Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-71).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-71). Also available in print.

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This study is an attempt to evaluate the Business Writing course at North Texas State College and to determine whether the course as it is now presented meets the needs and desires of the students.

This work questions the usefulness of heuristic procedures, within composition in general writing in business in particular, as an effective aid to the generation of written, non-fiction discourse.

Thesis (MPhil (Document Design))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / This study focused on the image formation and projection of Helen Zille, leader of South Africa’s largest opposition party. South Africans are heading to voting stations in 2009 for the national and provincial election. For this reason the image a party portrays in all the methods it uses to attract voters needs to be perfect. Such methods include voting-posters, public debates and newsletters. This study focuses on the newsletters that Helen Zille writes every week and takes the form of a corpus analises. The study also shows the importance of the documentation from the leader of any institution. Such reasons include that the leader is the most identifiable person thereof. This study was undertaken within the framework of the Integrated Communication Model for Image formation and projection (IFP-model) developed by Professor Leon de Stadler. The model consists of three levels, namely the image, the information design and the document design. Each of these levels focuses on specific phases of image formation and projection. Image focuses on the intended (the desired image the institution want to construe) and the construed (the image the reader derives from the documentation) image. The information design involves the manner in which the reader accesses the text. There are three ways, which are the physical access (that which the reader sees first), the intellectual access (the way in which the information is interpreted) and the emotional access (how the reader feels about the content). The document design focuses on the four messages which appear in the text. They are the referential (the content), the appealing (the objectives), the expressive (the image of the sender) and the relational (the relationship between the reader and the sender) messages. This study focuses on the expressive and relational messages. Other questions mentioned in this study are whether the IFP-model kan be used as an analytical instrument and if this model kan be refined to place more emphasis on the expressive and relational messages. After the expressive and relational messages where identified, various tendencies where noticed in the content, style, structure and graphics thereof. These tendencies include a positive focus in the content, an informal style, high information density and the use of photographs as graphics. These tendencies where used to refine the IFP-model. The analises of the newsletters indicated that Helen Zille portrayed an image of a self-assured leader, but that this image was influenced by tendencies such as a negative focus on the ANC. Further findings showed that the IFPmodel can be used as an analytical instrument, but that more emphasis should be placed on refining the model so that it includes various aspects of the different levels, such as the different ways a reader gains access in the information design. This study also introduced a refined model which can be used to analyze the expressive and relation messages.

Thesis (DPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / This study about formality in business texts is situated within the field of document design. For this reason, the definition of formality and the operasionalisation thereof in business texts are approached from a functional framework, which can lead to the realisation of useful guidelines to text producers based on the conclusions drawn from the research. With these guidelines, informed decisions can be made about formality in texts. In this study formality is defined and operasionalised in terms of the two notions context (in)dependency and deixis. Formality and deixis both involve distance. Greater distance between die text/writer and the reader or interlocutors mutually is associated with a higher degree of formality. On the other hand, a higher frequency deictic referential words such as personal pronouns (you, he, we, they), adverbs of place (here, there), direction (forwards, outside) and time (just now, only just, at present) implies a shorter social and spatio-temporal distance, and therefore a higher degree of informality. The reason for this is that deictic referential words (you, here, outside, now) and the reference to which such words refer should be deduced from the context immediately in order for the message to be understood unambiguously. For this reason, deictic referential words are context dependent in this study and because the context is immediately available and the distance thus shorter, these words are markers of informality. On the other hand, nondeictic referential words imply a greater distance and therefore a higher degree of formality. Grammatical variables that possibly have an effect on the degree of formality in annual reports and brochures, such as nouns, objective and subjective adjectives, verbs and pronouns, are divided in terms of their context dependence or context independence into one of two categories, namely a nondeictic category that is associated with context independence and formality, or a deictic category that is associated with context dependence and informality. Based on the frequencies of the various language variables in the two categories (context independent, nondeictic category and context dependent, deictic category) an empirical measure of formality is proposed with which formality (F-index) can be measured in Afrikaans business texts. Although the proposed measure should be refined, the study illustrates, among others, that the measure exhibits the capacity to point out variation based on differences in formality between the text types. The study further indicates that advice based on intuition should be regarded with caution. A survey aimed at readers showed that variables such as subject, tone, style, word choice and language usage play a greater role in the evaluation of the degree of formality of texts than grammatical variables such as the passive voice. In conclusion, the study gives clear guidelines as to how the language variables that were part of this study should be dealt with and in a sense be manipulated to ensure a suitable degree of formality of a text and thus the effective transfer of communication.

Technologists predict that electronic information dissemination will create a paperless work environment. In spite of such predictions, paper-based internal communication will remain the primary medium for disseminating information in organizations for decades to come. However, electronic technology will have an impact on paper information production that may be more profound than changes following word processing's introduction. Previously unavailable for everyday production to enhance word meaning, certain graphic techniques now can be used to access readers' preconditioned symbol meanings to increase comprehension of routine correspondence and information internalization. This quasi-experimental field study examines interactions among laser-printer graphic treatment and communication variables as contributors to explaining variance in comprehension. Set Multiple Regression/Correlation analysis identifies significant variance explained by conditional relationships between near-typeset quality text and readers' self-interest and between near-typeset quality text and text's readability. The conditional relationship of near-typeset quality and self-interest shows increase in reader comprehension at a greater rate than the comprehension increase rate attributed to the reader's self-interest increase alone. This suggests that conditional relationships may be accessing an internal judgment process interpreting greater self-interest in near-typeset printed text. The conditional relationship between near-typeset quality and readability reveals that at more difficult reading levels comprehension is greater for near-typeset text. The significance of this relationship indicates that an internal judgment process is involved rather than the difference being attributed to legibility treatment. The strength of these conditional relationships suggests that planning for communication policies and practices should be a part of organizational strategic planning in the same ways as are financial analysis, operations planning, or human resource management.