A Correlation Study On Rhetorical Structure And Persuasive Force Of English Business Sample Letters In Domestic And Foreign Business English Writing Coursebooks

Business English writing ability can influence or even determine the process of international business activities, while the compilation of business English coursebooks relates directly to the cultivation of compound business English talents. One of the most important functions of business discourse is to persuade others to achieve identification; on the other hand, persuasion is also a main function of rhetoric. At present, there is still a lack of research comparing business English writing coursebooks at home and abroad from the angles of rhetoric and persuasion. To ensure the compiling quality of domestic business English writing materials in the future, the study on the relationship between rhetorical structures and persuasive force of sample letters drawn from business English writing materials at home and abroad should attract more attention from the academic circle.According to the classification of English business letters, 60 sample letters(domestic and foreign 30 each) are randomly chosen as research object. By analyzing the rhetorical structures of these sample letters on the basis of Rhetorical Structure Theory proposed by William C. Mann and Sandra A. Thompson, comparison analyses are conducted to find the rhetorical structural features in these samples. Meanwhile,based on the persuasive scores given by 30 professional raters, a series of statistical analyses are carried out to compare the persuasive force of domestic and foreign sample letters. Then by correlation analyses, this paper attempts to find out the concrete relations which significantly affect the persuasive force of English business letters.The study has found that differences of rhetorical relation applications do exist between domestic and foreign sample letters. From no matter the whole perspective or each type, the kinds of adopted relations are roughly the same, but the frequencies and ranks are inconsistent. In view of the persuasive force, the scores of foreign sample letters are always significantly higher than those of domestic samples. Therefore, it is believed that foreign sample letters persuade more effectively than domestic ones. On this basis, this paper analyzes the relationship between the adopted rhetorical relations and the scores of persuasive force, finding out the concrete relations which have significant positive relationship with the persuasive force of English business letters of each type. Combining with the data comparison, it is found that in foreign samples,the usage frequencies of the rhetorical relations which are significantly correlated tothe persuasive force are significantly higher than those in domestic samples(with a few exceptions). Thus it can be concluded that the reason why foreign business sample letters are more persuasive than the domestic samples lies in the more application of these rhetorical relations.This study not only widens the application domain of RST and the research perspective of coursebook contrastive studies, but also provides some empirical suggestions for the compilation of domestic business English writing coursebooks.When compiling business English writing coursebooks, the writers should provide sample letters involving more rhetorical relations which are significantly effective on the persuasive force, to help students obtain a better persuasive effect in their future writings of English business letters.