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Two examples of professional discourse
1. Dear colleagues, This is to inform you that we are re-organizing our department in Modena […], This does not mean that we will not be in touch!!! Z,J and K will still be sitting right among us, as they are today, and we will try to sit near one another even after we are transferred (God willing!!!) to the main location. Our areas are definitely very closely connected, and we should not limit our cooperation in any way because of the new set-up. So this is not a good-bye to them, or a ‘wish you well’ but more like a ‘still here & striving for our customers’ satisfaction’. Best regards Y (e-m151) → More formal and structured, divided into paragraphs. Semi-formal, because of the presence of exclamation points. No use of contractions, formal final salutation, indirectness of how the message is compelled ( this is to inform you that , introductory part) 2. FYI Z, will you please update our contacts? Ciao from a snow-blanketed Modena !!! Y (e-m232) → More direct + the change of language conveys the idea of being Italian, creating relationship Professional communication takes place at a workplace, it involves two or more participants which can be at different levels (peer/professional communication), and it involves at least one professional (including professions as healthcare, service professions, social work and white collar professions). Doing work means doing communication and tasks are accomplished in and through communicating with clients, colleagues and other professionals. Language is a way to getting things done, to convey relationship with clients, colleagues and other professionals. Transactional talk: getting the job done, achieving outcomes, related to work Relational talk: collegiality among colleagues, being part of a group, creating positive working atmosphere, culture-dependent
- Inter-professional communication : takes place between colleagues and between other professionals Clara: okay well we might just start without Seth he can come in and review the minutes from last week Renee: are you taking the minutes this week Clara: no I’m just trying to chair the meeting, who would like to take the minutes this week Renee: who hasn’t taken the minutes yet Benny: I haven’t yet I will Clara: thank you //Benny
Renee: /oh benny\ takes beautiful minutes too Benny: don’t tell them they’ll want me doing it every week [general laughter] Clara: it’s a bit of a secret, okay shall we kick off and just go round the room um doing an update and then when Seth comes in with the minutes we need to check on any action items from our planning over to you Marlene →All interlocutors are professionals and the topic of their interaction is mostly transactional (work-related), but participants also engage in relational talk.
Not all workplace interaction is necessarily transactionally focused and strictly outcome-oriented. Rather, more relational aspects may be equally important in some interactions that take place in professional contexts. Subject: Coffee? I am for coffee (and sandwi t ches) outside in the sun in about 30 minutes or so – anybody want to join? Anna →Email between colleagues before lunch break: professional communication, but relational talk ex. typos.
- Professional - Lay interaction : hierarchical difference between the sender and the receiver of the message. SK: morning [the price comes up on the till] visual element SK: that’s twenty-two Mix of verbal and non-verbal elements [C hands over the money] visual element SK: thanks good bye C: Goodbye → “Specific work interaction” because only one of the interlocutors is at work, while the other is not. The professional controls the script, he/she conducts the communication. MP: Now, so today we invite you to come to see if you want to have a test for Down Syndrome and after you’ve watched the video erm do you have any idea of Down Syndrome P: what- what’s the- Down Syndrome? MP: you don’t know what it is P: mm hm it I – do you think I need to (do it)? MP: OK now it’s up to you //some people doesn’t
P: /I want to know\ huh MP: some people prefer to know whether the baby’s Down Syndrome beforehand so they go for tests but some people doesn’t want to know - Function: informative encounter in order to make an informed decision
- Roles: different degrees of knowledge between the two participants. The doctor, the professional, has control of the script, giving information and creating his professional outlook
- Language: semi-formal, no use of specialized language
- Bi-directional, two-way communication
- Both transactional talk, providing information about down syndrome, but also relational talk One-way communication : addressing the wider public, doesn’t always reflect reality Commitment: Solving problems, overcoming obstacles and delivering on our promises and obligations to our customers and to each other. Teamwork: A willingness to share information, accepting and soliciting input from others and promoting win/win situations. Quality of life: Making sure it is all worthwhile. Fostering good relationships internally and externally, celebrating success and giving back whenever we can. →Corporate values of a company, on the company’s website. For customers, stakeholders, potential employees. No subject, - ing form to focus on the action, syntactic, pronouns in first person plural: inclusive we. Both inter-professional and professional-lay
Ex. During the expert witness testimony in court Counsel: Based on your observations of the Bronco the times you’ve looked at it can you see those two circled areas if the door is closed? Witness: Let me comment on about this photograph first if I may, because I can’t - The court: No you have to answer the question Witness: Okay →The Counsel creates a constraint on how the witness may reply, using have to , while the witness is in a lower position, using if I may. Interlocutors may have different speaking rights and obligations and deviations from them may be rebuked. Six main features of professional discourse
- Professions are characterised by specific discourses which distinguish them from other professions. These discourse and profession-specific ways of using language create, reinforce those activities, knowledge and skills that characterise a specific profession. Newcomers need to learn these aspects of professional discourse as part of their professional or vocational training: GATEKEEPING.
