Emails writing in the business sector in Algeria case of a multinational company (unilever Algeria)

Abstract

One of the biggest challenges in business has always been to communicate effectively. This has become even more crucial in today‟s electronic world especially with email which is undoubtedly the most exciting development in business communication in recent years. Besides, it becomes an essential and fundamental part of the way businesses work providing a relatively large scope of investigation on its use, its role, advantages and disadvantages and its discourse in online communication. The goal in undertaking our research was to elicit and scrutinize emails discourse and its features as instantaneous communication manifested when mediating interaction in the workplace context. In fact, our study has nothing to do with the dos and don‟ts of writing emails. It is more about what an email is like, what its aspects are and how they function in a communication system in the workplace. It discusses the importance and demands of everyday writing at work, and the role of formal education in preparing Algerian people for the localized learning about email writing. While developing a clear idea about the plan of our research, a theoretical base and a literature review within which the questions have been framed. They are related to language use and communication, discourse and ESP, writing emails and discourse analysis. They are all pitched on some historical ground that was approached from different angles in the dissertation that has been structured as follows. Indeed, the main body of our research paper consists of four chapters. First, chapter one is concerned with how a business organization is considered as a community of practice. It also reports the different views of what communication is through the communication theories from Aristotle to Berlo‟s model and from the communication theory to Halliday‟s language theory and its functions to Hymes approach of language and Kinneavy‟s situational view of discourse. Chapter two provides an overview of the theoretical framework, drawing on ESP and the analysis of ESP texts to lay the groundwork for the relation between the emails text and discourse. Then, we explore the features and strategies of DA where we raise the perception of coherence and cohesion in a written discourse and we highlight the most relevant studies on emails within this field. Chapter three is the research method part. It describes the research tools and data collection procedures. It presents details of the data collection and the way the emails carried out for investigation and for analysis were handled, presenting a detailed account of selected aspects of their discourse. This chapter is devoted to the research findings. In the last part of this study, the implication of the results and suggestions with the challenges they pose are laid out in chapter four. Indeed, it is the core of the study as it provides a closing to our dissertation focusing on the actual findings and how to use them. By offering a summary of the analysis, they are recapitulated in a way to contribute to the email writing and the discourse specification. It serves as a reflective measure in preparing and focusing on what to be taught and emphasized in teaching job-related writing courses at university and mainly LMD. This system aims to confer not only a subject but a specialization providing a particular skill and guarantee a certain level of education and training. It is also a way to professionalize the curricula which prepare students for their future careers, where ESP (English for Specific Purposes) becomes a mandatory component of the curriculum for university students.