Europe: business writing.

There has been solid interest in research on business communication in Europe over the past few years. A sign of this is the creation of an official European Region of the ABC in 1996; membership in the region continues to grow. Even before this, European academics and other professionals interested

in enhancing business communication met regularly, for example, under the sponsorship of the Association for Language and Business or the Network for Business Communication and Development (ENCoDe), which started informally in the late 1980s and now offers a well-established forum for discussing topics of mutual interest. These meetings, and the proceedings that publish some papers given at them, help compensate for the lack of a European journal dedicated to original research on business communication (e.g., Bennett, 1995; Braecke & Cuyckens, 1991; Silcock, 1989). Meetings of other organizations less directly focused on business communication also attract such researchers, for example, SIETAR Europa.

In the 1990s, universities have also provided venues for discussions of research. These include Uppsala University in Sweden, which sponsored the International Conference on Discourse and the Professions in 1992 (see Gunnarsson, Linell, & Nordberg, 1995), and the University of Duisburg in Germany, whose linguistic association (Linguistic Association of the University of Duisburg, LAUD) devoted its annual meeting to business communication in 1996 (see Niemeier, Cambell, & Dirven, forthcoming). That same year, Ostfold College in Norway arranged a primarily Nordic seminar on pragmatics and business communication (see Neumann & Billeau, 1997). Furthermore, the semi-annual conferences on Language and Economics at the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration (HSEBA) in Finland have offered opportunities for business communication scholars to gather and discuss research issues (see Majapuro & Nikko, 1994; Nikko & Nuolijarvi, in press; Nuolijarvi & Tiittula, 1992). Additionally, the HSEBA has also undertaken to host the first ABC European Regional Conference in May 1999. More broadly, various European universities have hosted symposia for scholars interested in Languages for Special Purposes (LSP), including business communication.

Characteristics of European Business Writing Research

In European research environments, the term "communication" is frequently associated with "language." Avid interest in diverse languages in Europe shapes the methodologies and problems that researchers select to study and the varied theories from which such studies depart. More research is devoted to spoken encounters, primarily business negotiations, than to writing, although there is a growing body of research on writing. Such research also often has a second agenda: enhancing the learning and teaching of languages, for example, Business English as a second or third language (L2 or L3).

The range of research is wide. A few examples: Scholars at the Copenhagen School of Economics in Denmark and at certain German universities emphasize terminological matters from an LSP orientation; at the University of Antwerp, the focus is on quantitative stylistic analyses (see Geluyckens & van Rillaer, 1996); at Uppsala University, a research group has carried on the text linguistic tradition in a project on professional language (e.g., Gunnarsson, 1992a, 1992b). Furthermore, recent research on business writing in Europe frequently shows a multi-disciplinary profile, with elements from communication theory, contrastive rhetoric, sociolinguistics, and the pragmatic end of discourse analysis. Teun van Dijk's (1980) theory of macrostructures, i.e., the structures beyond the sentence found in a text; Brown and Yule's (1983) treatise on discourse analysis, with emphasis on written discourse; and Brown and Levinson's (1987) theory on politeness universals - controversial as it may have proved - have influenced research on business writing as well. Finally, studies evolve from the concept of genre, primarily along the theoretical foundations laid by Swales (1990) and Bhatia (1993).

Research often aims to enhance non-native language learning, teaching, and practice, including needs analyses to serve curriculum planning (e.g., Louhiala-Salminen, 1996; Luoma, 1992). The term "non-native" language is preferred in this context to "foreign," because some European countries are bilingual or multilingual with two or more official languages in the country (e.g., Belgium with Flemish (Dutch) and French; Finland with Finnish and Swedish; and Switzerland with German, French, Italian, and Rheto-Romanian).

Examples of Recent Research

A brief review of some recent studies published in English may suggest the range of European research. They vary in subject, including explorations of cross-cultural and methodological issues as well as technical writing and tend toward discourse-based analyses and treat business writing as a complex, inherently cultural activity.