- Goal-oriented and situated : specific expectations and norms in written documents, often linked to specific actions with concrete results. Most workplaces have specific expectations and norms about what is considered appropriate communication, specifically in terms of who communicates with whom, how and when.
- Conventionalised : they reflect specific practices which are characteristics for that profession.
- Reflect and reinforce the activities and practices that characterise a workplace unit or group within an organisation.
- Depend on four societal frameworks:
- Legal-political framework
- Technical framework
- Socio-cultural framework: politeness, how each culture perceive professional discourse (multiculturalism)
- Linguistic framework (language policy)
- Not stable and change over time : technological advancements/political changes (internationalisation, globalisation) Professional discourse: what professionals routinely do as a way of accomplishing their duties and responsibilities Institutional discourse: it comprises those features which are attributed to institutional practice either manifestly or covertly by professionals Professional communication umbrella term, broadly defined as work-related activity, both covers:
- Workplace discourse: spoken and written interaction occurring in any workplace setting, including both communication between professionals and lay people, and company internal communication.
- Business discourse: restricted to business settings, interactions occurring in commercial organisations in order to get work done.
Changes in professional communication
- The worldwide internationalisation and globalisation of the economy is contributing to an increasing number of multicultural and multilingual environments/workplaces: new uses of English and other languages (ex. English as a lingua franca in intercultural encounters);
- Technology advances: new forms of professional interactions, allowing employees to work at remote locations while still being able to access corporate intranets.
- New hierarchical work order: democratisation of discourse, reflected on the level of discourse practices. The discourse of organisations is becoming increasingly more informal, and more and more resembles discourse that occurs in the private domain. Conversational discourse practices traditionally belonging in the private sphere are being systematically simulated within organisations. As a consequence, workplace communication tends to occur in a more informal, conversational manner. The new work order has also led to changes in divisions of labour and management approaches which put increasing emphasis on empowering employees. Moreover, these changes also have profound effects on the professional identities of employees, in the ways they perceive themselves and their role and responsibilities in the wider context of their workplace.
Genres of professional communication
A genre comprises a class of communicative events , the members of which share some set of communicative purposes. These purposes are recognized by the expert members of the parent discourse community and thereby constitute a rationale for the genre. In addition to purpose, exemplars of a genre exhibit various patterns of similarity in terms of structure, style, content and intended audience. Genre used to be related to its communicative purposes. More recent definitions of genre acknowledge:
- socio-cultural context of the genre
- typical participants and their stock of knowledge of how their typical social communities 1.SALES PROMOTION LETTER Unsolicited letter addressed to a selected group of prospective customers in order to persuade them to buy a product or service. Being unsolicited, the writers are faced with the difficult task of capturing the addressees’ attention and convincing them of the benefits of the offered services so that they will respond to the letters.
