Professional Communication Practices Research Articles

A Profession of Accessible Conversations: Convo Communications

In this article, I study how a Deaf-owned company, Convo Communications, builds on accessibility as the baseline from which members contribute to more inclusive workspaces through innovative technologies and communication practices. I analyze the company’s website, blog posts, and videos to demonstrate how this organization embodies the value of accessible communication and a collective vision, how the members design more accessible ways to connect and use their expertise to educate other businesses and professionals, and the organizational commitment to communication diversity and accessible conversations. The findings lead to implications for even more inclusive business and professional communication practices.

Family Concept Representation in English and Chinese Media: A Cognitive Matrix Modelling Approach

This article examines the representation of the FAMILY concept in English and Chinese newspapers. The research material was gathered from ten information sources and included 200 news articles, selected through continuous sampling using the keyword FAMILY / 家庭. The articles were analyzed to identify relevant issues and categorized based on their thematic content. In each article, key content elements—words and phrases that carry significant semantic meaning—were identified and used for cognitive matrix modeling. The findings reveal cognitive asymmetry in how the FAMILY concept is portrayed in English and Chinese media. In English-language media, the concept is centered on fundamental semantic components that form the cognitive core of the FAMILY concept, such as family members and their relationships. The representation also extends to areas like family activities, children, finances, employment, family pets, and legal issues. In contrast, Chinese media emphasizes the government’s role in educating the younger generation on family behavior, fostering a new generation of families that adhere to the country’s ethical norms, traditional cultural values, and moral standards. The central aspect of the FAMILY concept in Chinese media is the significant governmental support and societal focus on family needs and moral education, with family being viewed within the broader context of societal relations. The observed asymmetry is attributed to cultural, economic, social, and political differences. In capital-oriented social systems, the family is seen as an independent unit capable of self-sufficiency without substantial government intervention. This study is particularly relevant for understanding the role of professional discourse in shaping public perceptions of family across different cultures, highlighting how media narratives reflect and influence broader societal values and professional communication practices.

Family Concept Representation in English and Chinese Media: A Cognitive Matrix Modelling Approach

This article examines the representation of the FAMILY concept in English and Chinese newspapers. The research material was gathered from ten information sources and included 200 news articles, selected through continuous sampling using the keyword FAMILY / 家庭. The articles were analyzed to identify relevant issues and categorized based on their thematic content. In each article, key content elements—words and phrases that carry significant semantic meaning—were identified and used for cognitive matrix modeling. The findings reveal cognitive asymmetry in how the FAMILY concept is portrayed in English and Chinese media. In English-language media, the concept is centered on fundamental semantic components that form the cognitive core of the FAMILY concept, such as family members and their relationships. The representation also extends to areas like family activities, children, finances, employment, family pets, and legal issues. In contrast, Chinese media emphasizes the government’s role in educating the younger generation on family behavior, fostering a new generation of families that adhere to the country’s ethical norms, traditional cultural values, and moral standards. The central aspect of the FAMILY concept in Chinese media is the significant governmental support and societal focus on family needs and moral education, with family being viewed within the broader context of societal relations. The observed asymmetry is attributed to cultural, economic, social, and political differences. In capital-oriented social systems, the family is seen as an independent unit capable of self-sufficiency without substantial government intervention. This study is particularly relevant for understanding the role of professional discourse in shaping public perceptions of family across different cultures, highlighting how media narratives reflect and influence broader societal values and professional communication practices.

From “minimalists” to “professional all-rounders”: Typologizing Swiss universities’ communication practices and structures

Abstract In the past two decades, the public communication of universities has become more important and received increased scholarly attention. While many studies have focused on individual university communicators (micro level) or all such practitioners in one country (macro level), our study analyzes organizational differences. It is the first-ever study to typologize universities’ communication practices and structures at the organizational level across an entire country. Based on a survey of communication practitioners in the central communication offices at all universities in Switzerland and using hierarchical cluster analysis, we classify 37 universities into four types of communicating universities: minimalists, well-resourced competitors, specialized strategists, and professional all-rounders. Those types are further characterized on the basis of official statistics. The analysis shows that the four types of universities differ considerably in their communication patterns and organizational characteristics and that the amount of resources available for communication is only loosely coupled with professional and strategic communication practices.

