The purpose of this article is to provide insights into the processes of public discourse and how information can be reformulated for public consumption. The article draws on data from readability research of public information documents conducted in Australia. Public information documents need to be understood by members of the public and a lexicogrammatical analysis, centred on a Theme and Rheme analysis, provides a platform through which readability, or a text’s coherence, can be further examined. The readability data combined with text analyses demonstrate readers’ preferences for clearer Theme structures and coherent development of information within the Rheme. The analysis highlights the functional differences between a text-section judged as difficult-to-read and a text-section preferred by the reader-participants, providing insights into the requirements for achieving clearer public discourse.
Good communication skills are seen as a requirement for many professions and form part of a professional’s expertise. Focusing on writing skills, this paper draws on research into the production and reception of public information documents (PIDs) in Australia. To triangulate data from three sources, a multi-perspective framework was adopted. First, the document writers in the organisations were interviewed, and second, the PIDs’ reception was explored through readability testing with members of the public. The third perspective involved analysing the semiotic resource, the published PIDs themselves. Research data revealed that organisational authors adopted specific writing processes and understood that their documents targeted a diverse audience. However, although the content of the documents was accurate, most reader-participants did not find them easy to understand. Building on these preliminary findings, this paper investigates the context and processes of professional writing in the workplace and related connections to the concept of written communicative expertise. I link my findings to issues encountered in my work as a communication consultant. These links highlight the importance of fostering connections between linguists, content area experts and managers in organisations to improve our understanding and training in the skillsets that lead to written communicative expertise.
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