ABSTRACT
In this study, the original discourse quality index (DQI) has been amended so that a more tailored version can be applied to the case study of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). This chapter focuses on the DQI and the literature surrounding its application before explaining the amended version of the DQI used in this study. To illustrate how the amended DQI has been used, extracts from speeches (or interventions as they are commonly referred to in the IMO) are drawn from one of the debates in the Maritime Safety Committee's (MSC) 97th session on the need for an interim solution for the carriage of industrial personnel (MSC 2016). In this IMO meeting, the delegates were considering whether there is a need for a short-term (interim) solution for the issue of ‘more than 12 industrial personnel’ travelling by ships. For a closer look at how the coding of the IMO speeches has been done in practice, refer to the codebook attached in Annex A.
