Persuasive trust building in oral financial presentations: An analysis of a narrative Investor Relations genre

The aim of this study is to better understand the nature and role of oral financial presentations (OFP) in listed companies' Investor Relations (IR) communication activities. Combining existing literature from two disciplines, accounting and business communication research, it identifies two different types of OFP: On the one hand, Earnings Calls (EC) which are closely related to mandatory Earnings Releases and can be seen as 'norm-based', and on the other, Analyst Presentations (AP) which are fully voluntary. Whereas the first group of OFP or EC has been studied to some extent, the voluntary form has received little attention. The present study is thus motivated by asking why and how listed companies present themselves to the financial community voluntarily. The main reason is seen in the necessity to promote the company's shares in the competitive markets. Moreover, the existing literature on EC has regarded them as a genre but has only analyzed different detail questions in presentations held in English without providing any theoretical framework. Therefore, by combining literature from different disciplines about IR and corporate communication, the present study develops a comprehensive genre framework for companies' IR activities and shows within this framework the nature and role of OFP focusing on the AP type or OFP(AP). On the other hand, however, the framework reveals the financial community's need of trustworthy information. The question is thus how listed companies solve this dual goal, share promotion and delivering trustworthy information, in their oral presentations with the help of the strategic reputational story, the Equity Story. This empirical study analyzes 17 recorded and transcribed OFP(AP) held in two European languages, German and Finnish. In order to describe the genre context of the companies' IR efforts, two surveys and six expert interviews were also conducted and analyzed. The findings show that there is a border crossing professional financial marketing rhetoric, which is, however, combined with local rhetorical features in practice. Due to the investors' specific need of trust, also the ethics of such rhetoric is discussed, with the conclusion that in AP, the genre rules make it a shared practice and thus help to share the meaning of these presentations well within the financial community

Performance testing with presentation graphics

Testing for computer literacy requires extensive administration and controls. The purpose of this research was to investigate the use of computerized, projected quizzes in which students\u27 performances (correct/minute) were measured. part of these performance quizzes, a series of 16 screens with 48 matching questions were shown for one minute per screen to 64 students. Six weeks later, an improved series of 20 screens with 60 matching questions were shown to 61 students. Last, these two quizzes were compared with a final power quiz with 90 matching questions that was printed on paper. The results showed that students did as well on the second projected, performance quiz as the paper, power quiz: The difference in performance of the genders was unexpected

Metadiscourse analysis of digital interpersonal interactions in academic settings in Turkey

Rapid technological advances, efficiency and easy access have firmly established emailing as a vital medium of communication in the last decades. Nowadays, all around the world, particularly in educational settings, the medium is one of the most widely used modes of interaction between students and university lecturers. Despite their important role in academic life, very little is known about the metadiscursive characteristics of these e-messages and as far as the author is aware there is no study that has examined metadiscourse in request emails in Turkish. This study aims to contribute to filling in this gap by focusing on the following two research questions: (i) How many and what type of interpersonal metadiscourse markers are used in request emails sent by students to their lecturers? (ii) Where are they placed and how are they combined with other elements in the text? In order to answer these questions a corpus of unsolicited request e-mails in Turkish was compiled. The data collection started in January 2010 and continued until March 2018. A total of 353 request emails sent from university students to their lecturers were collected. The data were first transcribed in CLAN CHILDES format and analysed using the interpersonal model. The metadiscourse categories that aimed to involve readers in the email were identified and classified. Next, their places in the text were determined and described in detail. Findings of the study show that request emails include a wide array of multifunctional interpersonal metadiscourse markers which are intricately combined and employed by the writers to reach their aims. The results also showed that there is a close relation between the “weight of the request” and number of the interpersonal metadiscourse markers in request mails

