Hasil untuk "Business communication. Including business report writing, business correspondence"

Nicoletta Vasta

The present paper aims to discuss the discursive strategies of otherization, legitimation, and normalization typically found in extracts from the author’s video corpus of US Presidents’ selected official statements at the height of actual or potential armed conflicts between the First Gulf War (1990-1991) and the end of the Obama Administration (2016). The underlying working assumption is that, to consolidate asymmetrical power relationships and monitor dissent and/or win domestic consent about the use of force, the US Administration systematically resorts to a relatively restricted inventory of political myths and cultural constructs sustained by strategic storytelling and powerful master narratives, or Intertextual Thematic Formations. The qualitative analysis, informed by a systemic functional, critical discourse approach, is undertaken at both the macro- and micro-levels, with a view to highlighting how master narratives project distinct/conflicting standpoints and socio-institutional roles and identities (e.g. the-President-as-Father-of-the-Nation; the-Community-as-Protector-of-its-Members'-Interests; the-West-as-Civilizer), while feeding the myth of a ‘super-empowered’ President and ultimately sustaining the ideological square. The final contention is that awareness-raising pedagogical models are needed which work upwards from the bottom of the hierarchical narrative structure, contextualizing the master narrative and linking it to the audience’s individual narratives, so that discourse can fulfil its critical function of dismantling potentially manipulative and/or normalizing discourse practices and foster civil society-led, personal counter-narratives that remove stereotyping and oversimplification.

Zuray Melgarejo, Diana Ciro, Katrin Simón Elorz

Business growth has been widely noted in the academic literature as a relevant variable that explains the level of employment and welfare. Recently, other studies consider the influence of High-Growth firms and Gazelles to explain the dynamics growth. The aim of this work is to approach business growth from a theoretical point of view, establishing is impact as a multidimensional variable. Some factors that explain the growth are look over to improve the impacts of them in the business growth such as size, age, region and economic cycle. Finally, this paper analyzes the studies of Colombian growth and their characteristics to explain their path and conditioning factors

Rodríguez Manay, Luis Oswaldo, Guaita, Inmaculada, Marqués, Inmaculada

Research has been presented on the application of activity-based cost (ABC) in the manufacturing and service industries in the agricultural sector, which examines recent advances in cost accounting methods with special reference to the application of cost based in methodological activities in the primary sector. Accordingly, this document proposes using a transparent, flexible, easy to apply and understand cost model; based on activities to calculate and manage production costs in companies.

Friedel Dubslaff

The simultaneous interpreter is a secondary text producer in the sense that s/he is not responsible for the contents of the text to be transferred to the target language. In this paper it is assumed 1) that this lack of autonomy results in the construction of a discourse model which differs from the speaker’s discourse model and 2) that this difference is reflected in different referential expressions used by the speaker and the interpreter respectively. Based on Mira Ariel’s Accessibility Theory, referential expressions are regarded as accessibility markers, by means of which the text producer signals to the hearer whether the mental representation of the referent in question has a high or low degree of accessibility in his/her memory. It is claimed that, whenever text production is difficult due to special conditions of the simultaneous mode, the interpreter tends to choose referential expressions which indicate that a particular referent has a lower state of activation in his/her discourse model as compared with the speaker’s. If a higher accessibility marker is used in such a case this can be explained as a misunderstanding, comprehension deficit or loss of information.

Maria Grazia Sindoni

This paper adopts a multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) approach to analyse how meanings are produced and circulated in British major corporate digital media outlets via the multimodal notion of transduction (Kress 1997; Mavers 2011; Newfi eld 2014). Transduction is a form of translation from one semiotic system to another one, for example from verbal language to images and vice versa. However, transductions cannot be interpreted as mere transferrals from one resource to another one, and are here interpreted as multiplying meanings (Lemke 2002). As a case study, this paper will select some online columns from the Telegraph and the Guardian, drawing from a monitor corpus that is under construction to date and that includes multimodal data from the British digital press reporting on the “European migrant crisis” in 2015. The columns selected for this study deal with how people on the move are and/or should be labelled (e.g. Migrants? Refugees? Asylum seekers? Potential terrorists? See Gabrielatos, Baker 2008; Baker et al. 2008). The columns will be commented qualitatively from a multimodal critical discourse framework of analysis, with the goal of shedding light on how pictorial materials (e.g. pictures and diagrams) can amplify, reduce or even contradict what is argued in the verbal text. In the conclusive remarks, some refl ections will be presented with a view to possible future lines of research.

