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Corpus linguistics studies real-life language use on the basis of a text corpus, drawing on both quantitative and qualitative text analysis techniques. This article seeks to bridge the gap between the social sciences and linguistics by introducing the techniques of corpus linguistics to the field of computer-aided text analysis. The article first discusses the differences between corpus linguistics and computer-aided text analysis, which is divided into computer-aided content analysis and computer-aided interpretive textual analysis. It then outlines the techniques of corpus linguistics for exploring textual data. In an exemplary analysis of letters to shareholders, the article demonstrates how these techniques can be applied to compare letters to shareholders from two different years. The article concludes with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of corpus linguistics for management and organization studies.

Research has shown that privacy policies tend to intensify privacy concerns rather than engender trust. One way to combat this dichotomy is to redesign their content, language, and presentation format.

The opaque use of data collection methods on the WWW has given rise to privacy concerns among Internet users. Privacy policies on websites may ease these concerns, if they communicate clearly and unequivocally when, how and for what purpose data are collected, used or shared. This paper examines privacy policies from a linguistic angle to determine whether the language of these documents is adequate for communicating data-handling practices in a manner that enables informed consent on the part of the user. The findings highlight that corporate privacy policies obfuscate, enhance and mitigate unethical data handling practices and use persuasive appeals to increase companies' trustworthiness. The communicative strategies identified provide starting points for redesigning existing privacy statements with a view to communicating data handling practices in a more transparent and responsible manner, laying the groundwork for informed consent.

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