A genre-based study of pedagogical business case reports

Nathan, Philip Bernard (2010). A genre-based study of pedagogical business case reports. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

Business case report writing is a common requirement on academic business programmes. In order to inform language-based pedagogical support, this thesis set out to explore the linguistic characteristics of these case reports and to evaluate different approaches to the teaching and learning of business case report writing. Analysis of a specially constructed case report corpus (125,000 words) consisting of 53 postgraduate NS and NNS business reports, combined with confirmatory analysis of BAWE\(^1\) corpus business case reports, identified common report features as impersonal style, high levels of explicit structure, low citation levels and business specialism-dependent lexis. Three obligatory rhetorical moves were identified (orientation, analysis, advisory) and five optional moves (methodology, options and alternatives, summary and consolidation, supplementary supporting information and reflection), moves being realized through diverse structural components with significant variability observed in optional move deployment and move realization dependent on a range of factors, in particular business specialism, suggesting the value of specialism-based pedagogy. Study of case report options and alternatives move structures identified multiple rhetorical components, exhibiting high degrees of cyclicity. Genre learning experiments demonstrated learning-approach dependent increases in move, modal verb and lexical deployment, with both directed and undirected approaches to genre model study supporting effective pedagogy. \(^1\) British Academic Written English corpus (2008)

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

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