Written professional discourse
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PART 1
Plan for today’s session
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 Dig deeper into ‘what is professional discourse?’
 Provide some examples of written professional
genres
 Start developing tools for identifying genres of
professional discourse
Professional discourse
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 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)?
Example 1
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 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
Conceptualising professional discourse
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 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?
Example 2
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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 midSeptember 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
Spoken versus written genres
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 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
Identifying genres
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 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?
Distinguishing spoken and written genres
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 Examples of written genres?
 Examples of spoken genres?
 What about email? Internet sites?
→ multimodality
Multimodality
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 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
Interaction of genres
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 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)
Interaction of genres at work
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Summary
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 Conceptualising and describing professional
discourse:
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Backstage vs. frontstage
Relational vs. transactional
 Blurry boundary between spoken/written genres
 Multimodal analysis considering text, visual, nonverbal and
acoustic elements etc
Some suggestions for further reading
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 Gunnarsson, Britt-Louise (2009). Professional Discourse. London:
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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.