Exploring Professional Communication: Language in Action

Routledge Introductions to Applied Linguistics is a series of introductory level textbooks covering the core topics in applied linguistics, primarily designed for those beginning postgraduate studies, or taking an introductory MA course, as well as for advanced undergraduates. Titles in the series are also ideal for language professionals returning to academic study. The books take an innovative ’practice-to-theory’ approach, with a ’back-to-front’ structure. This leads the reader from real-world problems and issues, through a discussion of intervention and how to engage with these concerns, before finally relating these practical issues to theoretical foundations. Additional features include tasks with commentaries, a glossary of key terms and an annotated further reading section.

Exploring Professional Communication provides an accessible overview of the vast field of communication in professional contexts from an applied linguistics perspective. It explores the nature of professional communication by discussing various fundamental topics relevant for an understanding of this area. The book is divided into eight chapters, each dealing with a specific area of professional communication, such as genres of professional communication, identities in the workplace and key issues of gender, leadership and culture. Although the book’s main approach to professional communication is an applied linguistics one, it also draws on insights from a range of other disciplines. This second edition has been substantially revised and updated and includes coverage of the most recent developments in the area. New topics include:

• Remote and virtual communication, as well as technology-assisted communication
• The impact of the pandemic on professional communication
• Gender in professional communication post-#metoo
• Intersectional issues
• A new chapter on researching professional communication

Throughout, Stephanie Schnurr takes an interactive approach that is reflected in the numerous examples of authentic discourse data, from a variety of written, spoken and multimodal contexts. Exploring Professional Communication is critical reading for postgraduate and upper undergraduate students of applied linguistics and communication studies.

Stephanie Schnurr is Professor in Sociolinguistics at The University of Warwick, UK. She is the author of Leadership Discourse at Work: Interactions of Humour, Gender and Workplace Culture (2009), and co-author of Culture at Work (2017), and The Language of Leadership Narratives (2019). She has co-edited Identity Struggles at Work (2017), Challenging Leadership Stereotypes through Discourse (2017), Globalisation, Geopolitics, and Gender in Professional Communication (2023), and The Language of Inclusion and Exclusion in Sports (2023).