of genre, pragmatics in discourse is a notion slightly newer to me which I find a lot more difficult to label. This is not so surprising as Searle, Kiefer & Bierwisch (1980:viii) even suggest that “ Pragmatics is one of those words that gives the impression that something quite specific and technical is being talked about when often in fact it has no clear meaning” (Levinson,1983:6).
Pragmatics is a broad approach to discourse and deals with three concepts: Meaning, Context and Communication (Schiffrin, 1994:190). Pragmatics’ scope is very wide hence there is no agreed definition of the concept. One that I find relatively easy to understand is Paltridge’s: “Pragmatics is the study of meaning in relation to the context in which a person is speaking or writing” (2006:53). As mentioned above Pragmatics looks at the meaning of words, but although it interlinks with semantics which is concerned with the stable meaning resources of language-as-a-system; pragmatics is concerned with the use of that system for communicating on particular occasions and in particular contexts (Cruse, 2006:2).
Context and pragmatics
After looking at different books on the subject, the notion that has struck me as being in the “centre” of pragmatics is the one of context. Three types of context have been identified: situational context, background knowledge context, and the co-textual context.
Context and pragmatics
After looking at different books on the subject, the notion that has struck me as being in the “centre” of pragmatics is the one of context. Three types of context have been identified: situational context, background knowledge context, and the co-textual context.
Situational Context is “what speakers know about what they can see around them” (Cutting, 2002:3); or more precisely “the immediate physical co presence, the situation where the interaction is taking place at the moment of speaking” (Cutting, 2002:4). Although this definition refers to spoken discourse it also applies to written discourse. In his book Brian Paltridge (2006:54) sites a fine example from Freedman (1989): “a student’s assignment written for a law course takes on a different meaning if it is re-typed on the letterhead of a law firm and addressed to a client”. We can see hear that the same words are attributed different meanings according to where they are written. I believe that a clause is most likely to be insignificant when taken out of context when it includes a demonstrative pronoun such as “this, that, these or those”. For instance, the clause “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” in English meaning: “this is not a pipe” is not significant unless put into situational context as shown in the image below.
After looking at this image you may think that these words are not significant even within situational context; but they are! This is exactly what Magritte is trying to demonstrate. Take a step back and look again: this is not a pipe but the representation of a pipe. This statement however shows that to fully understand the clause “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” the reader may need some background knowledge on the artist, his philosophy and what he does.
This leads us onto the second type of context: background knowledge context which is “what they know about each other and the world” (Cutting, 2002:3). Thus Background knowledge can be cultural general knowledge that most people carry with them in their minds, about areas of life, as demonstrated by the pipe example; or interpersonal knowledge, specific and possibly private knowledge about the history of the speakers themselves (Cutting, 2002:5). For instance to understand the following email you need to share interpersonal knowledge with the writer and the people mentioned.
Discussed early this week with Kate & Paul - Paul to organize a meeting ASAP with MSA owner (D.Delford) in order to integrate a preferred agreed pricing for XXXX XXX in the MSA.
Kate, your call.
(For confidentiality reasons, the names in this email have been changed.)
The third context type is co-textual context which is “what they know about what they have been saying” (Cutting, 2002:3) or what they know about what they have been reading. For example, in this abstract from a news article in the guardian:
“Christine Pratt, the helpline's director, said: "We are not suggesting he is a bully. What we are saying is there are people in his office working directly with him that have issues and concerns, and have contacted our helpline. We believe the present statement put out by Lord Mandelson is a nonsense and non-credible."” (Wintour, P., (2010) Gordon Brown hit by fresh bullying allegations)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/feb/21/gordon-brown-fresh-bullying-allegations
It is assumed that the reader has read the article from the beginning and therefore knows who is referred to through the pronouns: “we”, “he”, “his”, and “him”.This is referred to as grammatical cohesion; it is what meshes the text together (Cutting, 2002:9).
These aspects of context expand to cross-cultural pragmatics; indeed, according to Edward Hall countries can be classified as high or low context. In high-context culture, such as the Japanese culture, communication is less explicit and people must read between the lines to understand the intended meaning of the message (Chaney, 2007: 95). In low-context cultures, such as the North American the message is explicit and may be given in more than one way to ensure understanding by the receiver. Low context language tends to be direct and verbal (Chaney, 2007: 95).
Thus being aware of the context in which words are written or evocated is crucial not only to understand them fully but also when creating your own written or spoken discourse. For instance a consulting report done for an American company is likely to differ from one made for a Japanese company or even a French one. A good guidance about the possible “rules” of communication is Grice’s theory of conversational writing stated below.