Similarities in function also reflected in their structure: (1) establishing credentials before introducing the offer/candidate. (2) reference to enclosed documents (3) soliciting response (4) ending politely Grouping together instances of professional communication in meaningful ways is not a straightforward undertaking, because of wide diversity of communicative events that lay people tend to summarise under the same heading. Ex. MEETINGS: although most people have a good idea about what a meeting is, matters are more complicated from an analytic perspective. Professional communication in an institutional context Lay professional, hierarchical relation: the counsel controls the interaction. Question-answer. Q1 is an open-ended question, most informative kind of question. Q9 is a yes/no question Purpose: collect details about what happened, gather information. Find the right truth in order to influence the jury to come to a certain verdict Professional communication in an institutional context Lay professional, hierarchical relation: the doctor controls the interaction Purpose: informative, transactional talk Language is less formal, shorter questions Professional communication in an institutional context Lay professional, hierarchical relation: the teacher controls the interaction, guiding the student towards the right answer ( facilitator ). Transactional talk, but interactional/relational talk when giving positive feedback to the students
Regarding difficulties in capturing and conceptualising differences and similarities among instances of professional communication, the concept of genre may be useful in trying to make sense of this diversity, as it provides a systematic approach to describing workplace discourse. Different genres sharing some elements, ex. informative purposes: genre colonies Overarching genre category: promotional genre Subcategories: promotional letter, cover letter Genre colonies: degree of overlap among genres (ex. communicative purpose) Various cline in the degree and nature of the promotional element: divided into primary, secondary, mixed promotional genre. They change in time (obsolescence and emergence of new genres). A secondary genre in a certain colony, can be primary in another colony. Taxonomy of genres (Koester, 2006) Three types of macro-genres of professional communication in her corpus American and British office talk (ABOT):
- Non-transactional genres : office gossip and small talk - Transactional genres : ▪ unidirectional genres: one interlocutor plays the dominant role (service encounters, reporting, requesting) ▪ collaborative genres: all participants contribute equally to achieve the same goal (making arrangements, decision making, discussing and evaluating) There may still be some asymmetry in both institutional and discursive roles. Typical opening sequence in a meeting in a white- collar workplace, typical example of what most people associate with this type of professional communication: people come together for a particular purpose, there is a chair who leads through the meeting, and often there is an agenda with items that need to be discussed during the meeting. The briefing meeting in the factory appears more informal, using explicit imperatives, often reinforced by strong expletives and a high amount of banter and humour.
Best regards, Betty. Classified as a genre because the use of English in computer-mediated communication is embedded in the practices of the corporation. Similarities in communicative purposes, communicative patterns, layout and lexical choices. Others think emails as a medium rather than a genre, because emails are influenced by memo- genre (record-keeping). But, remarkable differences in terms of capabilities, creating new options and constraints. Emails as companion genre , ancillary/functional to other genres (more formal communication presented in paper format). But nowadays it is essential to day-to-day business, with a multiplicity of functions. Digitization is responsible for a shift from monomodality , a static genre (ex. printed business letters) to dynamic examples of multimodality (ex. online commercial websites). Multimodal analysis to capture not only the meaning of texts but also that of non-verbal components of the interaction (images, colours, captions). Multimodality of social practices in professional contexts in increasingly relevant. Non-verbal visual and sound components: layout of particular text, colour, angles between items, different sizes of captions, texts and pictures. Writing in an organisation is not only a matter of knowing how to write a certain document for a specific audience but also a matter of knowing how to fit into the organisational structure and how to adapt to the organisational subculture and its norms, attitudes and values. The genres that are regularly employed by members of a workplace or profession also have an impact on shaping and defining the nature and structure of work, which in turn influences the culture of this workplace. Intertextuality Texts are often interrelated and intertwined (ex. referring to written documents at a videoconference) Written texts may also contain reference to previous or subsequent spoken interactions or written texts, ex. embedded emails: individual emails build on each other and where previous emails are included in the current one. Betty I have reviewed and updated this. Please remove yellow bits and email to Martina. If she is happy, prepare for Sabitha’s signature so that we give to Martina on Monday. Thanks Faye →Embedded reference, the two speakers already know about the other text. Dear Annalie Thank you for your registration. Breakfast will be serves. If you wish to have vegetarian food, please let me know. The launch of [name of document] will take place on 23 October (8:30-10:30am) at [name of location]- Registration starts at 8:00am. We look forward to seeing you. Please find the attached invoice for payment. Do not hesitate to contact me if you need further information.
