TITLE:
Politeness in Business Writing: The Effects of Ethnicity and Relating Factors on Email Communication
AUTHORS:
Mohammad Awad AlAfnan
KEYWORDS:
Email Communication, Politeness Strategies, Ethnicity, Social Distance, Power Relations
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Modern Linguistics,
Vol.4 No.2,
May
26,
2014
ABSTRACT: This study
investigated politeness in workplace emails that were written in a Malaysian
educational institute. It examined the use of politeness strategies in
relation to the ethnicity of the communicators, power relations and social
distance. Previous research on Malaysian workplace emails revealed that
Malaysians usually use the direct imperative or declarative politeness strategies
in emails. This study however, revealed that the Malaysian employees (i.e.,
Malay, Chinese Malaysians, Indian Malaysians) mainly used the indirect positive
and negative politeness strategies. This is the case to establish rapport and
connect with the recipient on the personal level. The study also revealed that
social distance played a more significant role than power imbalance as
Malaysians, in general, seemed more polite
to distant colleagues than they were to close colleagues.