Laurent Bobin, Isabelle Vidalenc

En 2012, en France, un travail de réflexion sur les compétences attendues à l’issue du Diplôme universitaire de technologie (DUT) Communication des Organisations a été mené. Il a abouti à la création d’un référentiel de compétences. La logique des compétences s’impose ainsi comme une passerelle entre l’université et le monde du travail. A l’université, nous préparons les étudiants au développement d’une capacité réflexive et à leur inscription dans la logique de l’apprentissage tout au long de la vie. Or l’explicitation des compétences est loin d’être une opération évidente. P. Vermersch propose une méthode d’entretien d’explicitation. Appliquée aux savoir-faire du référentiel, elle permettra de déterminer les savoirs théoriques utiles pour compléter le programme pédagogique. En conclusion, le travail d’élaboration d’un programme pédagogique est un chantier jamais fini, où savoirs et savoir-faire interagissent pour toujours plus de dialogue entre les communautés universitaires et professionnelles. L’entretien d’explicitation sera alors utile pour faire émerger des compétences. In 2012, in France, a study on the competences awaited at the end of the technical degree (DUT) Communication of Organizations was led. It ended in a competency framework. It appeared that the logic of the competences stands out as a bridge between the university and the world of work. At the university, we prepare the students to develop a reflexive capacity and to enter into logic of learning throughout life. Yet the explicitation of the competences is far from being an obvious operation. P. Vermersch proposes a method of interview of explicitation which will be applied to the know-how of the competency framework, in order to identify the necessary theoretical knowledge to complete the educational program of the DUT. In conclusion, the work of an educational program is a never-ending process where knowledge and know-how interact for an ever greater dialogue between university and professional communities. The interview of explicitation will be a powerful tool to make competences come out.

Dany Baillargeon

La créativité, autant comme acte processuel que comme résultat de ce processus, est un trope fondateur des agences de communication marketing (McFall, 2004, Nixon 2003). Certains avancent même que la créativité serait la raison d’être des agences (Nixon, 2003). Or pour certains, la créativité ne s’apprendrait pas – en témoigne le parcours académique éclectique des créatifs – ou ne s’apprendrait qu’au contact des pairs (Powell, 2006), à travers des dynamiques de production de sens (Drazin, Glynn & Kazanjian, 1999), des frictions entre les différents corps d’emploi (Hirschman, 1989) ou au contact des clients (Cronin, 2004). Cet article a un triple objectif : 1) d’abord proposer une définition opératoire pour mieux saisir cette culture créative ; 2) l’exemplifier à l’aide d’une étude de cas dans une petite agence de onze personnes 3) mettre en relation la notion de culture créative avec celle d’apprentissage et de transmission du savoir créatif. Il s’en dégage que la performativité de l’ethos créatif des employés comme celle de l’agence participent à maintenir cette culture créative autant qu’elle transmet des formes d’apprentissage de qui est et de ce qui est créatif à travers des dynamiques identitaires, l’éducation à faire auprès des clients et l’utilisation de structures de légitimation interne et externe à l’agence. Creativity, both as a procedural act as well as the result of such a process, is a founding trope of marketing communication agencies (McFall, 2004, Nixon 2003). Some even argue that creativity is the raison d’être of those agencies (Nixon, 2003). But for some, creativity cannot be learned – as shown by the eclectic academic background of creatives – or it could be learned only through being in contact with peers (Powell, 2006), with clients (Cronin, 2004), through the process of creating meaning (Drazin, Glynn & Kazanjian, 1999), or frictions between different job categories (Hirschman, 1989). The goal of this article is threefold: 1) to propose an operational definition of “creative culture” in order to better understand it; 2) to exemplify it using a case study of a small agency 3) to articulate a relationship between the three related concepts: culture, creative learning and transmission of creative knowledge.  The study demonstrates how the performativity of the creative ethos of both employees and agency   interact to maintain this creative culture while indicating who and what is creative, through dynamics of identity, educating clients and the use of internal and external structures of legitimation.

