Transcript Dia 1
“The Quick Scan” Tailor-made language advice for SMEs Hilde Hanegreefs & Mark Pluymaekers Zuyd University of Applied Sciences Research Centre for International Relationship Management 1. Why professional communication? 2. Why the Quick Scan? Why? 3. Why linguistics? Why professional communication? “Communication is not just a soft skill” (Waldeck, 2012) • Lack of ability to communicate clearly & effectively • Lack of training in writing skills • Recent challenges: – – – – An ever changing professional environment New forms of organizing Powerful communication technologies A greater emphasis on globalism Why the Quick Scan? To encourage the exchange of knowledge between academics and entrepreneurs, and to improve and expand education in writing Deliverables: • PRACTICE – clear and successful professional communication • RESEARCH – more and better insights, database • EDUCATION – good/bad practices, input for teaching writing Why linguistics? • Focus on writing / the writing process • “Clear writing means clear thinking means…” & “Rewriting is the key to improved thinking” (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987; Schulman, 2005) • Framework: – Business communication (BC) – Discourse Analysis & Text Linguistics 1. A “Quick Scan”? What? 2. Focus on... A “Quick Scan”? = an audit tool for high-quality text revision • It is QUICK • It is TAILOR-MADE • It is RESEARCH-BASED • It gives ADVICE and TRAINING can be provided Focus • Writing (for the moment) on… (e.g., newsletters, press releases, webpages, e- mails and letters) • in Dutch, • in SMEs • in the South-Limburg region (NL). In the future, the approach will be put in a more ‘global’ perspective. 1. Quantitative methods How? 2. Qualitative methods 3. Case study Quantitative methods • Readability tests Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease/Grade Level (Flesch 1951) Based on word & sentence length BUT: spurious relationship between these automatic tests and traditional time-consuming tests on text comprehension (o.a. Kraf & Pander Maat, 2009) • Word frequency Textstat, word cloud, SLM-analysis (De Hertog et al., 2014) Type-token distinction, function/structure vs. content/lexical words BUT: meaningless if not compared to a larger body of texts Qualitative methods [~ empirical content/form analysis] • Discourse Analysis & Text Linguistics: Relation between text & context, genres of discourse Text as communication system: author-addressee interaction, communicative context CCC-model (Renkema, 2012): 3 dimensions: correspondance, consistence, correctness 5 levels: genre, content, structure, writing style, presentation/lay-out • Usability tests Case study: set-up • A QS of websites and brochures published by 5 Dutch Hotel Management Schools [Hotel Management School Maastricht (HMSM), Saxion (Apeldoorn), Hogere Hotelschool Stenden/Leeuwarden, NHTV (Breda), Hotelschool The Hague (Den Haag)] • Websites: first 5 screens • Brochures: sent to first-year students • Research question: “To what extent do these texts reflect the schools’ values?” Case study [QT] Readability scores: Website Den Haag F-K RE:(47,5) | GL: (11) Brochure --- NHTV F-K RE:(26,4) | GL: (14,1) F-K RE:(45,4) | GL: (8,4) Saxion F-K RE:(49,8) | GL: (10) F-K RE:(48,5) | GL: (8,1) Stenden F-K RE:(35,8) | GL: (11,9) F-K RE:(40,6) | GL: (9,3) • Brochures: F-K RE:(37,5) | GL: (11,4) HMSM F-K RE:(13,6) | GL: (12) Case study: websites [QT] Word frequency: • vague and general (hotel and management); Den Haag, NHTV and Stenden specify more (international, experience, hospitality, programme, selection). Case study: websites [QL] CCC-model: • Genre: information medium, always and everywhere available, up-to-date, worldwide >< not easy to find • Content: values, program, practical info, etc. >< expectations not always met (cf. usability tests) • Structure: short, clear, cohesive and coherent >< too short, unclear, not coherent • Writing style: uniform, to-the-point, adequate >< vague • Presentation: adequate, content-form, ‘scannable’, consistent >< chaotic 4/1/2016 Ranking BROCHURE Readability WEBSITE CCC Readability CCC 1 Saxion / NHTV HMSM 1 Saxion Stenden/Den Haag 2 Stenden Stenden 2 Den Haag HMSM 3 HMSM Saxion / NHTV 3 Stenden/HMSM Saxion 4 NHTV NHTV “The major failing of quantitative measures is that they operate with tools that are abstract from the actual circumstances of production.” (Rimmer, 2009) 1. Work in progress Next? 2. Input required on… Work in progress • From September: – Run a pilot study in a ‘real’ enterprise – Develop a set of scripts – Develop a website (supply-demand) – Develop a database • Input required on: – Additional useful statistics / metrics – The existence of large BC corpora Comments or remarks? Please send them to: [email protected] [email protected]