Cross-cultural Issues

At ENCoDe's first meeting in Barcelona in 1989, cross-cultural issues took center stage. Stijn Verrept (1989) emphasized empirical cross-cultural research based on systematic investigation of a large volume of data; Nigel Holden (1989) also called for empirical investigations of language as part of corporate communication. In 1996, LAUD in Germany organized an international seminar on cross-cultural issues, from which selected papers are being published under the title The Cultural Context in International Business Communication (see Niemeier, Campbell, & Dirven, in press). The papers focusing on business writing include Campbell; Cheng & Grundy; Verckens, de Rycker, & Davis; and Yli-Jokipii. Technically speaking, Campbell's as well as Cheng and Grundy's articles focus beyond Europe, but their approach is relevant to European business writing as well.

My own research efforts may suggest the kinds of cross-cultural issues of interest in European research on business writing (Yli-Jokipii, 1992, 1996, in press b). Requests in Professional Discourse: A Cross-Cultural Study of British, American and Finnish Business Writing (Yli-Jokipii, 1994), which Connor (1996) cites as the first monograph on cross-cultural business writing, investigates how language is used in real-life settings in business organizations in Finland, Britain, and the United States. based on a corpus of 525 letters and telefax messages, this work examined how requests are made in these three cultures and in two languages (Finnish and English). The profiles arising from British and US practice were further compared with textbook descriptions. The study revealed that English and Finnish requests differed in the perception of power and that social distance and level of acquaintance bring about linguistic variation in business writing. In addition, it showed that US textbooks are closer to real-life practice in the US than are British texts to British practices.

Business correspondence provided data for other studies of cross-cultural differences. For example, Bargiela and Harris's (1996) study confirmed that the status of the interactants is a relevant factor in cross-cultural requests. Ronald Geluyckens and Gert van Rillaer (1996) examined a database of business correspondence compiled at the University of Antwerp to compare native and non-native writing in English and Dutch. Using a concept derived from Brown and Levinson's (1978) politeness theory, they looked at strategies incorporated in Face Threatening Acts. Their preliminary results indicate that strategies differ, both in the types employed and in the relative frequencies of the use and, further, that some of these differences can be attributed to first language interference and language transfer issues.

In addition to these studies in cross-cultural correspondence, other research focuses more directly on rhetorical issues. In a pilot study of the rhetorical strategies found in the Chairman's Statements in British and Finnish Annual Reports, for example, Mirjaliisa Lampi (1992) identifies differences in how these two groups of writers organize their text and how they employ metatext. She further found that the Finnish writers assume more shared knowledge between the writer and the reader than do British writers. These observations confirm the results of studies based on other types of writing, such as student compositions (e.g., Crismore, Markkanen, & Steffensen, 1993).

Methodology

European interest in research methods involves both advocacy for certain approaches and the creation of conceptual frameworks by which business writing problems can be investigated. For example, Ludger Kremer (1992a, 1992b) advocates historical methods in his study of German business correspondence. based on my work on business communication, I've developed a multi-dimensional framework which applies to both written and spoken discourse (Yli-Jokipii, in press, a). Louhiala-Salminen (1995) looks at the fax as a new and unique organizational genre, distinctively different from the memorandum, that deserves its own framework for study. Whatever the method, there is strong emphasis on studying authentic texts or writing from professional or business practice. But like their US colleagues (Rymer, 1993; Rogers, 1993), European scholars experience difficulties in securing large volumes of authentic material, a fact that may explain why there are not more studies like Geluyckens and van Rillaer's work. For example, Alan Firth (1991) reports that he was able to find only one firm that allowed him to observe and record its communication realities. Yet European researchers, like their US counterparts, advocate the investigation of real-world texts.

Technical Communication

The more technical side of business forms the core of several studies, including Jan M. Ulijn and Judith B. Strother (1995), which stretches from psycholinguistics to international negotiation processes. Hiltunen and Nyman (1995) analyze the directive discourse in operating instructions, while Mardsjo (1995) interviewed technical writers in five Swedish companies to find out how personal writing is restricted by formal standards and company culture.

In conclusion, this brief article merely suggests some of the diverse activities taking place currently in different countries, in different languages, and in different academic institutions throughout Europe. Yet a great deal of the interesting and valuable research produced in Europe remains outside the reach of international colleagues, including unpublished Master's theses which study business writing with considerable data and respectable scrutiny.

References

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Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analysing genre: Language use in professional settings. London and New York: Longman.

Braecke, C., & Cuyckens, H. (Eds.) (1991). Business communication in multilingual Europe: Supply and demand. Proceedings of the 1990 ENCoDe Conference at UFSIA, University of Antwerp.

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