Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2017 October 15

= October 15 =

Is there a link between communication style and profession/industry?
I don't know if it's always true but some professions seem to be very direct and concise whilst others love being passive and long winded. 94.10.251.123 (talk) 09:44, 15 October 2017 (UTC)
 * I don't think you can generalize that way. There are many communication styles in most every industry. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 10:11, 15 October 2017 (UTC)
 * This summary paper covers a lot of ground; since it summarizes other research, it is likely to lead you where you need to go by looking into a lot of work in the field. -- Jayron 32 11:46, 15 October 2017 (UTC)
 * The communication "style" is usually predefined in professions. Often its simply aiming to its function. The "style" of an army General aims at leaving no doubt who is in command and how he wants it to be followed, the "style" of a doctor aims at giving confidence in his skills and judgements. If you want to call that a "link" - ok, whatever works for you. --Kharon (talk) 00:08, 16 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Generals do things differently. Omar Bradley and George Patton had their own styles. The "bedside manner" of a doctor varies considerably by individuals. And consider football coaches. It's fair to say that the styles of Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry were quite different, yet they were both successful. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 00:13, 16 October 2017 (UTC)
 * This is an active area of research in applied linguistics, especially amongst adherents of systemic functional linguistics and researchers influenced by Basil Bernstein, not least because you can't teach business/professional English unless you know how it's actually used; translators also need this kind of information. It is generally within the area of sociolinguistics known as pragmatics. It's much, much more complicated than "some professions are concise and others are long-winded" though. I have been unable to find either a Wikipedia article or a textbook in print that gives a comparative overview, just books on individual professions. Matt's talk 10:47, 16 October 2017 (UTC)