6-1 Copyright  2007 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs t/a Communication Skills for International Students in Business, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia Chapter 6 Writing genres ‘How we are expected to write affects what we can write about.’

6-2 Copyright  2007 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs t/a Communication Skills for International Students in Business, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia Learning objectives On completion of this chapter students will know how to:  identify key features of academic and business texts  recognise the difference between formal and informal register  use language appropriate to business settings, taking into account issues of power.

6-3 Copyright  2007 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs t/a Communication Skills for International Students in Business, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia What does ‘genre’ mean?  ‘Genre’ means style, kind or type.  Usually, ‘genre’ refers to a type of art or literature.  It can also refer to ways of speaking, types of movies or plays, or any written document.  In this context, ‘genre’ refers to the various types of texts that students need to learn and master.

6-4 Copyright  2007 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs t/a Communication Skills for International Students in Business, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia Academic genres  The most common genre (type of text for assessment) at Australian universities is the essay.  In business there are other genres which are just as important: – reports – business letters – communication.

6-5 Copyright  2007 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs t/a Communication Skills for International Students in Business, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia Context and genre  Factors that impact on genre: – context – situation – audience – purpose of the text.  Consider each factor in relation to the essay genre.  Now think about the business context. How is it different to the academic context?

6-6 Copyright  2007 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs t/a Communication Skills for International Students in Business, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia Business context  Business reports written in workplace: – audience = supervisor or ‘superior’ – usually someone with power – much at stake for the organisation  All documents have ‘regular, predictable patterns of organisation’ (Swales & Feak 1994, p. 10).

6-7 Copyright  2007 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs t/a Communication Skills for International Students in Business, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia Activity 1  See activity 1 on pp 134–142 of your textbook.  Work in pairs.  Divide your page into five columns with the headings ‘personal ’, ‘business ’, ‘business letter’, ‘essay’ and ‘report’.  Examine each text and identify the different features. List the features of each text, using the suggestions in the annotations and at the bottom of the activity.

6-8 Copyright  2007 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs t/a Communication Skills for International Students in Business, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia Applying knowledge of genres  In your business studies you will need to write in different genres, depending on the course, assessment and preference of your lecturers.  Sometimes the genres will be ‘mixed’.  Always be very clear about which genre is expected before submitting work for assessment.

6-9 Copyright  2007 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs t/a Communication Skills for International Students in Business, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia ‘The vocabulary shift’  Need to move from informal to formal writing (academic and business contexts)  Choice between verb + preposition or a single verb (single verb is more formal).  Example: – The manager looked at the way tension builds up during performance review meetings. (less formal style) – The manager investigated the way tension develops during performance review meetings. (more formal style)

6-10 Copyright  2007 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs t/a Communication Skills for International Students in Business, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia Activities 2 and 3  Complete activities 2 and 3 on pp 143–144 of your textbook.

6-11 Copyright  2007 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs t/a Communication Skills for International Students in Business, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia More advice on formality  Avoid contractions (e.g. won’t = will not).  Use the more appropriate formal negative forms. Example – Do not write: The analysis didn’t yield any new results. – Write: The analysis yielded no new results.  Avoid run-on expressions such as ‘and so forth’ and ‘etc’.  Avoid using the first person ‘I’ and do not address the reader as ‘you’. Focus on the information rather than the writer or reader.

6-12 Copyright  2007 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs t/a Communication Skills for International Students in Business, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia More advice on formality (cont.)  Avoid asking rhetorical questions such as ‘What can be done?’ – Use statements instead, such as ‘X needs to be considered’.  Do not place adverbs at the beginning or end of the sentence. Examples – Do not write: Then the solution can be discarded. – Write: The solution can then be discarded. – Do not write: The profits have increased slowly. – Write: The profits have slowly increased.

6-13 Copyright  2007 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs t/a Communication Skills for International Students in Business, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia Summary  Different genres (texts) have distinct requirements in terms of structure, development, formality and acknowledgment of sources.  By learning and using the particular features of texts, writers can produce easy-to-read documents.  The context, particularly the power relations between the writer and receiver, affect the formality of the document.