_____________________________________________________
References
Chaney, L.H., Martin, J.S. (2007) Intercultural Business Communication, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall
Cruse, A. (2006) A glossary of Semantics and Pragmatics, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd.
Cutting, J. (2002) Pragmatics and Discourse: A resource book for students. London: Routledge
Levinson, S.C. (1983) Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Paltridge, B. (2006) Discourse analysis: An introduction. London: Continuum.
Schiffrin, D. (1994) Approaches to Discourse. Oxford: Blackwell.
Searle, J.R., Kiefer, F. and Bierwisch, M. (1980) Speech act theory and pragmatics. Dordrecht: D. Reidel
Wintour, P., (2010) Gordon Brown hit by fresh bullying allegations, the guardian, URL:http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/feb/21/gordon-brown-fresh-bullying-allegations
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Genre Analysis
What is a genre?
The word “genre” is one that I have heard many times before undertaking the international communication stream at university; its use is rather common in the French language. Equivalents in English could be the words “type” or “kind”, so in sentences or replicas such as “What kind of car do you want to buy?” or “it’s not his type” we would say “Quel genre de voiture veux-tu acheter?” or “ce n’est pas son genre”. Thus I would define the word “genre” as a group of beings or things that share common characteristics. In linguistics, the word “genre” can be referred to as: “A type of discourse that occurs in a particular setting that has distinctive and recognizable patterns and norms of organisation and structure and that has particular and distinctive communicative functions” (Richards and Schmidt, 2002:224)
Swales (1990:45) proposes five points which could define “genre”:
1. A genre is a class of communicative events
2. The principal criteria features that turns a collection of communicative events into a genre is some shared set of communicative purposes.
3. Exemplars or instances of genres vary in their prototypicality.
4. The rationale behind a genre establishes constraints on allowable contributions in terms of their content, position and form.
5. A discourse community’s nomenclature for genres is an important source of insight.
Note: For further information on Swales’s five points please refer to his book: Genre Analysis: English in academic and research settings.
Examples of genres are news reports, business reports, formal letters, parliamentary speeches or medical reports. Although I find the notion of genre relatively clear, determining which text belongs to what genre can be somehow more difficult. Indeed, genre distinctions are culturally relative (Johnstone, 2008:182) and are intimately linked to the discipline’s methodology, packaging information in ways that conform to a discipline’s norms, values and ideology (Trosborg: 2000: vi). This is where I have asked myself what main attributes distinguishes a genre from another? A recurring answer seems to be that a genre is defined by its purpose and the context in which it is written, therefore determining its characteristics. Please feel free to comment and add other ways to distinguish a genre from another, as mentioned this is relative to one’s culture, profession, etc...
The importance of understanding the genres of written communication
From one perspective genre analysis could be seen as the tedious task of classifying forms of texts to then be able to recognise one from the other. However this is, I believe, the first step to take in order to be successful in one’s profession or discipline. As Johnstone (2008:182) puts it when talking about the idea of genre: “a person has to learn to recognize, reproduce, and manipulate in order to become a competent member of a particular community”. For instance, in his book, Analysing Genres: Language Use in Professional Settings, Bhatia describes sales promotion letters as “an unsolicited letter addressed to a selected group of prospective customers in order to persuade them to buy a product or a service” (1993:45) and gives the following structure:
• Establishing credentials
• Introducing the offer (Offering the product or service, Essential detailing of the offer, Indicating value of the offer)
• Offering incentives
• Enclosing documents
• Soliciting response
• Using pressure tactics
• Ending politely
This analysis of the sales promotion letter genre provides a framework for creating future letters. Of course this is not a set model and there is room for flexibility but it does offer a good understanding of how a sales promotion letter would look like.
Bhatia’s example is specific to a particular genre and I would recommend using his structure when writing a sales promotion letter. However, on a more general level when doing a genre analysis or when writing a document I would advise to use Paltridge’s model of analysis in which the following fields should be completed: Author, Audience, Purpose, Situation, Physical form, Pre-Sequence, Internal structure, Content, Level of formality, Style, Written language and Requirements as showed in the table below.
Classifying things or beings is something that we are taught from a very young age, which enables us to call a cat “a cat”. Although the idea of “genre” was not unknown to me and seemed rather natural, I had never quite grasped the importance of genre analysis and how it influences our everyday life.
_____________________________________________________
References
Bhatia, V.K. (1993) Analysing Genres: Language Use in Professional Settings. London: Longman.
Johnstone, B. (2008) Discourse Analysis. 2ndedn. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
Paltridge, B. (2006). Discourse analysis: An introduction. London: Continuum.
Richards, J. C. And Schmidt, R. (2002), Longman Dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics (3rd edn). Harlow, UK: Longman.
