Research Methodologies, Frameworks and Project Ideas

This chapter will:Profile and cite replicable studies from a number of key research areas: contextualized business discourse research, research on business writing and business talk, and studies of business document design;Present some of the theoretical frameworks and methodologies business discourse researchers have used;Provide examples of project ideas that could form the basis for individual, collaborative or group research

Research Cases

This chapter will present ten research studies that showcase the work of business discourse researchers from around the world. The studies reflect many of the themes, research sites and approaches discussed in the rest of this volume, and illustrate the different facets of business discourse research today. For each study, details will be given of the business genre or genres under investigation, the research methodology(ies) used and the theories and paradigms referred to in the approach to analysis. Each study will be presented using the structure of a research article:Summary;Introduction and aims;Method;Findings;Commentary (Discussion & suggestions for future research)

Research-based Business Discourse Teaching

This chapter will:profile five examples of projects related to research-based business discourse teaching from around the world;discuss the methodologies used and implications for teaching or training;show how the profiled teaching projects critically reflect the developments in business discourse research we have discussed in Part 1

Challenges in the Future

This chapter will:; ; ; Discuss the future of intercultural business discourse research with particular reference to rapport management;; ; ; Provide a discussion of multimodality and how this might change business discourse in the future;; ; ; Discuss multimethod, multidisciplinary research as a way forward for business discourse research

Challenges in the Future

This chapter will:Discuss the future of intercultural business discourse research with particular reference to rapport management;Provide a discussion of multimodality and how this might change business discourse in the future;Discuss multimethod, multidisciplinary research as a way forward for business discourse research

Research-based Consultancy Work

This chapter will:Profile five examples of research-based consultancy work involving business discourse from around the world;Discuss the methodologies used and the implications either for teaching or training, or the design of more effective documents;Show how each of the projects reflects the developments in business communication research now or in the future that we have discussed in Part 1

Research-based Teaching Materials

This chapter will:Provide a brief survey of published materials for Language for Specific Business Purposes and Business Communication;Profile six sets of research-based teaching materials;Discuss the approaches taken in each case and show how these are related to business discourse research

"And all the windows, great and small". Finestre in Nightwood di Djuna Barnes

As a recurring subject and powerful symbol, the window dominates the female literary and artistic imagery of the twentieth century. It has been developed into mirror, photograph or painting, according to the writer�s needs, yet the basic shape of the frame is always retraceable. Among late modernist and postmodernist women writers, Djuna Barnes explores in detail the structural resources of this literary device. Although she already understands the potential of the frame in her early career as a journalist, she mostly challenges its extents of versatility in Nightwood (1936). Its crucial moments � either flashing epiphanies or missed catharsis � involve the physical presence of a window, which embodies a powerful narrative agent; more than mere symbol, it is active at several levels. Thematically, doors and windows, pictures and mirrors, play an important cohesive role. At a deeper stage of analysis, the structure of the novel itself is shored up by doors and windows, since the setting is essentially organized into indoors and outdoors scenes; windows and doors allow the characters to move between these two dimensions. On the metaphorical level, windows and doors represent a communicative channel; a room-door opening suggests the access to one�s inner life, whereas a shut window denies any chance of dialogue. However, all the characters seem to be too absorbed by their obsessions to realize such communicative potential, and rather meander uselessly in their mental frames

Discourse and/or communication: living with ambiguity

The outlook to this response to Jian et al. (this issue) is both personal and 'European' in flavour, in that it reflects the author's own trajectory through discourse(s) and her meetings with (business) communication research along the way. It also hints at her 'crossings' into organization studies and management studies and her increasing incursions into North American areas of scholarships that discuss human matters intriguingly classified as 'communication' or 'discourse'