Formal business style: features and examples. Formal and business style

Business style - what is it?

Business style- one of functional styles language that "serves" the sphere of official business relations.

Business style is standardization, information content, consistency and etiquette.

Business style is:

1) actually formal business style(or, as it is often called, clerical);

2) legal style(language of laws, legislative and by-laws);

3) diplomatic style.


Business style is applied in situations business communication:

  • organization - organization (business letter);
  • person - organization (application, resume);
  • organization - person (order, job description).

The communication situation determines the genre of the business document. The content of a particular document covers many business circumstances, but the document does not correspond to each individual circumstance, but to the standard situation as a whole. Therefore, a standardized (corresponding to a single sample) form of the document and a standardized language of the document are selected.

From a formal point of view, a document is a set of attributes (content elements).

What is standardization?

There are three types of standardization:

    The first type is sample-matrix... It is characterized by the fixedness of three parameters of the text: a set of attributes, their sequence, and their spatial arrangement. Passport, ballot paper, tax return - this is the matrix.

    The second type is sample-model... It has a higher level of flexibility compared to the matrix sample. The wording can be more free, the spatial arrangement of the requisites - not strict. Application, power of attorney, resume are written according to the model.

    The third type is sample diagram... This is the least rigid type of document organization, characterized by only one parameter of a fixed set of attributes (content elements). Explanatory letter is built according to the scheme.

With the transition to a more flexible design and with the complication of the content, the range of search and the possibility of choosing linguistic means for conveying specific circumstances of the official business speech situation increases.

What is informativeness?

A document is a business paper with legal force. A document always requires a detailed and complete presentation, so that the business situation is restored to the reader in all details and becomes clear to him.

Informativeness is:

  • the use of stylistically neutral and bookish elements;
  • lack of expressively colored vocabulary and interjections;
  • uniqueness of what was said (written).

In business speech, the use of personal pronouns (he, she, they, it) is avoided, since their use in the context may contradict the requirements of accuracy and clarity of presentation. Business speech is characterized by the use of terms and close to unambiguous special words of the language, for example: decree, resolution(in stationery style), show someone deep respect(in a diplomatic style).

What is consistency?

The consistency and validity of presentation in a business speech is:

  • correct use of complex subordinate sentences with unions that convey logical relationships (causes, effects, conditions);
  • correct use of all kinds of clarifications, adverbial phrases, plug-in constructions;
  • development of semantic relations using complex conjunctions and prepositions ( due to the fact that; for what etc.).

Typical for legal, administrative and social activities... For such a phenomenon as the culture of speech, the official business style is very important, because with its help documents and business papers are drawn up concerning state tasks, court cases and diplomatic communication. It is characterized by isolation, stability of many speech turns, specific vocabulary and special syntactic turns. Documents written in a formal business manner are compact and filled with clichés and language clichés. These are international treaties, state decrees and acts, legal laws and court orders, various statutes and official correspondence, as well as other types of business papers that differ in their accuracy and language standard.

This is a special culture of speech. Formal and business style, in addition to clichés and linguistic clichés in abundance, it includes professional terminology and archaisms. When using this style, polysemous words are not used at all. Documents avoid synonyms, and if they are used, then their style is also strictly adhered to and the vocabulary is, as it were, constrained in frames, beyond which it is forbidden to go beyond.

But the official business style uses nouns in abundance, naming people by activity, positions are always called in the masculine gender. Often, words with a particle are not used as antonyms for the same words when they are used without a negative particle. Popular in business documents and complex and infinitives in the designation of performed or performed actions. A fairly large place in this style of speech is given to complex words.

The formal business style favors homogeneous members. Passive constructions are also often used, that is, impersonal sentences without indicating the person performing the action. The genitive case of nouns forms a chain of syntactic constructions; sentences are often very common and encumbered with a conditional clause.

The official business style has two varieties: formal documentary and everyday business. The first group is the language of such legislative acts as the Constitution. Russian Federation and its subjects, statutes and programs of parties, as well as diplomatic documents of international importance, such as a communique, memorandum, convention, etc. The second group includes the language used in the process of conducting official correspondence and drafting private business papers. These include a variety of references, business letters, power of attorney, announcement, statement, receipt, autobiography, etc. It is known to what extent the listed papers are standardized, which greatly facilitates their drafting. The information they contain is concise and used to a minimum.

It is known that the English language is a means of international communication. Therefore, formal business style in English used in the diplomatic sub-style when business papers are subject to translation. Varieties of business speech in this case are determined by the sphere of use. Trade agreements and contracts are handled in the style of commercial correspondence. In the legal field, the language of codes, laws, state and parliamentary decisions is used. The language of paramilitary business papers stands out separately.

