Discourse In Trust

The first book to bring together researchers and practitioners from a range of professions and institutions in exploring how people develop and may lose Trust through the ways in which they speak, write and act. Includes practical examples of how to conduct Trust-related research using tools from applied linguistics and discourse analysis.

Trust and Discourse: Organizational perspectives offers a timely collection of new articles on the relationship between discursive practices in organizational or institutional contexts and the psychological/moral category of trust. As globalization, the drive for efficiency and accountability, and increased time pressure lead groups and individuals to rethink the way they communicate, it is becoming more and more important to investigate how these streamlined and impersonal forms of communication affect issues of responsibility, authenticity and – ultimately – trust. The book deals with a variety of organizational settings ranging from in-hospital bedside teaching encounters and government communication following a nuclear accident to job interviews and foreign news reporting. This comprehensive study of an emerging new field will provide essential reading for linguists, discourse analysts, communication scholars, and other social scientists interested in a range of perspectives on oral, written and digital language use in society, including interactional sociolinguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, ethnography, multimodality and organizational studies.

John Sinclair is one of the major figures in applied linguistics and his work is essential study for students. This accessible book collects in one volume Sinclair's key papers on written discourse structure, lexis patterns, phraseology, corpus analysis, lexicography and linguistic theory from the 1990s. All the papers have been edited and updated for this book. The clear and accessible introduction helps students to navigate his key themes and arguments, making the volume an ideal companion for those coming to Sinclair's more recent writings for the first time.

This volume stems from a workshop organised by the Corpus Linguistics and Language Variation in English Research Centre, known as CLAVIER, held at the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. It brings together a series of double-reviewed studies on the nature of the dissemination of specialist knowledge in English, its transformation from being a mere repository of information into a proactive source of understanding and empowerment. Through the chapters, the various principles, conceptualisations, constructs and pragmatic dynamics of knowledge dissemination are shown in a range of discourse genres. The studies reveal the multi-levels of knowledge, its varied typology and its ongoing co-construction, maintenance and updating among heterogeneous audiences. Assuming that maintaining credibility and legitimacy is fundamental to successful communication in a globalised and virtual world, the essential complementary aspect to knowledge dissemination is the analysis of the language that builds trust in interpersonal interactions, in different contexts and settings. The first section of the book deals with the building of trust through different strategies in political, academic, tourist and educational contexts. The second discusses ways of building trust via linguistic devices in corporate communication. The third part is concerned with the maintenance and repairing of trust, and the fourth section presents the building/repairing trust processes in the medical sector. The collection is addressed to scholars of linguistics, particularly those concerned with the analysis of specialized languages and their impact on effective communication. It will also appeal to university teachers of English for Special Purposes and researchers interested in corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis.

Trust occupies a unique place in contemporary discourse. Seen as both necessary and good, it is variously depicted as enhancing the social fabric, lowering crime rates, increasing happiness, and generating prosperity. It allows for complex political systems, permits human communication, underpins financial instruments and economic institutions, and holds society itself together. There is scant space within this vision for a nuanced discussion of mistrust. With few exceptions, it is treated as little more than a corrosive absence. This monograph, instead, proposes an ethnographic and conceptual exploration of mistrust as a legitimate epistemological stance in its own right. It examines the impact of mistrust on practices of conversation and communication, friendship and society, as well as politics and cooperation, and suggests that suspicion, doubt, and uncertainty can also ground ways of organizing human society and cooperating with others.

Most Americans agree on the necessity of education reform, but there is little consensus about how this goal might be achieved. The rhetoric of standards and vouchers has occupied center stage, polarizing public opinion and affording little room for reflection on the intangible conditions that make for good schools. Trust in Schools engages this debate with a compelling examination of the importance of social relationships in the successful implementation of school reform. Over the course of three years, Bryk and Schneider, together with a diverse team of other researchers and school practitioners, studied reform in twelve Chicago elementary schools. Each school was undergoing extensive reorganization in response to the Chicago School Reform Act of 1988, which called for greater involvement of parents and local community leaders in their neighborhood schools. Drawing on years longitudinal survey and achievement data, as well as in-depth interviews with principals, teachers, parents, and local community leaders, the authors develop a thorough account of how effective social relationships—which they term relational trust—can serve as a prime resource for school improvement. Using case studies of the network of relationships that make up the school community, Bryk and Schneider examine how the myriad social exchanges that make up daily life in a school community generate, or fail to generate, a successful educational environment. The personal dynamics among teachers, students, and their parents, for example, influence whether students regularly attend school and sustain their efforts in the difficult task of learning. In schools characterized by high relational trust, educators were more likely to experiment with new practices and work together with parents to advance improvements. As a result, these schools were also more likely to demonstrate marked gains in student learning. In contrast, schools with weak trust relations saw virtually no improvement in their reading or mathematics scores. Trust in Schools demonstrates convincingly that the quality of social relationships operating in and around schools is central to their functioning, and strongly predicts positive student outcomes. This book offer insights into how trust can be built and sustained in school communities, and identifies some features of public school systems that can impede such development. Bryk and Schneider show how a broad base of trust across a school community can provide a critical resource as education professional and parents embark on major school reforms. A Volume in the American Sociological Association's Rose Series in Sociology

What to Say, How to Say It, Why It Matters If you're trying to sell something-whether it's a product, a service, or an idea-you are facing a new era of consumers who listen less and question more. The Language of Trust is for anyone who must sell ideas, products, services, or even themselves to a public that just doesn't want to hear it. Based on pioneering consumer research, The Language of Trust shows you how to regain the confidence of your clients and customers and communicate with them on their terms. You'll learn what words to use, what words to lose, and how to structure your message to overcome skepticism and build and keep the trust of your audience.

Explores the implications for democracy of declining trust in government and between individuals.