A Study Of Business Writing From A Functional Perspective

The present thesis is a study of Business English Writing, conducted within theconceptual framework of AppIied Linguistics. The thesis is composed of threechapters. Chapter One is a survey of related literature. in which the theories ofdiscourse analysis. the Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) and the notions ofRegister and Genre are exarnined and explored. Chapter Two is devoted to functionalanalyses of some authentic data of conflicting nature. which are selected to typify thetext tyPe reflecting social distance and power A descriptive study of thecharacteristics of these data. in terms of their lexico-grammatical features and genericstruct'Ures. is conducted by using the genre-register model. TWo procedures areadopted for analysist one based on deduction. beginning with the description oflinguistic realization of a certain text and fOllowed by a revelation of its institutionaland social contexts, while the other is based on prediction. starting from a ful1analysis of the social context and purposes of a business text and fOllowed byspecifications of its linguistic realization. Comparison between valued and non-valuedBusiness Writing is also made. Chapter Three examines the genre-register model in anESP setting, with an aim to understand the dynamic socio-functional nature ofbusiness texts and the rules governing the selection of linguistic resources. Anexperiment is also conducted to support the hypothesis that teaching learnersknowledge of genre and register would enable them to gain a holistic view of the text.thus assisting them in producing culturally aPpropriate and linguistically accuratebusiness texts. To illustrate the point. a genre-register oriented class is given as anexample demonstrating tecImiques to develop leamers' genre-register awareness andtheir conununicative competence in Business Writing classes.The thesis intends to set a genre-register norm in Business Writing, applicable to bothtext analysis and pedagogy. The ultimate aim is to provide adequate writing strategiesfor practitioners engaged in Business Writing research, and to provide teaching andleaming strategies for teachers and leamers in Business Writing classes.