Conclusion and References

What I initially thought would be a tedious assignment has in fact succeeded in allowing me to gather not only my knowledge, but also my own opinions about the topics we’ve covered. I have discovered new subjects, such as corpora, and found more examples of the other three subjects, which I believe will now have a direct impact on my future writing and presentations. Furthermore, I feel as though creating a blog has broadened my writing skills and also introduced me to another source of information I hadn’t investigated before, so overall it has been a beneficial assignment!

References

ASTON UNIVERSITY. (2009). ACORN Aston Corpus Network [online]. Available from: http://acorn.aston.ac.uk/index.html, [accessed 4th February 2009]

BARKER, A. (1993). Letters at work. London: The Industrial Society

LETTERWRITINGGUIDE. (2009). Sample Complaint Letter [online]. Available from: http://www.letterwritingguide.com/samplecomplaint.htm, [accessed 25th January 2009]

MEYER, C. (2002). English Corpus Linguistics: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

MORTON, G. (1996). Effective Business Writing. Florida: Harcourt Brace College Publishers

PHILLIPS, L. and JORGENSEN, M. (2002). Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method. London: SAGE Publications

RFP TEMPLATES. (2009). Flesch Reading Ease Readability Score [online]. Available from: http://rfptemplates.technologyevaluation.com/Readability-Scores/Flesch-Reading-Ease-Readability-Score.html, [accessed 12th January 2009]

STEPHENS, C. (2000). All About Readability [online]. Available from: http://plainlanguage.com/newreadability.html, [accessed 30th October 2008]

STILLAR, G. (1998). Analyzing Everday Texts: Discourse, Rhetoric and Social Perspectives. London: SAGE Publications

SWALES, J. (1990). Genre Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

THORNBURY, S. (2005). Beyond the Sentence, Introducing discourse analysis. Oxford: Macmillan Education

WOOFFITT, R. (2005). Conversation Analysis and Discourse Analysis. London: SAGE Publications

4. Corpus

So what is corpus? If I am perfectly honest I had no idea to start with! After a bit of googling trying to decipher the meaning I discovered that my own University has its own corpus (ACORN – Aston Corpus Network, available from: http://corpus.aston.ac.uk/) and thus shall use their definition:

“Corpus [kaw-puhs] noun; plural form: corpora [kaw-per-uh]
A corpus is a large collection of language texts, which we can analyse using software tools.”
(Aston University, 2009)

So now we know broadly what corpus is, but what is the point of it and how are we supposed to use it?

The purpose of corpus is to use a collection of texts for some type of analysis (Meyer, 2002); of course different corpora can have different purposes. The purpose of ACORN (Aston’s corpus) is to rectify the inaccuracies in language that their corpus analysis has identified, meaning there is a disparity in how we use language in comparison to how we should use language and furthermore how we learn different languages. I believe that we do not study language rules enough at school, for example how many times have you seen the wrong use of ‘they are/ their’ in published material? This is one area ACORN can help; you can search in the corpus for a word that you unsure how to use and it will give example from the texts that you can relate to. I have always had a problem with when to use ‘affect’ and ‘effect’, therefore I will search for both words in ACORN to find out which should be placed in the following sentences:

A. The potential x of a change in job must be considered.
B. The water does not x my camera.
C. Climate change has had a significant x on the weather.

Procedure:

1. Log into ACORN

2. Select language - English

3. Select Corpus – Academic texts

4. Choose word frequencies, phrase frequencies or concordance – Concordance
5. Type in ‘potential’ (to search for example A), sort results by ‘word after keyword’ and find examples of the use of ‘affect’ or ‘effect’:

Therefore example A is: “The potential effect of a change in job must be considered”

4. Type in ‘does not’ (to search for example B), sort results by ‘word before key word’ and find examples of the use of ‘affect’ or ‘effect’:

Therefore example B is: “The water does not affect my camera”

5. Type in ‘significant’ (to search for example C), sort results by ‘word before key word’ and find examples of the use of ‘affect’ or ‘effect’:

Therefore example C is: “Climate change has had a significant effect on the weather”

The examples above show just one use for ACORN (you can also search for the most commonly used words or phrases) but other corpus linguistic tools can help you check the lexical, syntactic or discourse of your text too. Although I have enjoyed learning about this topic I am still not sure I would have the time to check all my work like this, I’m afraid the corpus-like spellchecker on my computer will have to suffice for now!

3. Business writing

Business writing is text for a business purpose, for example we all receive bills, pesky junk mail or reports on a company’s performance (e.g. shareholder reports). However, we can see the manner in which the ever-increasing technological advances are having a direct impact on business writing, I mean even my bank statements are online now! So how does this affect our own business writing? Well in the last six months I had to write two letters of complaint, one was more of an annoyed comment regarding a service and, therefore, I simply used the online feedback communication tool to contact the company. I noted that in this email I was far more informal than I would usually expect to be in a complaint and it made me wonder why this happened. Maybe it’s because I predominantly see the internet as a social network tool and, therefore, have lost the formality in my online communication. Certainly, my second complaint was regarding a more serious issue and, therefore, I purposefully chose to send a business letter, because I thought this would automatically enforce a more serious approach to the matter. Furthermore, I felt the issue would be dealt with more formally by the company, as most companies have a system in place that records letters of complaint and ensures they are fully dealt with.

