ABSTRACT
Systematic analyses of organizational texts are similar to the intense work an actor does with a script prior to crafting a performance. Cooren provides instances of what texts do across five major speech acts: assertiveness such as informing, confirming, indicating, reminding, contradicting; commissives such as committing, promising, threatening, assuring; directives such as requesting, advising, warning, demanding; declarations such as dismissing, approving, legalizing, blessing; and expressives such as thanking and apologizing. “Content analysis” is a method of developing categories from the text (e.g., newsletters, interview transcripts, email correspondence, etc.) and developing a method of counting material related to each of the categories. “Rhetorical analysis” is typically more qualitative and less quantitative than content analysis. Thus, rather than counting based on categories, the researcher examines the author, background, purpose, strategy, and effect of written or oral texts. Systematic analyses of organizational texts are similar to the intense work an actor does with a script prior to crafting a performance.
