Overview

This collection of essays aims to offer a cross-section of the generic types, the media and the functions of written discourse in business contexts in the Nineties. The eclecticism of the field, which this volume attempts to reflect, shows that the evolution of new forms of writing is only partly attributable to the ever increasing application of technology at work. Alongside machine-mediated texts such as e-mail and computer-generated correspondence, the contextualised analyses of both traditional genres such as facsimiles and direct mailing, and of lesser studied texts such as invitations for bids, contracts, business magazines and ceremonial speeches, reveal a rich complexity in the forms of communication evolved by organisations and the individuals who work within them, in response to the demands of the social and cultural contexts in which they operate.