When writing a business letter there are certainly formalities that one must adhere to. Although I think these layouts make it much easier for us to write our own letters, it can, however, make you look incompetent if you get it wrong, which will therefore lower the credibility of your letter!

Different types of business writing require different layouts; I shall therefore focus on a letter of complaint, as this is something most of us will have to write at some point in our lives!

I will look at an example of a letter of complaint and identify the formalities required:

Source: LETTERWRITINGGUIDE. (2009). Sample Complaint Letter [online]. Available from: http://www.letterwritingguide.com/samplecomplaint.htm, [accessed 25th January 2009]

We shall analyse this letter in four areas; the layout, logic, grammar and rhetoric:

As the mode of this text requires a letter format the layout adheres to Barker’s (1993) format:

· Addresses
· Salutation
· Heading
· Introduction
· Body
· Action Point
· Concluding Remarks
· Complimentary close and signature

However, due to the field of the letter, to complain about faulty goods, the customer has also adhered to Morton’s (1996) five areas of content for a letter of complaint:
1. Initially explain the problem (Included in the introduction – line 13)
2. Give specifics (Main body – line 14)
3. Explanation for dissatisfaction (Main body -15)
4. Identify the preferred solution (Action point - 18)
5. Provide a polite closing (Concluding remarks - 23)

I believe that a header, following the polite salutation (line 11), would help to clarify the subject matter so that it could then be dealt with efficiently by the company in question. The tenor of the letter, considering that it is from the customer to the company, succeeds in addressing the issue in a formal and explanatory manner, displaying the importance of the subject. The use of personal pronoun emphasises the cause-and-effect relationship that the company should adhere to, however, the customer successfully keeps the tone objective, and therefore, avoids what could be seen as a ‘whiney’ tone.

I think this is a successful example of a letter of complaint and we should take note of the necessary layout and tone required. I fear that this electronic age will see us lose the formality that such issues need to be addressed by, as people strive for a speedy reply as opposed to receiving the best service. It will be interesting to see how business writing adapts as we move away from the previous ‘snail-mail’ approach that our generation is rejecting, I suppose only time will tell.

2. Conversation analysis

Conversation is the most common way that we communicate with each other and, similar to written text, it can also be manipulated. I like to think I have control over most of the language and tone that I adopt during different conversations; however, I must concur with Wooffitt’s (2005) research that logically certain situations have strong social norms that we must adhere to. Particular circumstances require unequal turn-taking and power roles to be adopted for the correct amount of respect to be shown; therefore, how much control do we really have over how and what we say?

Let’s look at two possible questions that would require me to answer in different manners:

1. A Police Officer:
“Good evening Miss, do you have your driving licence there please? Do you know the speed limit of this road and how fast you were just travelling?”

2. A Friend:
“Hi sweetie, how you doing? Training’s been cancelled so do you wanna come over to mine later?”

As we can see these two situations are set in very different contexts and therefore the resulting conversation will differ in regards to turn-taking, power roles and tones adopted, for example. It is apparent that I certainly wouldn’t answer these two questions in the same manner!

Initially we can analyse the situation of the conversations, in a similar manner as we analysed the register of text in the previous blog, in order to assess the appropriate reply. Extract 1 automatically assigns unequal power roles as the question is posed by a police officer, who has legitimate power over the public. Stillar (1998) showed that such a superior role by one party would result in uneven turn-taking, as the superior speaker would guide the conversation and speak for longer than the inferior party. Therefore, in the first example I would expect to only speak when a question was asked of me, and to supply the relevant information when needed. This situation seems more reminiscent of the Victorian days, when an ethos of “don’t speak until you’re spoken too” was considered the norm, however, it is appropriate to use such an approach when you find yourself in an inferior position in a conversation, in order to show respect. In Extract 1 the police officer has also reinforced the formal tone required from my reply by addressing me with a formal title, “Miss”.

The second situation could not be any more different! This proposal by a friend begins with an informal term of endearment, reinforcing the equal power roles between two friends. It is apparent that an informal tone is acceptable in my reply, as the friend has already adopted a colloquial tone and has used slang words that our generation are renowned for. In the previous extract I would expect to have to adapt the length of my reply to the open or closed questions posed by the officer (i.e. longer answers for open questions, and short answers for closed questions), whereas in the second extract more leeway applies to the length of speech and topics discussed.