Urban Space in the Everyday Practices of Citizens: The Case of Balaklava

This article examines the transformation of the urban environment of Balaklava, as part of the Balaklava district of Sevastopol, and its impact on the daily practices of citizens. Authors describe the perception of the reconstruction of Balaklava by local residents. In the course of the author's research (31 semi-structured interviews), it was found that the commercialization of urban spaces is taking place, which completely changes the type of city — from a closed military-industrial to an open tourist one. This is facilitated, among other things, by gentrification, which manifests itself in the gentrification of urban areas, the reconstruction of the city's waterfront and the adaptation of new spaces for tourism purposes. The everyday practices of citizens, which consist of professional duties, leisure and communication practices, are also undergoing changes, as they are influenced by urban space. In the course of the analysis, the informants were divided into three groups: dissatisfied, satisfied and indifferent, each of which has its own characteristics, but at the same time they all adapt to the changes that have occurred.

Emotion, Rhetoric, and Entrepreneurial Experience: A Survey of Start-Up Community Membership

This article connects work on emotion, rhetoric, and entrepreneurial experience as it reports findings from a questionnaire issued to 80 entrepreneurs who belong to the global entrepreneur community Startup Grind. The findings from this study offer researchers a more robust representation of the rhetorical theories that guide entrepreneurs’ professional communication practices. In particular, the authors report on the distribution and dependency between two variables: operative rhetorical theory (indicated by one of four choices) and entrepreneurial experience (indicated by number of ventures and total years of experience).

Tactical (Dis)connection in Smart Cities: Postconnectivist Technical Communication for a Datafied World

ABSTRACT This study investigates the rhetorics of smart cities and how they define citizens’ agency. We consider the framing of human control against automated technological infrastructures in smart and playable cities. Through examining selected smart city plans from the U.S., Europe, and Asia, we share results from the comparisons of these plans to draw implications for technical and professional communication (TPC) practices and pedagogy. We propose a postconnectivist trajectory for TPC toward the increasingly datafied future.

Approaches to the formation of the communicative personality of the future teacher in the classroom of the course «Academic eloquence»

The paper attempts to develop a set of approaches to the formation of the communicative personality of the future teacher in the classroom of the course Academic eloquence in the magistracy, to systematize and summarize the experience of using rhetorization technology in order to teach strategies and tactics of professional speech in the academic field. To teach undergraduate students academic eloquence, it is necessary to take into account the structure and characteristics of the teachers communicative personality, the leading strategies and tactics of academic discourse, genre features of academic speech and productive technologies used in the field of professional education of future teachers. In this regard, the author tried to formulate approaches to the formation of the communicative personality of the future teacher, reflecting the traditions of academic eloquence and modern trends in the field of professional rhetorical education, to identify and substantiate the didactic potential of the textbook of Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences T.A. Ladyzhenskaya. The author reveals the concept of the communicative personality of a teacher and describes a set of basic pedagogical approaches to organizing the effective work of students in the classroom of the course Academic eloquence. The conditions are discussed that determine the effectiveness of organizing classes, enriching students with communicative experience in the field of professional communication and rhetorical practice, forming value attitudes and the ability to select the optimal language means when creating academic speech as a means of solving professional problems. Within the framework of considering the value-axiological, genre-oriented, personal-professional and problem-praxeological approaches to the formation of the communicative personality of the future teacher, the methods of rhetorization technology at the level of teaching the subject are described: rhetorical analysis, rhetorical task and rhetorical game. The introduction of the considered approaches and techniques into the educational process made it possible to bring training closer to the needs of modern academic practice and showed its effectiveness in the formation of general cultural and general professional competencies necessary for a future teacher.

