Erika Darics
I am a linguist - discourse analyst - business communication consultant and soft skills advocate.
I am passionate about communication and language: I strive to understand its power and to be able to pass this knowledge on to students.
I have been studying and researching communication in the business environment for almost 10 years, and published in a range of academic journals and edited volumes. But I am equally proud of my work published for non-academic audiences: my book on "Writing online" by Business Expert Press, and my work-in-progress book on "Language in Business, Language at work" by Palgrave.
I lead the BSc Business Management and English Language programme at Aston University and teach modules related to leadership and management communication, corporate communication and discourse analysis. I work with businesses and organisations to improve their efficiency through better communication and culture.
I am passionate about communication and language: I strive to understand its power and to be able to pass this knowledge on to students.
I have been studying and researching communication in the business environment for almost 10 years, and published in a range of academic journals and edited volumes. But I am equally proud of my work published for non-academic audiences: my book on "Writing online" by Business Expert Press, and my work-in-progress book on "Language in Business, Language at work" by Palgrave.
I lead the BSc Business Management and English Language programme at Aston University and teach modules related to leadership and management communication, corporate communication and discourse analysis. I work with businesses and organisations to improve their efficiency through better communication and culture.
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Books by Erika Darics
The book is split into three parts, which look at business communication from corporate, management and employee perspectives. Wide-ranging in nature, it explores a variety of topics ranging from stakeholder communication and brand narratives to managing conflict and self-branding. Each chapter contains ample opportunity for readers to put new skills into practice, while case studies act as springboards for further discussion.
This is essential reading for students of both language and business-related disciplines, both during and beyond their studies. It is also an indispensable resource for teachers of business communication.
Thesis by Erika Darics
In this thesis, I have outlined a CMC cue system based on the previous findings of CMDA to investigate the range of cues used as non-verbal signals in workplace text- based CMC. I have also used a multi-perspectival approach based on the theoretical frameworks of interactional sociolinguistics, communities of practice, relational work and politeness and conversation analysis (CA) in order to investigate the range of interactional roles of paralanguage during computer-mediated business conversations. The interpretive CA-informed analysis I have conducted has provided evidence of the important role of non-verbal signals during the contextualisation of complex transactional and relational communicative goals in the workplace.
The analysis in this thesis has provided two significant results: firstly, by incorporating the findings of research into paralanguage of spoken as well as other written genres it resulted in a comprehensive description of the orthographic and typographic non-verbal cues used in text-based CMC and, secondly, by drawing on the multi-perspectival framework, it allowed for a description of the complex interactional functions of these cues during the contextualisation of content and relational intent and the creation of interactional coherence in IM.
Papers by Erika Darics
Talks by Erika Darics
This paper builds on the theoretical framework of Communities of Practice to focus on the creation and establishment of team identity and hierarchy through the usage of discursive practices and linguistic devices in Instant Messaging. The close analysis of naturally occurring interactions focuses on the creative use of language in the written environment - in particular linguistic practices that enable team members to express paralinguistic cues in writing. The analysis proves that the virtual team’s identity is fostered by the negotiation of communicative norms, in particular of norms including deviant language forms. The creative use of (written) non-verbal cues has also been found a crucial strategy to enact linguistic politeness, thus contributing both to the maintenance of the team and to the attenuation of hierarchical inequalities. The analysis discusses the role of punctuation, hesitation, emoticons, deviant spelling and chronemic (time-related) cues in particular.
References:
Herring, S. C. (2004). Computer-mediated discourse analysis: An approach to researching online behavior. In S. A. Barab, R. Kling & J. H. Gray (Eds.), Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning (pp. 338-376) Cambridge University Press.
The present papers examines dyadic, work-related Instant Message (IM) interactions in order to further our understanding of the non-verbal cues available in text-based synchronous computer-mediated communication channels. In particular, I examine “chronemic” cues, i.e. time-related non-verbal cues that enable participants to orient themselves in interpreting messages (or the lack of messages), or contribute to the maintenance of interpersonal relationships. Through qualitative analyses, the study accounts for delays, gaps, “overlaps”, quick succession of messages; and examine their influence on the interpretation of both the content and interpersonal relationships between the participants. The results of the analysis also account for the blurring borders between the synchronicity/asynchronicity of IM use in the virtual work environment, hence further our understanding of the interactional uses of this particular computer-mediated communication channel.
To examine these cues I draw on the findings of interactional sociolinguistics, as it provides an analytical framework that accounts for how the linguistic choices of the participants contribute to the negotiation of meaning and the creation of the context. In interactional sociolinguistics, contextualization cues are surface features of linguistic and non-verbal forms that contribute to the signalling of contextual presuppositions as well as to interactive cooperation (Gumperz, 1982), and are often associated with audio and visual cues. However, in IM, due to the nature of written computer-mediated interactions, audio and visual contextualization cues are not possible. This paper therefore aims to explore which linguistic and discursive practices are used in the discussions of a virtual team as contextualization cues to aid people to make decisions about how to interpret a given utterance.
The qualitative analysis of naturally occurring Instant Messaging interactions focuses on elements of spoken discourse, for example, hesitation, backchannel signals, interjections and expressive re-spelling to evoke sound effects as a means of re-constructing audio contextualization cues in writing. The analysis also explores how the participants re-create the auditory signals by drawing on hypothesised shared background knowledge of spoken interactions.
Gumperz, J.J. 1982, Discourse Strategies, Cambridge University Press.