Thus, the official business style of the English language is intended to play the role of a tool with which the parties understand the essence of the matter, which leads to the signing of various agreements.

Today the relevance of the study and application of this concept is difficult to overestimate. The role of business etiquette is important in the life of each specific organization, and is also of great importance in international level... Competent possession business style increases the status and authority of a person, opening up new career and personal prospects for them. It can be described as a formula for success, the result of which is influenced by a person's speech, behavior and dress code.

Definition and origins of business style in speech

Business style in speech Is a set of linguistic and other means that can be applied in the field of official communications. Such relationships can arise between people, organizations and states. This communication format is rooted in antiquity. In the era of the Kiev state, documents began to appear that had legal force. Among other book styles, the origins of the business style originated already in the 10th century. Until now, it is used to draw up legislative documents, orders, agreements, in official correspondence.

Formal business style- a functional variety of the language, which is characterized by stability and standardization. It does not allow ambiguous and poorly structured sentences and phrases. Words are used exclusively in their direct meaning. Examples of this style are the reports of figures at ceremonial and official meetings and sessions. It is also used in a working atmosphere at meetings, presentations, meetings.

Forms of manifestation of business style


The official format finds its application in writing, oral communication, and wardrobe. Dressing is peculiar business card person, whether he is in the presidency, runs a company or performs ordinary functions in it. In addition to the first impression, clothing can have a psychological effect on the interlocutors. Business style clothing requires increased attention.

Corporate manners are manifested in human behavior. Components: the ability to remain calm and behave with dignity in a non-standard situation, the will to act, the willingness to take responsibility, not to be afraid to be flexible, to be objective. Business behavior obeys certain: common sense, ethics, expediency, conservatism, efficiency and others.

Business speaking style

The dress code of the company and its functions

Every serious company has its own dress code. It helps to unify appearance employees, and maintain the company's image. positively affects the reputation of the company and creates an overall impression of it in the eyes of clients. Each employee's wardrobe should have at least four suits, which should be changed periodically. It is not recommended to wear the same suit for two or more days in a row.

In some large companies specific and rather stringent requirements are spelled out. The dress code in the contract with the employee is given several pages with detailed description clothing and materials from which it must be made. In comparison with foreign firms, the CIS countries are more loyal to the uniform of their employees. Separate requirements are established for the mandatory business style for negotiations, presentations or retreats. Friday is considered a “no tie day” unless important meetings are scheduled for that day.

The introduction of a dress code is reflected not only in the general corporate culture... Tastefully selected wardrobe makes the employee more disciplined. He feels the personal responsibility that is assigned to him when. Such people are more likely to be successful in negotiations.

The importance of adhering to a business style in business

In the business world, it is extremely important to adhere to a certain set of rules and regulations that dictate the manner of conversation and behavior in different situations. Adhering to these requirements, you can count on an effective meeting, negotiation, and contract signing. Even a dinner or meeting without ties should be done in the right way.

Compliance with business style is not unattainable for beginners. Everyone can learn the basic principles according to which a meeting, conversation, presentation should take place. The theory has long defined the basic models of behavior, described important principles and norms. For example, at the first meeting, the dating algorithm is as follows: greeting, introduction and exchange of business cards.

In practice, difficulties can arise, since everything requires experience. Do not be afraid of your own mistakes. It is considered good practice to directly ask for advice from a more knowledgeable person. At the same time, one should maintain an acceptable distance, avoid familiarity in behavior and not curry favor with the interlocutor.

Business style rules for meetings without ties


At such meetings, important issues are not resolved and documents are not signed. The informal atmosphere is conducive to discussing general prospects and plans for the future, casual conversations about family and hobbies. You can relax and deviate from strict standards. Informal business attire allows you to wear more comfortable things. In whatever free format the communication takes place, the interlocutors must behave with dignity and friendliness in order to have a good time together.

Diverse. In every life situation there are certain norms of communication. In the official sphere, there are also specific norms that sometimes run counter to the general language. This is a feature of the formal business style. It is dry and insipid, all turns in it are unambiguous and constant.

Formal and business style: definition

The formal business style is the style of business and legislation that has evolved over the years. His characteristic feature constancy in the use of the same words and lexical phrases is considered.

Which every person meets periodically in his life, must be clear and unambiguous. In addition, all of his genres are written according to the same templates. Sometimes to get new document, it's enough just to rewrite 2-3 words.

Stylistic features

Like anyone else, it has its own characteristic signs... The official business style in business texts is characterized by the accuracy and unambiguity of presentation, a must-prescriptive character, complete impersonality, the absence of any emotional manifestations, standard and stereotypicality.

