| Author: | Charles, Richard Johnathan Clifford |
| Title: | An analysis of the effects of a training course on plain English writing strategies in a Hong Kong workplace environment |
| Advisors: | Lam, Phoenix (ENGL) |
| Degree: | M.A. |
| Year: | 2021 |
| Subject: | English language -- Business English -- Study and teaching Adult learning Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Department of English |
| Pages: | 83 pages |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | This research project examines the effectiveness of a training course focusing on the main tenets of plain English at work. The course was delivered to a group of 10 Hong Kong professionals mostly in the area of business development and finance although there were some engineers. The project employed an adapted qualitative coding research methodology which focused on six key strategies taught on the course. The procedure involved analyzing a pre-course task, a post-course authentic text submission and responses to short open interview questions. The results suggest that key issues faced by the participants were controlling sentence length, avoiding clutter, redundancy and repetition, and leaning towards the active voice. The findings also indicate that several months after the course had finished, the participants were still aware of areas of their writing that required attention and were still attempting to address these issues. Finally, more expansive research is recommended in order to establish broader findings across the professional population of Hong Kong as a whole or akternatively, focused specifically on a tragetted profession or organisation such as the civil service. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5700.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 2.44 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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