1 | P a g e MPM732: CRITICAL THINKING FOR MANAGERS Assignment 1- Written Report ……………….. Word Count: 2,1202 | P a g e Critical Discourse Analysis predominately focuses on the question of language and power, with the overall aim of disguising the connections between the discourse (Woods, 2006; Van Dijk, 2001; Fairclough, 2010). The relationship between language and power shows great significance over economic and social changes. The level of influence discourse has is shaped through the means of the information exchange. Language is not powerful on its own; it is influential through a strong link between the context and purpose (Dilts, 1990; Renkema, 2009; Fairclough, 1989). For successful communication to take place, according to the philosopher H. P. Grice it must be assumed that both the conductor and audience in the language exchange are cooperating, this is called the Cooperative Principle. Grice identified four principles which people implicitly rely on when communicating, the Conversational Maxims; the quantity of the communicated information, the quality, the relevance, and the manner in which it is communicated (Grice, 1975). Without conversational models such as Grice’s and Dilts considered, the discourse loses its credibility resulting in powerless language. Successfully discoursing language can have profound influence on the core target audience (Dilts, 1990; Grice, 1975). Analysis of Hillary Clinton famous 1995 speech At the United Nations Fourth World Conference of Women where 180 counties from around the world came together in Beijing China on the 5th of September 1995, Hillary Clinton’s speech had an overall goal of making women's rights, human rights, after observing the inequities that existed around the world (Tyler, 1995). Although her speech demonstrated breaches of women’s rights that have occurred around the globe, with burning of brides in India, and rape used as a tactic of war in Bosnia, her words had a distinct message on the country where the speech was delivered. Clinton questioned their policies of forcing women to be sterilised or undertaking abortions as part of its one child per family policy. Therefore the delivery of the speech in China formed the ideal target audience for the delivery of the speech. The content of the speech generated increased credibility through her well-known status, personal character and the way the speech was delivered. Clinton uses repetition in her speech to highlight the different horrifying experiences women are put through. She starts all eight of the statements with: “It is a violation of human rights when…” The statements used could be relatable to all different types of backgrounds and are visual and graphic, forming the peak crescendo in her speech, which helped to emote emotion from the audience. The examples used gave her speech quantity and reiterated the intent of her speech (Bassham, 2012).3 | P a g e Clinton’s intent of the discourse is to demonstrate if 'women's rights' were interchangeable with 'human rights' the world community would be an improved place for all, as everyone should have an investment into women’s rights. Clinton is trying to make the connection that ‘women rights’ and ‘human rights’ should not be indifferent. Clinton explains that there is a problem in women not having equal rights, and her solution is to create a world in which women are treated with dignity and exempt of discrimination. She has a great sense of belief in the dissemination of the discourse and throughout the speech she provides adequate evidence to support her beliefs (Eidenmuller, 2008). The United Nations Fourth World Conference of Women is designed to offer people the opportunity to communicate about women’s rights. Therefore, the audience receiving the speech formed an ideal setting to explore the topic of women’s rights. The manner in which Clinton clearly delivered the speech and through her high level of confidence heightened her credibility. Clinton used her experiences from the past 25 years through working with issues relating to women, children, and families around the world. This demonstrated competence with her knowledge and expertise to the target audience (Nesler et al., 1993). Clinton utilised a range of strategies within her speech to discourse her views. She was able to correctly sequence the speech to gain the most from the audience. At the commencement of her speech, contributions women make to the world were listed drawing her core target audience in through making relatable references to all women, and demonstrating women have the same capability of men. Clinton set the context of her speech building through Dilts’ logical levels in conversation to her overall purpose while also addressing the principles of Grice’s conversational maxims. (Dilts, 1990; Grice, 1975). Analysis of Toyota’s President’s Report The presidents’ report within a company’s annual report has an important place in meeting the information needs for shareholders and stakeholders. The reports discourse intent is to set a positive tone for the annual report highlighting on profits, successful marketing, campaigns, changing business condition and advises on the company’s future plans (Thomsett, 2007) The content of the speech generates increased credibility through using Akio Toyoda, Toyota President as the author of the 2014 report and assists with the reports intent. The location of the chairs statement within the annual report is the most appropriate location when taking into consideration the content, intent and target, forming the ideal platform available to relay the information. The report commences by thanking the reader for their continued support and understanding through a multitude of challenges. This sets a negative tone for the discourse. Key achievements4 | P a g e in the company’s history is successfully highlighted by Toyoda using positive company data including 10 million vehicles in global group sales; and 330,000 employees all doing their best. Toyoda has given his report an opportunity to increase readership and appeal to new investors and customers (Toyoda, 2014). Sophisticated and target appropriate design and layout techniques are an important consideration in this report. The use of a picture of Toyoda smiling within the 2014 report aids the communication of his overall message of ‘aiming to achieve sustainable growth and to bring smiles’. In the 2013 and 2012 President’s Message, his photo depicted him through a different approach. However, in 2011 when the reports’ intent was also focused around smiles his image was again depicted to support this. (Davis & Walton, 1983; Fairclough 1995; Toyoda, 2014; Toyoda, 2013; Toyoda, 2012; Toyoda, 2011) Toyoda advises the reader the company is making a change of headquarters in North America. He explains the purpose is to provide Toyota the capabilities for sustainable growth (Toyoda, 2014). By providing the reader a purpose it helps to gain support for the change from the core target audience. However it goes on to have a negative counter effect advising the reader that the company in its current business structure is not sustainable and only offers the reader the reassurance that they will be better placed to pursue sustainable growth. It does not provide the reader with persuasive arguments in the discourse that sustainability can actually be achieved through the change. The report fails to obey Grice’s maxims by losing the focus on information intent and does not sway potential