Written communicative expertise
The production of public information documents
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jalpp.19105Keywords:
communication skills, professional writing, public information document, regulatory organisational writing processes, written communicative expertiseAbstract
Good communication skills are seen as a requirement for many professions and form part of a professional’s expertise. Focusing on writing skills, this paper draws on research into the production and reception of public information documents (PIDs) in Australia. To triangulate data from three sources, a multi-perspective framework was adopted. First, the document writers in the organisations were interviewed, and second, the PIDs’ reception was explored through readability testing with members of the public. The third perspective involved analysing the semiotic resource, the published PIDs themselves. Research data revealed that organisational authors adopted specific writing processes and understood that their documents targeted a diverse audience. However, although the content of the documents was accurate, most reader-participants did not find them easy to understand. Building on these preliminary findings, this paper investigates the context and processes of professional writing in the workplace and related connections to the concept of written communicative expertise. I link my findings to issues encountered in my work as a communication consultant. These links highlight the importance of fostering connections between linguists, content area experts and managers in organisations to improve our understanding and training in the skillsets that lead to written communicative expertise.
References
Asprey, Michele M. (2010) Plain Language for Lawyers (4th edition). Sydney: Federation Press.
Bazerman, Charles (2004) Speech acts, genres, and activity systems: How texts organize activity and people. In Charles Bazerman and Paul Prior (eds) What Writing Does and How It Does it: An Introduction to Analyzing Texts and Textual Practices, 309–339. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bhatia, Vijay K. (1983) Simplification v. easification—The case of legal texts. Applied Linguistics 4 (1): 42–54. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/4.1.42
Bhatia, Vijay K. (2004) Worlds of Written Discourse: A Genre-Based View. London: Continuum.
Bhatia, Vijay K. (2008) Genre analysis, ESP and professional practice. English for Specific Purposes 27 (2): 161–174. https://doi:10.1016/j.esp.2007.07.005
Bhatia, Vijay K. (2010) Interdiscursivity in professional communication. Discourse & Communication 21 (1): 32–50. https://doi:10.1177/1750481309351208
Bhatia, Vijay K. (2012) Critical reflections on genre analysis. Ibérica 24: 17–28.
Black, Alison, Annette Gibb, Clare Carey, Sarah Barker, Claire Leake and Luke Solomons (2013) Designing a questionnaire to gather carer input to pain assessment for hospitalized people with dementia. Visible Language 47 (2): 37–60.
Bremner, Stephen (2014) Collaborative writing: Challenges for research and teaching. In Vijay K. Bhatia and Stephen Bremner (eds) Routledge Handbook of Language and Professional Communication, 514–528. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315851686-18
Burns, Anne and Mira Kim (2011) Community accessibility of health information and the consequent impact for translation into community languages. Translation & Interpreting 3 (1): 58–75.
Canale, Michael (1983) From communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy. In Jack C. Richards and Richard W. Schmidt (eds) Language and Communication, 2–27. London: Longman.
Canale, Michael and Merrill Swain (1980) Theoretical bases of communicative competence approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics 1 (1): 1–47. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/1.1.1
Candlin, Christopher N. (2006) Accounting for interdiscursivity: Challenges to professional expertise. In Maurizio Gotti and Davides S. Giannoni (eds) New Trends in Specialized Discourse Analysis, 21–45. Bern: Peter Lang.
Candlin, Christopher N. and Sally Candlin (2002) Editorial: Discourse, expertise, and the management of risk in health care settings. Research on Language & Social Interaction 35 (2): 115–137. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327973RLSI3502_1
Candlin, Christopher N. and Jonathon Crichton (2011) Introduction. In Christopher N. Candlin and Jonathon Crichton (eds) Discourses of Deficit, 1–22. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230299023_1
Candlin, Christopher N. and Yon Maley (1997) Intertextuality and interdiscursivity in the discourse of alternative dispute resolution. In Britt-Louise Gunnarsson, Per Linell and Bengt Nordberg (eds) The Construction of Professional Discourse, 201–222. London: Longman.
Carliner, Saul (2014) Credentialing of communication professionals. In Vijay Bhatia and Stephen Bremner (eds) Routledge Handbook of Language and Professional Communication, 521–532. London: Routledge.