So what happens if we get the wrong conversational style in a certain situation? For example, if I had replied to the officer using slang and a disrespectful tone? Well, I’d expect to be treated discourteously and reminded of my inferior position to regain the social norms of the situation ... regardless, I certainly wouldn’t try to purposefully test these norms with a police officer! And in the second situation, what if I replied formally to my friend? Well in some instances I would probably be laughed at or asked why I was talking differently. However, sometimes a change in my discourse style might actually result in my friend changing their style too, as investigated by Phillips and Jorgenson (2002). It is interesting to discover you can influence other people’s discourse style by adjusting your own style; however, I would certainly be careful of when I tried this theory in reality, as sometimes the social norms are just too strong to play with!

1. Register Analysis & Readability Statistics

A good place to start in management styles is the register analysis of text, this is essentially discovering the ‘what, how and to whom’ of text. Register analysis is the combination of the field (subject matter), the mode (method of communication) and the tenor (style of writing) (Thornbury, 2005). However, you have to be careful not to confuse this with genre analysis, as many authors seem to use these terms interchangeably! Genre is the repeated use of certain registers; this means that all related texts (such as a specific newspaper) will have identical registers (Swales, 1990).

I find it relatively easy to assign the register of a text; however, I think the more important aspect of register is actually the areas within the text that are influenced by the three previous choices. For example, the mode of a newspaper ensures smaller sentences are used due to the column widths, whilst the colloquial tenor required in a teenage magazine results in the use of slang!

When asked to analyse a text the tools above can be supplemented by the use of readability statistics, which are computerised evaluations of text to establish how easy, or difficult, the text is to read (Stephens, 2000).

N.B. You can retrieve the readability statistics for a text in Microsoft Word by opening the ‘Tools’ menu and under ‘Options’ selecting ‘Spelling and Grammar’ and checking the ‘Show readability statistics’ box.
Alternatively you can do this online using the following link: http://www.addedbytes.com/readability/

In Microsoft Word the following information will be retrieved after completing a spelling test:

The statistic that is used most often is supposedly the Flesch Reading Ease (Stephens, 2000), as it easily shows the category that a text fits into (shown below with the calculations):

Source: RFP Templates. (2009). Flesch Reading Ease Readability Score [online]. Available from: http://rfptemplates.technologyevaluation.com/Readability-Scores/Flesch-Reading-Ease-Readability-Score.html, (accessed 12th January 2009)

Although these readability statistics help to gather an initial idea of the complexity of a text I would not use these alone to analyse a text. A computer cannot take into account the complexity of a subject or the language used; therefore, I would use them to supplement my own reference analysis.

Example

I will now compare two different texts that I have recently written:


Text 1 – a cover letter for a job application

“ Dear Sir/Madam

Re: Application for Graduate Management Programme

I recently visited the (company x) stand at the NEC (Birmingham), after talking to your staff members and investigating the company I would like to apply for the Graduate Management Programme.

As a final year student, who will graduate in International Business and Management in July 2009, I aspire to enter a challenging career where I will have real responsibility and progression in the job, both of which would be attainable by joining (company x). I believe that I can offer the enthusiasm, organisational skills and dedication that this role requires. The opportunity to work directly with customers initially attracted me to this position, as I have key experience in this field from completing an industrial placement last year. "



Text 2 – an email to friends

“ Hi girlies!
How is everyone? Just to let u know im back home on 20th – starting to get all excited bout hols know yeay! Hope we’re gonna sort something soon miss you all – wot bout this sat? We can go out for dinner or just round one of our houses, depends what everyone thinks. Let me know, looking foward to seeing you soon! Xx "

Comparison

The table above shows that, as expected, the informal document (Text 2) is rated as more readable (i.e. less complex) than the formal covering letter (Text 1). The register of each piece directly affected my use (or not) of grammar and the type of language employed, which had a subsequent effect on the readability. However, I would ask you to consider would the email have been as easy to understand for a pensioner, considering the slang and ‘text-talk’ used by the younger generation? Or would a teenager find it easier to read the covering letter, in light of the more formal subject and complex language that has been adopted? I think you have to say no in both cases and therefore, although these analysis tools can be a good way to compare texts, I still believe that readability certainly depends on the reader context as well. So when writing a text it is vital that you consider your target audience and, if appropriate, adapt the register as necessary.

Online project- Introduction

I will be writing a blog for our ‘Management Styles in Writing’ assignment. I find this subject interesting, as language and its tools affect us every day. Similar to Wooffitt (2005), I believe that language is constantly being used to influence people. Therefore, by studying this subject I believe I will become more aware of this persuasion and, therefore, take a more independent stance against its influence … or even more importantly it will thus allow me to enhance my own persuasive skills when needed!

I will investigate four areas:

1. Register Analysis & Readability Statistics
2. Conversation analysis
3. Business writing
4. Corpus

Each blog will include an overview of the topic, an example and my opinion on it. It will conclude with a final blog, which will also include all the references.