TEACHING LANGUAGES FOR MEDICAL PURPOSES WITH TECHNOLOGY: WHAT TO TAKE TO THE DIGITAL CLASSROOM

The article focuses on the experience of online language learning in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic at Sechenov University (Moscow, Russia). Due to the differences in accepted professional communication practices in medical sphere in Russia and abroad there is a need of commenting, propagation and constant focusing on the part of the instructor. The aim of this research was to obtain a clear and a detailed picture of medical students’ attitude towards the change in the mode of delivery in teaching languages for medical purposes, which occurred during the lockdown and triggered a sudden shift in the roles. We analyzed the technologies used, the alterations to the academic content, modes of delivery, and the student’s attitude towards ESP/EMP employing mainly a quantitative methodology of gathering and analyzing data. The survey of the students showed that, though there is a strong preference in favor of technology use and more independent learning, they fully understand the role of the instructor in the process.

Using Self-Assessment and Reflection to Develop Self-Efficacy in Occupational Therapy Assistant Fieldwork Students

Many occupational therapy students navigate the transition to the Level II fieldwork experience effortlessly, while others require support due to a lack of perceived self-efficacy. This perception dramatically impacts fieldwork performance and challenges academic fieldwork coordinators to support students struggling to believe in their own capabilities. This study utilized a quantitative quasi-experimental research design with a purposive sample of 16 occupational therapy assistant students to determine if an educational intervention increased perceived self-efficacy and overall confidence. Data collected from the Student Confidence Questionnaire (SCQ) pre, and post-intervention provided insight into the students’ report of perceived self-efficacy and overall confidence during the Level II fieldwork experience. This questionnaire assessed the domains of professional competence, communication, adaptability, innovation, risk-taking, supervision, and clinical practice (Derdall et al., 2002). The educational module included an introduction to the key concepts of self-efficacy, self-assessment, and reflection, seven weekly reflective practice journal assignments centered around domains of the SCQ, and feedback using a reflective practice rubric to scaffold the development of self-efficacy. A statistically significant increase occurred in self-efficacy and overall confidence after the intervention across all seven domains of the post-test SCQ. The results indicated that the educational module created an influential impression on the development of self-efficacy and overall confidence during the Level II fieldwork experience. Level II fieldwork performance was not measured. Considering that many students struggle with perceived self-efficacy this educational intervention provides a potential solution to support fieldwork students challenged by a lack of belief in their own capabilities.

Students’ Perception on the Attainment of Learning Outcomes of an Undergraduate project-based Final Semester Course (Professional Communication Practice)

Students’ Perception on the Attainment of Learning Outcomes of an Undergraduate project-based Final Semester Course (Professional Communication Practice)

Associations Between Health Care Professional Communication Practices and Influenza Vaccination of Hospitalized Children.

Health care professionals (HCPs) (eg, nurses, doctors) play a key role in vaccine uptake. Few studies describe HCP influenza vaccine communication with parents of hospitalized children. This study included English- and Spanish-speaking parents of influenza vaccine-eligible children hospitalized at a tertiary care pediatric hospital between October 2018 and May 2019. A survey was completed online or via telephone 2 to 15 weeks (median 4 weeks) after discharge. It examined parental intent to vaccinate their child during hospitalization and parent-reported inpatient HCP communication practices (eg, vaccine recommendation strength, format for initiating the recommendation). Multivariable logistic regression examined the associations between HCP communication practices and influenza vaccination during hospitalization, adjusting for demographic, clinical, and visit characteristics. Parents (n=194; 63.0% response rate) were mostly white (66.8%) and English-speaking (97.4%). Their children were primarily 5 through 17 years (67.0%) with chronic disease (68.6%); 24.7% were vaccinated before discharge. Most parents initially had no plan (55.6%) or planned to decline (31.1%) influenza vaccine for their child during hospitalization. Of these parents, 22.2% decided to accept the vaccine, 66.7% citing a HCP conversation as the main reason for changing their mind. Overall, 75.3% recalled a HCP conversation about influenza vaccination. Of these parents, 61.0% reported a HCP recommendation (53.8% described it as "very strong"; 11.1% noted a presumptive initiation format). A parent-reported HCP conversation (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 5.23, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.64-16.68) and recommendation (AOR 5.59, 95% CI 2.01-15.51) were associated with influenza vaccination during hospitalization. This study highlights the importance of discussing and recommending influenza vaccination with parents of hospitalized children.