Cheek, Annette L. (2011) The Plain Writing Act of 2010: Getting democracy to work for you. Michigan Bar Journal 90 (10): 52–53.
Cheng, Winnie (2009) Professional communicative competencies: Four key industries in Hong Kong. In Winnie Cheng and Kenneth C. C. Kong (eds) Professional Communication: Collaboration between Academics and Practitioners, 31–50. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. https://doi.org/10.5790/hongkong/9789622099654.003.0003
Cheng, Winnie and Esmond Mok (2008) Discourse processes and products: Land surveyors in Hong Kong. English for Specific Purposes 27: 57–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2007.08.002
Crichton, Jonathan (2010) The Discourse of Commercialisation. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Crichton, Jonathan (2018) Framing a ‘community of consumption’: Field theory, multi-perspectival discourse analysis and the commercialization of teaching. In James Albright, Deborah Hartman and Jacqueline Widin (eds) Bourdieu’s Field Theory and the Social Sciences, 117–131. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5385-6_8
Deloitte Access Economics (2017) Soft Skills for Business Success: Building Australia’s Future Workforce. Sydney: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Online: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/au/Documents/Economics/deloitte-au-economics-deakin-soft-skills-business-success-170517.pdf
Ditlevsen, Marianne G. and Peter Kastberg (2017) When corporate communication goes public: Communication policies in public communication. HERMES – Journal of Language and Communication in Business 20 (38): 11–40. https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.v20i38.25903
Fairclough, Norman L. (1992a) Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Fairclough, Norman L. (1992b) Intertextuality in critical discourse analysis. Linguistics and Education 4 (3): 269–293. https://doi.org/10.1016/0898-5898(92)90004-G
Fairclough, Norman L. (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. London: Longman.
Foucault, Michel (1991) Governmentality. In Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon and Peter Miller (eds) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, 87–104. Trans. P. Pasquino. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Geertz, Clifford (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
Gotti, Maurizio (2018) Collaboration between applied linguists and professional experts: An interdisciplinary perspective. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice 13 (1–3): 78–96. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.31841
Halliday, Michael A. K. (1985) Part A. In Michael A. K. Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan (authors) Language, Context and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective. Geelong, Australia: Deakin University Press.
Hurrell, Scott A. (2016) Rethinking the soft skills deficit blame game: Employers, skills withdrawal and the reporting of soft skills gaps. Human Relations 69 (3): 605–628. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726715591636
Hyland, Ken (2002) Specificity revisited: How far should we go now? English for Specific Purposes 21 (4): 385–395. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0889-4906(01)00028-X
Hymes, Dell H. (1966) Two types of linguistic relativity. In William Bright (ed.) Socio-linguistics, 114–158. The Hague: Mouton.
Hymes, Dell H. (1972) On communicative competence. In John B. Pride and Janet Holmes (eds) Sociolinguistics: Selected Readings, 269–293. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.
Jones, Alan (2014) Communicative dimensions of professional accounting work. In Vijay K. Bhatia and Stephen Bremner (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Language and Professional Communication, 321–348. London: Routledge.
Law Reform Commission of Victoria (1990) Plain English and the Law, Volume 2: Appendix 1. Guidelines for Drafting in Plain English. Melbourne: Victorian Government.
Linell, Per (1998) Discourse across boundaries: On recontextualizations and the blending of voices in professional discourse. Text 18 (2): 143–157. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.1.1998.18.2.143
Lung, Jane (2017) Interdiscursivity in public relations communication: Appropriation of genre and genre resources. HERMES – Journal of Language and Communication in Business 27 (54): 21–33. https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.v27i54.22945
Martin, Jim R. (1984) Language, register and genre. In Frances Christie (ed.) Children Writing: Reader, 21–30. Geelong, Australia: Deakin University Press.