An instrument for assessing the public communication of scientists

An instrument for valid, quantitative assessment of scientists’ public communication promises to promote improved science communication by giving formative feedback to scientists developing their communication skills and providing a mechanism for summative assessment of communication training programs for scientists. A quantitative instrument also fits with the scientific ethos, increasing the likelihood that the assessment will gain individual and institutional adoption. Unfortunately, past assessment instruments have fallen short in providing a methodologically sound, theory-based assessment instrument to use in assessing public science communication. This dissertation uses the Evidence Centered Design (ECD) method for language testing to develop and test the APPS—the Assessment for Public Presentations by Scientists—a f filled-cell rubric and accompanying code book based on communication theory and practice that can be used to provide formative and summative assessments of scientists giving informative presentations to public, non-scientist audiences. The APPS rubric was developed by employing an extensive domain analysis to establish the knowledge, skills, and abilities most desired for scientists who speak to public audiences, based on a methodical review of scientific organizations and a systematic review of science communication scholarship. This analysis found that scientists addressing public audiences should speak in language that is understandable, concrete, and free from scientific jargon, translating important scientific information into language that public audiences can understand; should convey the relevance and importance of science to the everyday lives of audience members; should employ visuals that enhance the presentations; should explain scientific processes, techniques, and purposes; should engage in behaviors that increase the audience’s perceptions of scientists as trustworthy, human, and approachable; and should engage in interactive exchanges about science with public audiences. The APPS operationalizes these skills and abilities, using communication theory, in a detailed, user-friendly rubric and code book for assessing public communication by scientists. The rubric delineates theory-based techniques for demonstrating the desired skills, such as using explanatory metaphors, engaging in behaviors that increase immediacy, using first-person pronouns, telling personal stories, and engaging in back-and-forth conversation with the audience. Four rounds of testing provided evidence that the final version of the APPS is a reliable and valid assessment, with constructs that measure what they are intended to measure and that are seen similarly by different raters when used in conjunction with rater training. Early rounds of testing showed the need to adjust wording and understanding of some of the constructs so that raters understood them similarly, and later testing showed marked improvement in those areas. Although the stringent interclass agreement measure Cohen’s kappa did not show strong agreement in most measures, the adjacent agreement (where raters choose scores that are within one point of each other) was high for every category in the final testing. This shows that although raters did not often have exactly the same score for speakers in each construct, they nearly always understood the construct similarly. The agreement ratings also accentuate the study’s finding that the raters’ backgrounds may affect their abilities to objectively score science speakers. Testing showed that science raters had difficulty separating themselves from their inherent science knowledge and had difficulty objectively rating communication skills. Therefore, this study finds that scientists can act as communication raters if they are trained by practicing rating science presentations as a group to norm scoring and by studying communication skills discussed in the code book. However, because of the possible difficulty separating themselves from their intrinsic science knowledge and their lack of experience in identifying excellent communication practices, the assessment of science speakers will nearly always be more accurate and the communication performance of scientists more enhanced when utilizing communication experts to help train and assess scientists in their science communication with public audiences. Therefore, the APPS can be a valuable tool for improving the knowledge, skills, and abilities of scientists communicating with public audiences when used by communication training programs to provide prompt, specific feedback. Given the reliability limitations, the rubric should not be used for high-stakes purposes or for “proving” a speaker’s competence. However, when used in a science communication training program with consistent raters, the APPS can provide valuable summative and formative assessment for science communicators

Integrating Technology into a Seventh Grade Curriculum

The purpose of this project was to create a curriculum guide that served to integrate a seventh grade classroom with computer technology to enhance the existing block curriculum and facilitate student learning. This project takes place at Forks Middle School in Forks, Washington. Attention was placed on providing strategies for managing technology in the classroom. In order to incorporate technology into the classroom curriculum, the guide included the development of original technology based lessons and a modification of existing classroom assignments. Infusing technology into a standard curriculum required several adaptations. Those included using a scaffolding lesson planner to target essential academic learning requirements, creating project specific templates to control student production and task orientation, and the development of rubrics to assess individual and group progress. It is intended that this curriculum guide will serve as a reference tool for other teachers who are considering using technology in their classrooms

Law in the Digital Age: How Visual Communication Technologies are Transforming the Practice, Theory, and Teaching of Law

Law today has entered the digital age. The way law is practiced - how truth and justice are represented and assessed - is increasingly dependent on what appears on electronic screens in courtrooms, law offices, government agencies, and elsewhere. Practicing lawyers know this and are rapidly adapting to the new era of digital visual rhetoric. Legal theory and education, however, have yet to catch up. This article is the first systematic effort to theorize law\u27s transformation by new visual and multimedia technologies and to set out the changes in legal pedagogy that are needed to prepare law students for practice in the new environment. The article explores the consequences for legal theory and practice of the shift from an objectivist to a constructivist approach to human knowledge, using an expanded, multidisciplinary understanding of rhetoric to analyze the elusiveness of evidentiary truth and the nature and ethics of persuasion in the digital era

The Actor Within: An Exploration of Present Moment Awareness in Business Presentations

This thesis explores incorporating the use of acting skills in business presentations using present moment awareness techniques. Present moment awareness is defined in this study as the use of improvisation, intention, voice, and body/sensory awareness and is drawn primarily from the theoretical work of Patsy Rodenburg. The research project followed nine adult student-participants through a five-week course of study in business presentation methods, which incorporated the present moment awareness acting techniques. Data were collected throughout the five weeks and included a pre and post survey, participant journaling prompts, a researcher journal, peer reviews, and participant interviews. The study concluded that the practice of present moment awareness has great potential in offering business speakers very specific tools to calm their nerves, improve their focus, connect fully with their audience, and deliver their message successfully