investors. (Grice, 1975). The manner in which the report is communicated is perspicuous. It is an appropriate length for the style however the report lacks argumentative and persuasive techniques to engage shareholders and stakeholders. It is humdrum in its approach failing to raise emotion and engage the reader to want to be a part of the company to help it succeed into the future. The report concludes by re-iterating the company is at a critical point and requires much work therefore not achieving its purpose of setting a positive tone for the annual report for the core target audience.5 | P a g e Comparison of speech and President’s Report Both discourse presenters have a wide knowledge base from their own history to discuss the information content relevant to their topic. The content of the discourse is heightened through the person delivering the language. The audience of Clinton’s speech were advocates for women's rights in countries around the world and were excited by the speech as they knew Clinton as a prominent political woman who could give voice to them. The audience knew the words would carry beyond the room and believed in the context due to the quality of her arguments. Clinton makes reference to her experiences over the past 25 years and knowledge to show she is a source of credible evidence to speak on this topic. If the speech was delivered by another woman with a different social status or a man the speech would not have had the same influence. The strong link between the delivery modes strengthens the speech. The content of the speech also generates increased credibility through using Akio Toyoda, Toyota President as the author of the 2014 report. He joined Toyota in 1984 and increased the status of his position when in June 2009 was confirmed as the new president therefore having an extensive knowledge of the company. The content Toyoda reports on is true and informative and provides all the information required to gather an idea of the current status of the company, however by not providing an argumentative angle some of the intent of the report is lost (Toyota, 2012). Clinton uses the evidence within her speech to set her up as a credible source for delivering the speech by addressing that over the past 25 years working on issues for women and through participating in a World Health Organisation forum and attending the United Nations Development Fund of Women. Through Clinton’s speech this evidence not only gives her credibility but also raised the audience’s attention to women’s rights, emphasising the specific purpose of the meeting and highlights the need for future discussion. Clinton also offers evidence that women are suffering from unfair treatment all over the world. Through providing actual facts, she is able to make her speech more persuasive and heightens the quality of the content (Tyler, 1995). Toyoda uses statistics to support the report through stating the company’s unprecedented milestone of 10 million global sales. Toyota’s sales in 2014 were more than any other vehicle company therefore supporting his statement. Toyoda is truthful within his speech using statistics to highlight the company’s success not ignoring the troubles Toyota has had since 2009 and continues to (Fung, 2015). However the report fails to use argumentative moves and evidence to argue how these times will enhance the company’s capabilities into the future. This may have been admitted from the President’s Message as it was not available and he did not want to say what he lacked adequate evidence for.6 | P a g e Clinton and Toyoda focused their discourse on their core target audience. The discourse related clearly to the topic and purpose of the exchange staying relevant to the topic under discussion. This assisted the audience in understanding the topics and helped to avoid an incorrect message being depicted. Toyoda lacks explanations and arguments to support his paper which is a strength of Clinton’s speech. Clinton acknowledges that in past history women have been silent but offered the argument that therefore they now must be heard loud and clear. Arguments within the speech help by providing the listener with the evidence to support the claim, helping to enhance the discourse. Clinton created arguments that the audience could understand which helped to influence the audience’s views. Toyoda lacked to create any form of argument within his report; he stated what Toyota needs to do to succeed but failed to explain how they will be able to achieve these successes (Tyler, 1995). Spoken and written languages are different, with different purposes. Both mediums used by Clinton and Toyoda heighten their discourse and utilise the best platforms available to disseminate the information. They understood there audience and did not use words the audience would not understand (Luntz, 2007). The speech format allowed Clinton to be significantly more effective in expressing meaning to the audience. Releasing the speech as a statement would have lost some of its emotive capabilities. Clinton’s ability to add to the text volume, pitch, pauses and visual cues assisted in communicating the content. Clinton’s delivery of the speech in a formal and frank manner matched the seriousness of the issue and astutely let the audience express their own reactions. (Jaffe, 2010).The report is more humdrum in its nature therefore does not rely on the added assistance speech can offer to gain a crescendo. The location of the statement by the President within the annual report provided ideal access to all of the core target audience. Without models such as Grice’s conversational maxims and Dilts logical levels of conversation considered, the discourse loses its credibility resulting in powerless language. It is evident that through successfully discoursing language it can have profound influence on intended core target audience. Clinton’s speech adhered to Grice’s maxims which earned the speech high marks from the New York Times, where they expressed it ‘may have been her finest moment in public life’ and it became one of the Top 100 Speeches in American Rhetoric (Dilts, 1990, Grice, 1975; Eidenmuller, 2008). Akio Toyoda’s report does not have the same impact as Clinton’s speech and therefore will not be remembered as a piece of powerful discourse. The report supports the theory that when conversational models are not fully supports the discourse loses its credibility and the power that language can provide. It is evident language can have a powerful influence on the core target audience by successfully discoursing language (Fairclough, 1989).7 | P a g e References Bassham, G. (2012). Critical thinking : a student's introduction. New York : McGraw-Hill. Davis, H., & Walton, P. (1983). Language, Image, Media. Oxford: Blackwell. Dilts, R. (1990). Changing Belief Systems with NLP. Cupertino, Calif:MetaPublications. Eidenmuller, M. (2008). Hillary Rodham Clinton- Remarks to the U.N. 4th World Conference on Women Plenary Session. Retrieved March 16, 2015 from http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/hillaryclintonbeijingspeech.htm Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. London: Longman. Fairclough, N. (1995). Media Discourse. London: Edward Arnold. Fairclough, N. (2010). Critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language. Harlow: Longman. Fung, D. (2015). Toyota claims worldwide sales crown for 2014, ahead of Volkswagen, GM. 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