Interdiscursivity Elements from one discourse, with their institutional and social meaning, may be interpolated in another, and may come to create what is in effect a “new” professional discourse associated with correspondingly new institutional practices. Two different kinds of discourses are skilfully combined to bend the norms and conventions of reporting to promote a positive image of the corporation, even in adverse and challenging economic times. Discourse of accounting (mostly in the form of financial reports) + discourse of marketing and public relations (ex. in the form of the chairman’s letter to shareholders) = complex interdiscursive relationship to lend the marketing and public relations genre the same factual reliability and hence credibility of numerous data = positive light. Approaches to genre analysis
- New Rhetoric Concerned with the macro-context of genre, considered as a social action. They don’t conduct close textual analysis, they explore the context and mainly conduct field analysis (qualitative). Methodology used: interviews and observations. Sociological kind of analysis.
- Sydney School The context is important and the genres are seen as staged goal-oriented social processes. Focuses on function or purposes that genres perform in a particular social context. Interested in text-internal and linguistic features that are characteristic of a particular genre. Pedagogical agenda: empowering students with linguistic resources for social success.
- English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Genres are defined as recognizable communicative purposes identified and mutually understood by members of the professional or academic community in which it regularly occurs. Communicative purposes as crucial criterion in identifying what constitutes as genre. This approach draws on some methodologies of the two previous traditions: dynamic and multi- layered perspective. Teaching purpose: mainly to non-native speakers Methods of genre analysis Text-driven : particular genre in a specific context, or comparing the same genre across contexts. Context-driven : analysis of various genres that occur in the same context or community. Both approaches tend to include an identification and description of genre-specific features as well as a consideration of the context in which they occur. ESP researchers usually identify rhetorical moves that tend to recur and that reflect the communicative purpose of the text or the interaction. These moves can be obligatory or optional in the realisation of a particular genre. ex. four obligatory moves that characterize business letters of negotiation: Move 1: Establishing the negotiation chain Move 2: Providing information/answers Move 3: Requesting information/favours Move 4: Ending
Different workplaces have developed specific norms of what counts as acceptable and unmarked behaviour, and what kinds of behaviour are unacceptable and hence marked. These workplace- specific differences are not only reflected in interlocutors’ use of swearing and expletives but may involve virtually all aspects of communication, including transactional behaviours (ex. making decisions and getting things done) as well as relational behaviours (ex. appropriate ways of engaging in small talk). Why saying ‘Hi’ matter Emails are an important area where workplace-specific norms and expectations have an important impact on people's communication style. This kind of contestive and challenging in- your-face behaviour would be considered to be inappropriate in many workplace contexts, in particular when uttered by a subordinate to his superior; however, such behaviour in the example is perfectly consistent with the interactional styles in which members of this particular team typically interact with each other and is therefore acceptable behaviour. It is clear that swearing is considered to be normal practice in this team. Neil (a newcomer) reminds the others that they are recording the session, but Victor (the most senior person in the meeting) reinforces the view that Chester’s behaviour is part of the normal ways of talking in this team by reminding participants they should not alter their behaviour just because they are being recorded for a research project. Swearing doesn’t seem to be part of how people normally communicate. It is perceived as inappropriate and marked in this particular workplace context, as the responses it receives illustrate.
