Abstract
A prospectus, as a kind of self-description of the organization, is specified as one of the attributes of an organization. A university, as a type of organization, makes its prospectus accordingly. A prospectus – as a genre of organizational discourse – has a constructive mechanism. With the synergy of the discoursehistorical approach (DHA) and the corpus discourse approach, this article will analyze – using WordSmith – the discursive strategies involved in the construction of the organizational identity of the world’s top universities. The analysis reveals that the prospectuses of the world’s top 100 universities mainly employ the referential/nomination strategy and predication strategy to construct an identity for themselves as world-renowned, diversified, reputable leading universities which will participate positively in the global market.
Highlights
Identity is increasingly used as “an analytic tool for studying important issues of theories and practices in education” (Gee 2001: 100) as it bears value with the unique status of being an ideal interface to liaise the micro discursive features and macro social practice or events (Lemke 2008)
Wodak’s historical discourse approach includes triangulation, meaning that discursive phenomena are approached from a variety of methodological and theoretical perspectives taken from various disciplines (Wodak 2009), and linguistic analysis consisting of strategy analysis and topoi of these two parts
We find that the pronoun we is found to occur with verbs belonging to two categories: the modal verbs (MV) and the notional verbs (NV)
Summary
Identity is increasingly used as “an analytic tool for studying important issues of theories and practices in education” (Gee 2001: 100) as it bears value with the unique status of being an ideal interface to liaise the micro discursive features and macro social practice or events (Lemke 2008). Identities are conceived of as being constructed and reflected in discourse. Organizational identity is seen as a way to distinguish one entity from another, to signify an organization’s selfdetermined, unique social space and to reflect its unique pattern of binding commitments (Whetten 2006: 220). Communication and collaboration with both domestic and foreign partners is a necessity for universities; the prospectus is a means of self-introduction which plays a vital role in the construction of organizational identity. In the hopes of serving as an expedition, this article aims to explore the organizational identity of higher learning institutions by the discursive analysis of university prospectuses. Prospectuses published online are a way for universities to construct identity. What kind of organizational identity would the university like to construct through its prospectus and 2. What kind of discursive devices have been used to construct this identity
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