Isabel Durán-Muñoz, María Rosario Bautista-Zambrana

This paper aims at discussing the main advantages that ontologies bring to the field of terminology and its users, focusing on different aspects and needs. Throughout the paper ontologies are acknowledged as a valuable resource to improve quality of terminological projects as well as the content of terminologies, but it also seems appropriate to define the concept of ontologies more precisely and to outline their benefits and limitations. To do so, we firstly discuss the multidisciplinarity of ontologies and the main recent uses within different disciplines. Secondly, we focus on terminology studies and theories and depict the evolution of this resource in the terminology field during the last decades, which has brought about the appearance of new methodologies and applications. Next, we put forward the advantages that ontologies bring to terminology in general and to several linguistic phenomena in particular (multidimensionality, for example) so as to shed some light on their importance in this field and, finally, we conclude with the discussion of significant drawbacks encountered, along with some final remarks about the use of ontologies in terminology work.

Antoinette Mary Fage-Butler, Matilde Nisbeth Jensen

The internet has revolutionised the ways in which patients acquire medical information, a development which has clearly been welcomed by patients: seeking out health information online is now the third most popular activity after internet searches and e-mail (Timimi 2012). However, it has led to concerns about the quality of the information, the ability of lay people to understand it (Gerber/Eiser 2001) as well as potential cyberchondria (Starcevic/Berle 2013). In light of these conflicting perspectives, this paper examines one such source of online information, namely, the patient forum where patients communicate with other patients about a particular medical condition. Although doctor-patient communication in the clinical situation has been extensively researched, little is known about how patient-patient communication is managed in online situations such as patient forums. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to research in that relatively un-researched area by examining how patients manage relational and informational aspects of communication in online patient forums. Whilst a typical interactional structure of the patient forum exchange is question and answer, we focus on responses to questions on patient forums. This paper reports on the findings of a thematic analysis (Braun/Clarke 2006) of an online thyroid disease patient forum, investigating how interpersonal aspects are negotiated where patients share condition-related knowledge. We identify themes that relate both to informational and relational aspects as well as themes that fit under a new category which we call ‘info-relational’ as it subsumes informational and relational elements. We discuss a number of theoretical implications, which are valuable as existing health communication models and understandings of patient expertise have yet to catch up with the effects of new media such as online patient forums.

Richard J. Alexander

Martin Nielsen

Sven Tarp

This article argues that the essence of lexicography is its capacity to satisfy the potential users’ punctual information needs in contrast to their global information needs. Simultaneously it shows that lexicographic theory, which so far has studied only two basic types of social situations where information needs may occur, the communicative and cognitive ones, should also study a third type of basic situations, which are referred to as operational user situations. On this basis, the article projects lexicography beyond the limits of known dictionaries considered as products of applied linguistics and discusses the relation that should be established between lexicography and other branches of human knowledge. It argues that lexicography, focusing on its core specialities, has a lot to contribute to these branches of knowledge. In this respect, it discusses not only traditional dictionaries but also the benefit that authors of handbooks, manuals, how-to’s, user guides, textbooks and other types of texts may have from a renewed lexicographic theory that focuses on quick and easy access to data from which the potential users and readers may retrieve the information needed in specific situations. Finally, it argues that a number of university study programs may benefit from short courses on the core specialities of lexicography.

Henning Bergenholtz, Wolfgang Koch

- Redaktionen

Inger Askehave, Marianne Grove Ditlevsen

The aim of this review article is to evaluate and discuss the above collection of syste-mic functional articles – translated into Norwegian and edited by Berge, Coppock and Maagerø. Furthermore, the article introduces the core concepts of SFL and provides an overview of the use of SFL in a Danish context.

- Redaktionen

Jan Engberg

No abstract.

Lone Ambjørn

The main point of this article is to demonstrate that the existence of the computer-medium within L21 learning and acquisition is justified by its potential of differentiation. In order to make the optimum use of this potential, it is necessary to design syllabi based on L2 research and theories of language learning acquisition. Taking as a starting point the learner’s interlanguage development, I am introducing a model of L2 learning and acquisition, a model based on input as well as on output. The strong point in having this model is that you can use it for computer-assisted language learning, and in this way you can contribute to the implementation of differentiated syllabi that take into account the psycholinguistic processes that characterize interlanguage development.

Orla Vigsø

Martin Nielsen