Genre Analysis on Annual Reports
Genre Analysis: Assignment Information Sheet In brief. A genre analysis is a type of argument that helps people understand how a particular type of writing works. As such, this assignment asks you to accomplish three interrelated goals: 1.) Identify at least three samples of a specific written genre (a type of writing). You may want to select a genre that is used by an academic community you are studying to become a part of (e.g. physicists, computer scientists, art historians, etc.). 2.) Use the workflow document to help you analyze these samples. This document is extremely detailed. 3.) Conduct library research to build an argument about how or why the genre functions within that community. Audience and Content. Your writing will be geared toward an audience of your peers: members of this class. The purpose of this assignment is to offer an argument about how a specific kind of writing works. For example, let’s say you want to analyze the film review genre. What makes it persuasive or effective? Why does it take the form that it does? Why are certain linguistic or rhetorical choices made? What social impact does it have? What makes a “good” film review? Getting Started. As you begin this assignment, consider some of these invention questions: • How and when is the genre used? • What topics, issues, and debates does the genre deal with? • Who writes/reads the genre? Under what circumstances? • What purpose does it fulfill for readers and writers? Relevant Readings that would help prepare for this assignment: • Wardle and Downs (2020) Genres and How Writers and Readers Depend on Them (pp.30- 41) • Wardle and Downs (2020) Formulating a Research Question (pp. 56-61) • Bazerman (2015) Speech Acts, Genres … (in Week 7&8 Module) What makes it good? 1.) Offering a logical argument about how a specific genre works, 2.) Organizing your argument in terms of the rhetorical, content-based, structural, or linguistic patterns that define the genre (the workflow doc will guide you through these specifics!), and 3.) Supporting your argument with thorough library research (we will devote class time to developing your research skills). Sources, Formatting, and Timeline. This paper should be 1,000-1,200 words long, and it should be formatted following APA conventions. You will need to complete a rough draft by November 17th (Thursday) before class, when you will circulate it for reader response during class. You are, as always, encouraged to seek feedback during office hours or by appointment at any point during the drafting process.
Genre Analysis on Annual Reports
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General Analysis on Annual Reports
Stock market investing is one of the ways through which rich people grow money, with successful investors such as Warren Buffett making billions through investments in the stock market. Annual reports are indispensable to investors who would like to invest their money in the stock markets. Wardle and Downs (2020, p. 34) have described the genre as a class of text that is written for a specific niche. To this end, public companies write annual reports to inform shareholders about the financial position of the company. On the one hand, annual reports are used to provide objective information concerning the financial situation of a company. On the other hand, the annual reports are written in such a way that they paint a company in a positive light. The communicative purpose of the annual report is in line with Swaleh’s (1990) traditional definition of a genre as a communicative event with a communicative purpose. What most readers do not realize is that the two main interconnected purposes of an annual report utilize different communication strategies to achieve their means. Communicating the financial standing of a company requires the author of the annual report to present objective facts about the financial standing of the company while painting the company in a positive light requires the use of strategies that allows the readers to make inferences about the company that may not be necessarily evident from the presented objective data. The aim of this essay is to examine how annual reports are written using two distinct strategies to meet their communicative purposes. The essay will begin by examining the writing strategies used to present objective data on the financial position of a company, and then examine strategies used to promote the company.
Companies are always looking for investors to become shareholders of their companies. Hart and Zingales (2017) note that shareholder provides companies with capital that does not attract interest. The tabular sections of annual reports present objective data that the investor can analyze to determine the performance of a company. Annual reports from Apple, Unilever Inc., and Boeing were analyzed to determine the communication presented to provide the financial standings of a company. All the annual reports from the three companies had a tabular section that detailed the financial information of the company. As shown in figure 1 below from Apple’s annual report, annual reports contain a detailed list of the assets and liabilities of the companies. With the data, an investor can determine the exact financial standing of the company. The objective presentation of the data in the annual reports also includes a statement from independent auditors to certify that the financial information provided by companies in the annual report can be considered a true and fair financial representation of a given company. Unilever PLC's annual report is audited by KPMG LLP, Apple Inc.'s annual report is audited by Ernst and Young LLP, and Deloitte & Touche LLP audits Boeing. The investor can access reports from the independent auditor and use them to confirm that the tabular data is objective.
Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1: Apple's balance sheet detailing its assets and liabilities (Apple, 2021).
On the other hand, the non-tabular section of the data provides information that is intended to ensure that the investor reading the report sees the company in a positive light. As such, different writing strategies that differ from the ones used in the tabular part are used. From the analysis, the lexical means used to write the non-tabular part of the three annual reports parallel the ones that are used by genres whose main objective is promotion. To this end, the three annual reports heavily used positive words that imply a positive financial performance of the company. Bazerman (2004, pp. 313-314) notes “words not only mean things but they are intended to do things.” The use of positive words in the annual reports paints a rosy picture...