Where Public Interest, Virtue Ethics and Pragmatic Sociology Meet: Modelling a Socially Progressive Approach for Communication

For advertising, public relations and strategic communication to work towards human good they must have a framework. This paper advances such a theoretical framework by drawing on three related but separate fields of theory: public interest from political philosophy; virtue ethics from moral philosophy; public arenas of debate from pragmatic sociology. By exploring these as stand-alone theories and then examining their cross-currents and intersections, the paper develops a pragmatic approach for communication scholarship which can be used as a conceptual intervention for socially progressive practice. The paper applies this approach to the case of two international festivals: The Torches of Freedom contribution to New York’s 1929 annual Easter Parade; and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras held in Sydney from 1978 to the present. The festivals illustrate how the discursive construction (and reconstruction) of events underpins both changing circuits of cultural production and ongoing dialectical tensions, raising challenges and solutions for professional communication practice.

Competence approach as methodological guidelines in the formation of the discourse competence of future journalists

The article deals with the relevance and importance of introducing a competency approach in the process of forming the of future journalists. Attention is drawn to the fact that the rapid development of the information society requires highly skilled competitive specialists in the media sphere, who would not only have the maximum amount of necessary knowledge, but also the ability to use them promptly and creatively. The essence of the concepts that make up the definition of discourse is considered. It is noted, that is a process, related to language creation, and text is the end result of the language activity. When comparing the terms competence and readiness, it is proved, that they are closely related, although significantly different. In general, readiness can be defined as the ability to act on the basis of competences (qualitative characteristics). It is noted, that the preparation of future journalists is currently giving a significant advantage to the theoretical study of the material and the lack of practical skills that would contribute to the formation of of the future journalist, which, in turn, is a determining component of communicative competence. Its main components are the ability to perceive and analyze, as well as qualitatively formulate sound conclusions using linguistic means. The proper mastership of the state language by future journalists in the professional communication forms a conscious linguistic behavior, which is the basis for spiritual and intellectual development of the individual. The urgent need to train high level professionals with developed practical skills of the professional communication and today ineffective practice of teaching the Ukrainian language in the professional direction of future journalists in higher education institutions necessitate in-depth elaboration of appropriate methodological foundations. And it is important, that the most competent approach is the main guideline in the process

Изучение лингвистических особенностей письменного судебного дискурса Великобритании: формальное и содержательное обоснование подхода

The aim of the work is to present a comprehensive approach to the study of linguistic features of the UK written judicial discourse, describe its features in terms of professional communication and social practice. We give a consistent analysis of the major factors which scaffold judicial discourse as a whole – the formal structure of the legal discourse and the formal content (textual sources) of judicial discourse. We believe the legal sources (texts of previous decisions and texts of legislative acts) contribute to the multi-faceted nature of the judicial legal discourse in which we can observe various processes: legal interpretation, recontextualization of ordinary facts in the professional legal field, statutory treatment and nominalization of facts and deeds etc. These and other characteristics created the dynamic nature of judicial discourse which is commonly seen as a static relic. Proper analysis and understanding of the formal structure of the legal discourse and its formal content (textual sources) bears major importance when addressing the analysis of linguistic features of written judicial discourse. Based on the analysis, the main characteristics of the written judicial discourse of Anglo-Saxon system are identified and the framework for further study of its linguistic features is determined. From our point of view, the study of the phenomenon of professional discourse is interdisciplinary in nature, in particular, the study of written judicial discourse is based on the positions of sociologists, linguists, philosophers and legal scholars. We use description and synthesis methods, as well as comparative and contextual methods. The theo-retical significance of the study lies in the development of the comprehensive approach to the lin-guistic analysis of professional discourses as a means of actualizing a certain social practice.

