[ELTWeekly Volume 6, Issue 21 | September 7, 2014 | ISSN 0975-3036]

Book review submitted by Daniela Breveníková, Slovak Republic. 

“Corporate Discourse” (2013) by Ruth Breeze was published as one of the titles of Bloomsbury Discourse edited by Prof. Ken Hyland. The book makes an interesting and exciting piece of reading in the way the author constructs the world of corporate communication, and discloses for us hidden intentions and expectations of those by whom these genres are designed and to whom they have been written.

“Corporate Discourse” contains seven chapters. In the first two chapters the author explains basic concepts and categories, namely the corporation and its stakeholders; discourse, discourse studies, and corporate communication. When dealing with methods of studying discourse, the author pays a separate attention to discourse studies that start from text and those that are context-based. The context and principal concepts (corporation and its stakeholders) are described from the aspect of identity, action and interaction. Breeze’s approach to the corporation entity is highly dynamic: she refers to “discourse construction of the corporation” pointing this way to links between the corporation as an entity, its structure and its communication with its stakeholders: employees, investors and the world.

Specific genres of corporate discourse are explored in separate chapters (3-6) in terms of their functions and participants. Chapter Three, “Communicating with Employees”, addresses the topic of genres or subgenres, arising in the corporation – employee communication; it starts chronologically from job advertisements, through job interviews, to induction seminars, and guides for new employees. (more…)