This paper contrasts business letters and telefax messages in two languages and three cultures. The languages are Finnish and English, and the cultures Finnish, British, and American. It offers a framework for studying authentic business writing and introduces findings from a research project in which this framework was employed. An emphasis is placed on examining interpersonal elements in these languages and cultures. This is done through requests, which are frequent message types in business writing and sensitive to situational and interpersonal factors. The paper reports notable findings concerning the influence of power and social distance. Differences between British and American writing are reported, especiaHy in the use of thie participant in the action. The British avoid referring to themselves äs individuals, while the American writers identify themselves with the Company or employ the reader perspective. The Finnish writers display a wide ränge of evasive methods to express the participant.
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