Good leadership : decision making, getting things done, providing feedback, developing a vision. It is crucial to consider the specific norms that characterize a workplace in order to understand and make sense of people’s behaviour. The distinctive ways in which members of different workplaces typically communicate with each other are often linked to specific normative communicative patterns as well as practices. Culture as variable or objective identities : descriptive approach, culture has something a workplace has. Research aims at utilising insights into the culture of a workplace as an objectified tool of management control. Culture as a metaphor : culture seen as a social phenomenon, employing various metaphors to capture the essence of what a workplace is (ex. machine, organism). More recent theories argue that workplace culture is created and negotiated through the interaction of the members → importance of discourse in the process of developing, shaping, maintaining, reinforcing and enacting the culture of a workplace. Communicative construction Workplace culture is a communicative construction (Modaff and De Wine) that is created and recreated as people interact over time. Importance of:
- Interactions
- Workplace documents
- Mission statements : how the organisation portrays itself. They refer to the purpose and aim of the organisation and describe how this is to be achieved. They also can be utilised to create, shape and change an organisation’s culture. It is one of the most visible aspects of workplace culture and a symptom of professionalization, hence marketization. “Our mission is to provide a high quality, accessible and responsive service by putting our patients at the heart of everything we do. Our philosophy is to treat people how we would want to be treated and ensure that no-one tries harder for patients. To us, ‘Every Patient Matters’.” The gender of a workplace is reflected in demographic factors (ex. number and occupation of male and female workers), behavioural tendencies (how decisions are being made, how power is being exercised), and communicative patterns. Masculine workplace : Feminine workplace :
- Hierarchical structure; - Non-hierarchical structures;
- Competitiveness; - Openness of feelings;
- Hard, direct conversational tones; - Supportive – social relationships;
- Masculine speech style. - Integration of private and work;
- Female speech style. There is considerable overlap between those structures, practices and discourses that characterise the daily activities in which people engage. What counts as acceptable, normative feminine and masculine behaviour varies across workplaces and is negotiated in members’ working groups.
This qualitative approach is based on the assumption that culture is ubiquitous and that organisational insiders constitute valuable resources for providing crucial support for the researcher in order to reveal and decipher what is really going on in a particular organisation.
- Hofstede et al.’s dimension of organisational culture (1990) Collective programme of the mind that distinguishes the members of one organisation from another: Symbols : words, gestures, pictures of objects that carry a particular meaning which is only recognised by those of the same culture; Heroes : persons who possess characteristics highly prized in a culture, and who serve as models for behaviour; Rituals : collective activities which reflect and reinforce acceptable and expected behaviours. Six dimensions of organisational culture to give us insight on communicative practices: I. A workplace is more concerned with process ( process-oriented) or outcomes ( result-oriented ) II. An organisation focuses more on its staff ( employee oriented ) or on getting the job done ( job- oriented ) III. Different sources of members’ identity: parochial (units whose employees derive their identity largely from the organisation) vs professional (units in which people identify with their type of job) IV. Open system vs closed system , regarding the organisation’s communication habits V. Amount of control mechanisms and internal structures that are in place: loose vs tight control VI. Organisation’s orientation towards its customers: pragmatic (market-driven) vs normative (perceive their task toward the outside world as the implementation of inviolable rules). Actual organisational cultures are not as neat and tidy as the models seem to imply. Rather, organisational realities are typically more complex and dynamic than these models suggest. Moreover, the cultures of workplaces are not static but change over time. Although both models acknowledge the role of language to some extent, this doesn’t go far enough in terms of explaining some of the differences in communicative practices displayed by members of different workplaces.
- Community of practice (CofP) Leave and Wanger (1991) The culture of word is constantly being instantiated in on-going talk and action. Community practice is an aggregate of people who come together around mutual engagement in an endeavour. Ways of doing things, ways of talking, beliefs, values, power relations – in short practices – emerge in the course of this mutual endeavour. Three crucial elements for a group to be classified as a community of practice:
- Members interact with each other regularly;
- In these encounters they negotiate a joint enterprise;
- They develop a shared repertoire of discursive and behavioural norms (ex. linguistic routines, gestures, regular joint meals). The model can explain why people at work have developed distinctive ways of communicating with each other. Also, the concept has proven useful for capturing the notions of masculine/feminine workplaces and for understanding the communicative practices displayed by the members.
Quadrilingual email. Although multilingual communicative exchanges like this one may seem peculiar to an outsider, they constitute normal, appropriate and relatively unremarkable instances of communication for insiders who regularly and skilfully switch between languages when communicating with each other.
