ABSTRACT
After discussing what professional communication means and what kinds of interactions this term incorporates, this chapter addresses the issue of how we can categorise the various (often very different) communicative instances that fall under the broad umbrella of professional communication. What does the language spoken in business meetings have in common with the language used on the factory floor? Are there similarities between courtroom discourse and classroom interactions? Are promotional letters and job applications really that different? This chapter aims to address these questions by exploring how we can capture potential similarities while at the same time accounting for the diversity of different types of professional communication.