Martin, Nigel, Shirley Gregor and John Rice (2008) User centred information design practices and processes at the Australian Taxation Office. Information Design Journal 16 (1): 53–67. https://doi:10.1075/idj.16.1.08mar
Mintzberg, Henry (1987) The strategy concept 1: Five Ps for strategy. California Management Review 30 (1): 11–24. https://doi.org/10.2307/41165263
Moore, Tim and Janne Morton (2017) The myth of job readiness? Written communication, employability, and the ‘skills gap’ in higher education. Studies in Higher Education 42 (3): 591–609. https://doi:10.1080/03075079.2015.1067602
Petelin, Roslyn M. (2010) Considering plain language: Issues and initiatives. Corporate Communications: An International Journal 15 (2): 205–216. https://doi:10.1108/13563281011037964
PLAIN [Plain Language Action and Information Network] (2011) Federal Plain Language Guidelines. Online: http://www.plainlanguage.gov/howto/guidelines/FederalPLGuidelines/FederalPLGuidelines.pdf
Plimmer, Geoff, Jane Bryson and Stephen T. T. Teo (2017) Opening the black box: The mediating roles of organisational systems and ambidexterity in the HRM-performance link in public sector organisations. Personnel Review 46 (7): 1434–1451. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-10-2016-0275
Sarangi, Srikant (2006) The conditions and consequences of professional discourse studies. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice 2 (3): 371–394. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v2.i3.371
Sarangi, Srikant (2018) Communicative expertise: The mutation of expertise and expert systems in contemporary professional practice. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice 13 (1–3): 371–392. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.37507
Sarangi, Srikant and Christopher N. Candlin (2001) ‘Motivational relevancies’: Some methodological reflections on social theoretical and sociolinguistic practice. In Nikolas Coupland, Srikant Sarangi and Christopher N. Candlin (eds) Sociolinguistics and Social Theory, 350–387. Harlow, UK: Longman.
Sarangi, Srikant and Christopher N. Candlin (2011) Professional and organisational practice: A discourse/communication perspective. In Christopher N. Candlin and Srikant Sarangi (eds) Handbook of Professional and Organisational Communication, 3–58. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110214222.3
Sarangi, Srikant and Celia Roberts (1999) The dynamics of interactional and institutional orders in work-related settings. In Srikant Sarangi and Celia Roberts (eds) Talk, Work and Institutional Order: Discourse in Medical, Mediation and Management Settings, 1–57. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110208375.1.1
Schriver, Karen A. (1997) Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Texts for Readers. New York: John Wiley.
Schriver, Karen A. (2012) What we know about expertise in professional communication. In Virginia Berninger (ed.) Past, Present, and Future Contributions of Cognitive Writing Research to Cognitive Psychology, 275–312. New York: Psychology Press.
Scollon, Ron (2008) Analyzing Public Discourse: Discourse Analysis in the Making of Public Policy. London: Routledge.
Scollon, Ron and Suzanne W. Scollon (2001) Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach (2nd edition). Oxford: Blackwell.
Skopal, Dana P. (2014) Exploring the Concept of Communicative Expertise: The Relationship between Features of the Written Text and Perceptions of Readability. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
Skopal, Dana P. (2017) Public information documents: Understanding readers’ perspectives. In Alison Black, Paul Luna, Ole Lund and Sue Walker (eds) Information Design: Research and Practice, 463–476. London: Routledge.
Skopal, Dana P. and Maria Herke (2017) Public discourse syndrome: Reformulating for clarity. Text & Talk 37 (1): 141–164. https://doi:10.1515/text-2016-0041
Smart, Graham (2006) Writing the Economy: Activity, Genre and Technology in the World of Banking. London: Equinox.
Swales, John M. (1990) Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tardy, Christine (2009) Building Genre Knowledge. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press.
Thomason, Neil, Jan Carey, Kate Barnard, Bonnie Wintle and Fiona Fidler (2009) Plain English for Risk Communication (ACERA Project No. 0805). Melbourne: ACERA, University of Melbourne. Online: https://cebra.unimelb.edu.au
Waller, Rob (2011) Simplification: What is Gained and What is Lost. Simplification Centre Technical Paper 1. Reading: University of Reading. Online: https://www.reading.ac.uk/web/FILES/simplification/tech_paper_1.pdf
Wiemann, John M. (1977) Explication and test of a model of communicative competence. Human Communication Research 3 (3): 195–213. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-
1977.tb00518.x
World Economic Forum (2020) Jobs of Tomorrow: Mapping Opportunity in the New Economy. Cologny, Switzerland: World Economic Forum. Online: https://www.weforum.org/reports/jobs-of-tomorrow-mapping-opportunity-in-the-new-economy
Published
Issue
Section
License
Equinox Publishing Ltd.