Swales, J.M. (1990) Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: CUP
Trosborg, A. (2000) Analysing Professional Genres. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
The word “genre” is one that I have heard many times before undertaking the international communication stream at university; its use is rather common in the French language. Equivalents in English could be the words “type” or “kind”, so in sentences or replicas such as “What kind of car do you want to buy?” or “it’s not his type” we would say “Quel genre de voiture veux-tu acheter?” or “ce n’est pas son genre”. Thus I would define the word “genre” as a group of beings or things that share common characteristics. In linguistics, the word “genre” can be referred to as: “A type of discourse that occurs in a particular setting that has distinctive and recognizable patterns and norms of organisation and structure and that has particular and distinctive communicative functions” (Richards and Schmidt, 2002:224)
Swales (1990:45) proposes five points which could define “genre”:
1. A genre is a class of communicative events
2. The principal criteria features that turns a collection of communicative events into a genre is some shared set of communicative purposes.
3. Exemplars or instances of genres vary in their prototypicality.
4. The rationale behind a genre establishes constraints on allowable contributions in terms of their content, position and form.
5. A discourse community’s nomenclature for genres is an important source of insight.
Note: For further information on Swales’s five points please refer to his book: Genre Analysis: English in academic and research settings.
Examples of genres are news reports, business reports, formal letters, parliamentary speeches or medical reports. Although I find the notion of genre relatively clear, determining which text belongs to what genre can be somehow more difficult. Indeed, genre distinctions are culturally relative (Johnstone, 2008:182) and are intimately linked to the discipline’s methodology, packaging information in ways that conform to a discipline’s norms, values and ideology (Trosborg: 2000: vi). This is where I have asked myself what main attributes distinguishes a genre from another? A recurring answer seems to be that a genre is defined by its purpose and the context in which it is written, therefore determining its characteristics. Please feel free to comment and add other ways to distinguish a genre from another, as mentioned this is relative to one’s culture, profession, etc...
The importance of understanding the genres of written communication
From one perspective genre analysis could be seen as the tedious task of classifying forms of texts to then be able to recognise one from the other. However this is, I believe, the first step to take in order to be successful in one’s profession or discipline. As Johnstone (2008:182) puts it when talking about the idea of genre: “a person has to learn to recognize, reproduce, and manipulate in order to become a competent member of a particular community”. For instance, in his book, Analysing Genres: Language Use in Professional Settings, Bhatia describes sales promotion letters as “an unsolicited letter addressed to a selected group of prospective customers in order to persuade them to buy a product or a service” (1993:45) and gives the following structure:
• Establishing credentials
• Introducing the offer (Offering the product or service, Essential detailing of the offer, Indicating value of the offer)
• Offering incentives
• Enclosing documents
• Soliciting response
• Using pressure tactics
• Ending politely
This analysis of the sales promotion letter genre provides a framework for creating future letters. Of course this is not a set model and there is room for flexibility but it does offer a good understanding of how a sales promotion letter would look like.
Bhatia’s example is specific to a particular genre and I would recommend using his structure when writing a sales promotion letter. However, on a more general level when doing a genre analysis or when writing a document I would advise to use Paltridge’s model of analysis in which the following fields should be completed: Author, Audience, Purpose, Situation, Physical form, Pre-Sequence, Internal structure, Content, Level of formality, Style, Written language and Requirements as showed in the table below.
Classifying things or beings is something that we are taught from a very young age, which enables us to call a cat “a cat”. Although the idea of “genre” was not unknown to me and seemed rather natural, I had never quite grasped the importance of genre analysis and how it influences our everyday life.
_____________________________________________________
References
Bhatia, V.K. (1993) Analysing Genres: Language Use in Professional Settings. London: Longman.
Johnstone, B. (2008) Discourse Analysis. 2ndedn. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
Paltridge, B. (2006). Discourse analysis: An introduction. London: Continuum.
Richards, J. C. And Schmidt, R. (2002), Longman Dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics (3rd edn). Harlow, UK: Longman.
Swales, J.M. (1990) Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: CUP
Trosborg, A. (2000) Analysing Professional Genres. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
Introduction
This online project comprises a series of short reflective entries related to three topics covered in our Management Styles in writing module. Its aim is to consider and discuss the dual sidedness of these theories and techniques and how they can be used in the business world. Although each model studied in class has its own importance and relevance, I have selected three models that I find particularly useful for understanding a text as well as creating one. The first topic discussed will be genre analysis, the second topic discussed will be Pragmatics, and finally we will talk about the different communication modes. Note that these are short reflective entries thus the topics are not discussed as much in depth as they could be.
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