Culture and politeness at work
Multilingual workplace: asset or issue? Multicultural and multilingual aspects of a workplace may have an impact of the ways members communicate with each other, including questions about which languages are to be used in what function and what medium, and which language should be used as lingua franca between speakers with different native speakers. Context: Interview with an Anglophone expatriate leader (Susan) in a major international corporation in Hong Kong. At the time of the interview Susan had worked and lived in China for just over two years. What changed me I swore I’d never let this happen because when I arrived, I saw people, I saw managers and senior managers and partners doing things that I thought were really not appropriate and quite a dictatorial style and definitely power use, and powers came from, it was positional power. People are supposed to be using expert power. So I, you know, the use of relational power, I don’t think it’s effective. Intercultural exchange, but very little linguistic evidence that the participants are from different countries. Relatively close-knit group who may be classified as a community of practice. The frequent overlaps and use of humour reflect that members have developed shared ways of interacting with each other. Communicating with members from different countries is not an issue, but rather a normal part of the everyday realities in many workplaces around the world, particularly since globalisation and the worldwide mobilisation of the workforce have led to an increased number of multicultural and multilingual workplaces. This multinational composition of the workplace is often seen as an asset rather than an issue.
Culture
- manifested through different types of regularities, some of which are more explicit than others;
- associated with social groups, but no two individuals within a group share exactly the same cultural characteristics;
- affects people’s behaviour and interpretations of behaviour;
- is acquired and/or constructed through interaction with others.
- Cultural misunderstanding
- Non-verbal behaviour
- Different participation mechanisms
- Different values/perceptions/expectations Enacting culture Different factors impact on communicative practices in intercultural encounters: ethnicity, gender, age, personality, status and rank, as well as their organizational roles, the business context, or individual differences. At any point in an interaction, any of these variables may be more relevant than culture when accounting for differences or even miscommunication. Culture and politeness
- Appropriate and normative ways of interacting, ex. expectations about what constitutes appropriate ways of conducting particular speeches are often linked to issues of face and politeness;
- Notion of “face”. Face : people’s sense of worth, dignity and identity, associated with issues such as respect, honour, status, reputation and competence. The positive social value of a person effectively claims for himself by the line others assume he has taken during a particular contact. The processes of negotiating each other’s face needs and doing face-work are central aspects of any social encounter. Politeness theory aiming at maintaining smooth relationships All rational member of society, so-called Model Person (MP) have two types of faces:
- Positive face: Model Person’s desire that their own self-image is appreciated and approved by others.
- Negative face: MP’s wish not to be imposed and to maintain freedom of action. Instance of miscommunication ascribed to different cultural norms and assumptions. Clash between different culturally motivated norms regarding the structuring of information: the British interviewer prefers a direct and relevant answer and the Asian interviewee opts for an indirect and polite response, moving from general to more specific and relevant information.
In speech acts, face is threatened by face threatening acts (FTAs). In order to minimise the threat of FTAs, MPs may choose among a wide range of politeness strategies in an attempt to save their own as well as each other’s face. Expressions used to threaten the positive face
- Disapproval
- Contempt
- Criticism
- Complaints
- Accusations and insults
- Disapproval
- Speaker admits his/her own fault Expressions used to threaten the negative face
- Orders
- Requests
- Threats
- Warnings
- Expressions of thanks
- Apologies
- Acceptance of offers Strategies for performing FTAs: speakers have various options when it comes to performing FTAs → considered inappropriate in a variety of ways: considering the status difference between the student and himself, he would have expected a more formal and impersonal and perhaps even more carefully composed email. Moreover, the student’s request is considered unreasonable because all the information requested was available online, moreover sending out application and information material are tasks that fall under the responsibility of specific administrative staff. Three social factors with a crucial impact on the level of politeness employed in an interaction:
- Perceived solidarity or social distance between interlocutors (D);
- Perceived status or power difference between interlocutors (P);
- Cultural ranking on the imposition (R). Rapport management examines the way language is used to construct, maintain and/or threaten relationships. Concerned with any kind of behaviour that has an impact on rapport, whether positive, negative or neutral. The notion of face is still central to rapport management, but this framework entails more than the
