Julio Gimenez

Business E-Mail Communication: Some Emerging Tendencies in Register.

Abstract The present paper attempts to investigate whether the spoken nature of e-mail messages has already started to affect business written communication. It looks at the register and context of the language and at the style used in commercial electronic mail. Sixty three business e-mail messages are analysed and later compared with forty business letters from the same company. From the analysis there emerges some evidence to suggest that electronically mediated communication is already affecting business written communication, showing a tendency towards a more flexible register. This paper also considers some of the implications that this emerging tendency in interpersonal business communication may have for materials writers, business English course designers and teachers of written communication.

Collaborative writing in engineering: Perspectives from research and implications for undergraduate education

In engineering, like in many other disciplines, collaborative writing (CW) has been identified as a central practice in both the academy and industry. A number of studies have shown that both students and professionals in this field write most discipline-specific genres collaboratively. Despite its centrality, CW in engineering is still an under-researched area with very few empirical studies on how it happens as situated practice. This article reports on a study that used a variety of data sets as its empirical base to examine CW in four schools of the faculty of engineering at a university in the UK. It also reports on the views of CW in the workplace that lecturers involved in industry hold. The article aims at contributing to the understanding of CW in engineering by identifying its role, nature and dynamics. It also examines pedagogical implications resulting from the study with a view to making a contribution to developments in writing in engineering education. The article finishes by making a number of recommendations for future research.