Move Analysis of English Business Email Correspondence: The Case of Inquiries and Replies in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Ping-sung Apollo Chih, 池秉松
• Other Authors: Mei-chen Huang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/96yz5e

碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 英語學系 === 103 === In view of English as a lingua franca as well as a need to equip EFL learners with proficient English written communication skills in Asian business community, there is a demand of a recognizable business correspondence writing model in Taiwan. This study aims to investigate the inquiry and reply exchange of business email correspondence among Asian business personnel and explore the structural pattern employed in English business emails (EBE). Thirty pairs of English business email correspondence (EBEC) consisting of the inquiries initiated by the buyer and replies from the seller were collected from foreign trade companies in Taiwan and analyzed with the adapted coding schemes from previous move analysis models (Amirian, 2003; Bhatia, 1993; Cheung, 2011; Kong, 1998). The result shows the email writers diversify strategies used in the seven-move inquiry emails and six-move reply emails. In the inquiry emails, M1, M2, M4, and M7 were found as necessity moves and could counted for at least 97 percent of the Inquiry move structures. As for the Reply emails, M1, M2, M3, M5, and M6 were the core elements and constitute 90 percent of the reply move structures. The combination move patterns of inquiry emails seem more diversified than those of reply emails. It was also found that all move patterns in Inquiry and Reply emails are organized in a linear manner. However, the steps under each move may occur non-linearly. The Move-Step structural patterns of inquiry and reply emails found in this study may provide a reference for facilitating professional EBEC writing in practice With this finding, a systematic model can be constructed to meet the expectation of the business discourse community and the EBE novices will be empowered a solid foundation of business email writing.