This edited book engages with the richly interdisciplinary field of business and professional communication, aiming to reconcile the prescriptive ambitions of the US-centred business communication tradition with the more descriptive approach favoured in discourse studies and applied linguistics. A follow-up to the award-winning book The Ins and Outs of Business and Professional Discourse Research (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), this volume brings together scholars and their recent work from wide-ranging business and professional settings to engage with the question of what counts as good data. The authors focus on four key themes - authenticity, triangulation, background and relevance - to shine a light on business and professional discourse as essential contextual and intertextual. This book will be of interest to scholars working in applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and business communication, but also other social scientists interested in a range of perspectives on oral, written and digital language use in workplace settings. Review “A collection of diverse, direct and honest contributions to the theme announced, each of them having a unique relevance, for shedding light on the specificities of the region, the style and the system they belong to, and bringing about the distinct touches of the researchers authoring them. … this present work adds value to the research in the field and comes as useful for all stakeholders in business domains, in professional communication and in languages for specific purposes.” (Ioana Claudia Horea and Cristian Dorin Horea, Journal of Languages for Specific Purposes, Issue 8, March, 2021) Review “A timely, ground-breaking volume relying on a fundamental question―what counts as data?―as the focus for a broad-based study of business and professional discourse. The result is an enhanced understanding of the importance of organizational contexts in multilingual environments, which requires an expansion of data collection and analysis beyond traditional boundaries and demonstrates innovative uses of qualitative research.” --James M. Dubinsky, Virginia Tech, USA, Past President & Executive Director, Association for Business Communication (ABC) “This collection expertly balances interdisciplinary approaches, hands-on fieldwork, and academic rigour. The contributors team up to provide an ambitious and engaging, multifaceted exploration of the role of data in business and professional communication. This collection nicely advances common ground between researchers and practitioners and will provide authoritative insights for all interested in the role of language and communication in business or professional settings.” --Glen Michael Alessi, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy From the Back Cover This edited book engages with the richly interdisciplinary field of business and professional communication, aiming to reconcile the prescriptive ambitions of the US-centred business communication tradition with the more descriptive approach favoured in discourse studies and applied linguistics. A follow-up to the award-winning book The Ins and Outs of Business and Professional Discourse Research (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), this volume brings together scholars and their recent work from wide-ranging business and professional settings to engage with the question of what counts as good data. The authors focus on four key themes - authenticity, triangulation, background and relevance - to shine a light on business and professional discourse as essential contextual and intertextual. This book will be of interest to scholars working in applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and business communication, but also other social scientists interested in a range of perspectives on oral, written and digital language use in workplace settings. Geert Jacobs is Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Ghent University, Belgium. Sofie Decock