Multimodal mapping: Using mind maps to negotiate emerging professional communication practices and identity in higher education

Mind or concept maps have long been viewed as helpful tools to plan texts. The pedagogical focus is often focused on the end product as material artefact, with less pedagogical or assessment attention being paid to the process of mind mapping. A process-product approach to text and text-in-use can fulfil a variety of pedagogical goals that allow participants in a professional communication course to collaboratively negotiate meaning-making. By presenting mind maps in class and receiving immediate peer feedback, students have the opportunity to redesign their work to enhance understanding. This article uses a multimodal social semiotic approach as well as the notion of authorial stance (defined multimodally) to analyse a mind map, as both artefact and presentation. The analysis shows how a particular student transforms her work and thinking during in-class engagement. Besides turn-taking and experiential participation as communicator and audience, this negotiation of meaning-making contributes to graduate work-readiness. We argue that these scaffolding and scaffolded activities act to engage student identity formation as emerging professionals for the workplace.

Communication Activities in the 21st Century Business Environment

Effective undergraduate instruction requires accurate knowledge of professional communication practices and employer expectations, but ongoing contradictions between academic and professional expectations reflect historical, rhetorical, and pedagogical causes for inaccurate presumptions. Taking a customer service perspective, one business faculty revised its undergraduate goals in terms of empirically determined employer expectations. Interviewing professionals familiar with expectations of entry-level business graduates, the authors identified 10 communication activities, each comprising three to nine subtasks that constitute entry-level communication competencies. The results suggest a need to reconsider traditional curricular organization and instructional focus across the business curriculum to develop relevant skills across all business majors.

Global communication practices of physiotherapists on Twitter

Background: Social media have offered professional communities the opportunity to be digitally connected. The hashtag #GlobalPT was conceived and promoted from 2015 and has acted as a slogan for the globally connected physiotherapy community. This study explores the global reach and dominant communication themes that emerged during a set time frame that represented the single largest period of #GlobalPT activity.Method: Using purposive sampling, 988 publically available tweets including the hashtag #GlobalPT were studied. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to quantify tweet data and qualitative, inductive phenomenological thematic content analysis to describe latent themes within the tweets.Results: #GlobalPT activity was noted across 24 countries (UK top represented) and four languages (929/988, 94.03% in English). Europe was the most active area (738/988, 74.70%), followed by Oceania (120/988, 12.15%). Thematic content analysis identified eight themes within the communication practices of the physiotherapy community on Twitter. The three major themes were: sharing information (108/377, 28.65%), promotional activity (93/377, 24.67%) and positive feedback (69/377, 18.30%).Conclusion: The professional communication practices of physiotherapists on Twitter show a global spread of communication. The themes provide preliminary evidence for social media’s unique potential to assist the World Confederation for Physical Therapy strategic vision.

Plain Language in the Twenty-First Century: Introduction to the Special Issue on Plain Language

Documentation for consumers is frequently complex, convoluted, and hard to follow. Bureaucratic organizations such as insurance companies, government agencies, hospitals, and law firms often have reputations for communicating poorly. Such poorly prepared documents diminish consumers’ abilities to make informed decisions about their health, rights, and finances. When these documents leave consumers with more questions than answers, organizations must try again (and again) to communicate more clearly. With the ease of accessing documents online, organizations face increasing pressure to create effective content appropriate for broad audiences. Plain language offers an approach to language and design for producing accessible and readable public documents. This movement, which gained traction in several countries in the 1970s, has regained its momentum with recent legislation and new public and private sector initiatives. Then-US-President Barack Obama signed the Plain Writing Act in 2010 and Executive Order 13563 in 2011, requiring clear communication in plain writing from US government agencies. Other sectors have responded as well. Practitioners use plain language in a range of other areas such as healthcare, business, science, engineering, and law. In keeping with these developments, we provide this special issue to reintroduce the discussion of plain language in professional and technical communication research and practice.

Publicists in US Public Relations History: An Analysis of the Representations of Publicists, 1815–1918

The role of publicists in public relations history is largely overlooked. Although today publicists are commonly associated with the entertainment industry, late nineteenth and early twentieth century publicists were a professional group that played an important role in developing modern public relations practice, particularly the craft of research-based, ethical, and strategic communication. These early publicists' reputations and skills at managing public opinion were highly sought after by universities, businesses, and in political circles. Because their work often involved international issues, their impact was present both domestically and outside of the United States. Understanding the role the publicist played in public relations development presents a new narrative of public relations history that shows that early public relations practice contained professional, strategic, and international communication practices.