Title of Major Assignment One: Financial Communication
My topic of what I am researching is how a finance professional (e.g. personal financial advisor, stock broker, accountant), effectively communicates to their clients and the various communication styles that play into this task. There are many factors that play into how this communication takes place, each client is different and requires different needs or accommodations to be met. In my preliminary analysis, I was planning on giving background information on the many different fields of finance and the importance of effective communication between client and advisor. Since the majority of my classmates seem to study in fields other than business I felt that this background would shape their perspective on this topic to parallel my own. After providing background information I am planning to dive into how rhetorical techniques are used in finance. Here, I will utilize the responses from my interviews to reveal how one has to alter their communication techniques and rhetorical approach to reach and consult with an audience that, in most cases, have no understanding on how to manage their money. I initially wanted to only provide the many rhetorical approaches finance professionals use; however, now I will work to compare and contrast these rhetorical approaches to see which ones were the most effective communication. Since I am working with a topic that is not directly correlated with “sciences” I have ran into troubles of researching information that relates to communication techniques and not just information on what to do with your money to maximize a portfolio return (the usual perception of finance). I hope the following questions will help myself develop an effective analysis:
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Charles Bazerman’s “Patents as Speech Acts and Legal Objects” chapter functions as a case study in rhetorical genre analysis with its use of informing the reader on how professionals in this scientific field tend to communicate. An example of where I noticed Bazerman informing his audience how professionals communicate is in “The Living Complexity of Located Speech Acts” and in “Genres as Speech Acts” sections. These sections define speech acts as “a generalized understanding of speech acts, illuminate the richness of an activity embodied by utterances within circumstances” (Bazerman, 17). Here, these sections talk about how one can alter their writing/ communication style and eliminate common mistakes “for the sake of analytical clarity” (Bazerman, 18). Overall, his tools employ how to clean up one’s writing style in order to better connect with a specific discourse community.
To begin, what I can steal from Bazerman in conducting my own analysis is utilizing his analysis of speech acts, and identifying common issues in its theory to enhance my communication style to my specific audience. In my initial proposal for my preliminary analysis, I am still interested in the behavioral and thinking side of finance with analyzing how people think and rationalize decisions; however, I plan to focus in on professionals in that field to get their knowledge on the subject. When interviewing a professional in the field of finance, some questions I may as are as follows; “When working with a client, what variables have the most impact on their investment strategy”, “Is there a substantial difference on how one will invest based not only on their gender, but their age as well”, and “What texts/ other resources could I consult to further gain insight on my preliminary analysis topic”. These three questions will give me a strong foundation on gathering vital information to achieve my overall objective, as well as analyzing how my analysis aligns with this course’s goal to truly understand its intended outcomes. In Bazerman’s “Speech Acts, Genres, and Activity Systems: How Texts Organize Activity and People”, some terms and methods that he describes in his text that I can relate to my specific major or analyzing other discourse communities are “social acts” and “speech acts”. Bazerman describes social facts as “those things people believe to be true, and therefore bear on how they define a situation” (p. 312). This relates to my discourse community in the finance world because as someone who is trusted to manage client’s money and invest in the best interest of the client, they [the client] have to trust in my knowledge on the financial decisions I recommend to them. For example, if apple is expected to release a new iPhone, iPad, and MacBook in the same year; the client would have to believe that my intuition that apple stock will increase and take my recommendation to invest in apple to heart. Secondly, Bazerman describes speech acts as “how to do things with words, argued that words not only mean things, they do things” (p. 313). Not only do I think that this relates to my specific finance related discourse community, but it relates to all discourse communities because words are the medium of how every human being tells a story, relays information, and tries to persuade their audience.
The activity system that I am most interested in investigating are the behavioral aspects that affect a client’s financial planning process. From understanding a client’s investing thought process and how they make decisions, to how the financial manager has to work with these “obstacles” to effectively manage their money, I am interested in learning more about what goes on behind the scenes in finance. I might determine what to include by breaking down the different areas of finance (e.g personal finance, investments, derivatives, international finance, etc.) and focus on one specific area. Additionally, I am interested in interviewing my academic advisor, Dr. Michael Melton, who is also in charge of the CAFÉ program at Roger Williams University. His immense amount of knowledge can also aid myself in determining what to include. To begin, the article that I have chosen for minor assignment three is an online Forbes Magazine article titled, “How Holiday Overspending Makes Debt-Retirement Harder”. Since I am a finance major, I chose an article not only related to my field of expertise, but also a problem that impacts many people. In short, this article described how cutting out wants (e.g spending five dollars a day on coffee and making your own), to save money and then put those savings into a 401K can accumulate hundreds of dollars at the end of the year. Also, this article explained that overspending on major holidays and birthdays is a leading cause to credit card debt. It is recommended that one be honest with themselves and their loved ones on how much they can spend and if that means sacrificing slightly will financially aid you for years to come.
The rhetorical processes in this article that constitute to science in my field are the strong use of logos in this article. The author relies heavily on logistics of how saving a few dollars today is not only a huge sacrifice in the present, but can provide an immense amount of gratification in the future (e.g. a large sum of money waiting for you when you retire). Additionally, I am able to touch upon the use of deliberative rhetoric on the fact that recommended courses of action based on imperfect knowledge of the future will hopefully aid one’s future for the better. Lastly, the rhetorical cannons of delivery, style, and arrangement easily connect with an audience looking for financial advice on simple ways improve their financial budgeting. The article uses effective tone/ language to connect to this audience and in the end outlines three simple steps for someone to follow to achieve their goal. |
AuthorLuke Grabowski Archives
April 2018
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