Any document should be interpreted in only one way. Therefore, all the data presented in it are unambiguous, because otherwise means confusion and lawlessness in any business.

Since it is a business style, it is used to regulate official sphere life of a person and society. Everything that is stated in it must be unquestioningly fulfilled.

There can be no personal characteristics or subjective interpretations in the documents. Therefore, the official business style of the Russian literary language admits of presentation personal information only in insignificant documents such as a statement or explanatory to argue the need for this or that action.

The unambiguity of the presentation interprets and high degree stereotypes. It is present at all levels of style: from a set of tokens to the general structure of the entire document.

Style vocabulary

Like any other, official business style in business texts uses a standard set of lexemes and phrases. First of all, these are words from the industry of official communication: prescribe, authorize, notify, plaintiff, chapter, law and the like. In other styles, they are used much less often.

The second characteristic feature is the use of constant expressions and speech stamps. This makes any text predictable, but at the same time completely unambiguous: proceeding from, taking into account, in accordance with.

It is noteworthy that, despite the high level of impersonality, the use of first-person pronouns and verbs is allowed in the official business style. By comparison, in a scientific style, this is completely unacceptable.

And the last feature is the presence of dry, slightly outdated clerical vocabulary, which in other styles sounds inappropriate and somewhat comical: takes place, is in a state drunkenness, a liquid that looks like cognac.

Syntactic constructs

By the constancy of syntactic constructions, each person can easily determine the official business style. His examples are well known to everyone from the school. And probably more than once in my life I had to write a statement or protocol.

At the syntactic level, first of all, the presence of small structures, simple sentences, the minimum number of complications, such as homogeneous members of a sentence or plug-in constructions, is noted. This is dictated by the need for simplicity and unambiguity in understanding the information contained in the document.

At the level of the text, there is a high level of standardization of its structure. For example, each application begins with a header in the upper right corner that indicates who is contacting whom. Next comes the text of the application itself, which ends with the date and signature of the applicant. The upper left corner of the document is reserved for overlaying the resolution on this application. The same standardization applies to all other genres.

Industries of application

Quite a wide distribution is found by any person all the time. Therefore, this style is divided into several sub-styles, depending on the industry.

Legislative documents are used to form the regulatory framework of society. It prescribes the rules by which each person should live, falling under the influence of this particular document. Also, the legislation establishes the punishment for failure to comply with the instructions.

The jurisdictional industry ascertains and punishes violations. Here are also the review of the case in connection with certain evidence or circumstances.

The administrative formal business style is very common. Examples of such documents are even studied in the school curriculum. This includes documents regulating the activities of individual organizations and their interaction with individual individuals.

And the last branch is diplomatic. Relations between states depend on the correctness of documentation in this area. One wrong comma or word can cause global conflict.

Genres

In practice, the official business style of speech has a wide variety of examples of texts. It will be quite problematic to name absolutely all genres in one article. Therefore, we will focus on the most popular of them, dividing them into groups depending on the industry of use.

Legislative documents include law, act, decision, decree. They are drawn up at the highest levels of government by specially trained people.

In the legal branch, the genres of the official business style in Russian are represented by sentences, court decisions, cassation complaints, search or arrest warrants.

Administrative documents are among the most common. This includes a statement, autobiography, order, recommendation, fax, telephone message, receipt and many others.

In diplomacy, treaties, pacts, agreements, conventions are most often used.

Business

A lot has already been said about how rich in genres the official-business style is. Examples of their use are constantly encountered. It is an active style used throughout everyday life. Most often, an ordinary person encounters him in the business industry. When applying for a job, we write a resume, an autobiography and an application, we submit certificates from the previous place of work.

Basically, all of these documents have approximately the same structure. They begin with the indication of the author who compiled this text, then there is a presentation of the material, which is certified by the signature and seal, if any.

Generalization

In Russian philology, the official business style of a document, language, speech is actively used. It is highly standardized and has a specific set of words and expressions that are used contrary to some of the laws of the language.

For example, tautologies are not a stylistic mistake, since they contribute to an unambiguous understanding that cannot be achieved by using pronouns for a more beautiful literary sound.

Each person in his life must be able to use this style, since it regulates the interaction of the individual with the organization, the state and the entire legal world as a whole.

Formal and business style

    General characteristics of the official - business style of speech.

    Basic language features.

    Brief description of sub-styles and genres.

The formal business style caters to the area of ​​administrative and legal activities. It satisfies the need of society in documenting various acts of state, public, political, economic life, business relationship between the state and organizations, as well as between members of society in the official sphere of communication. Genres perform: informational, prescriptive, stating functions in various spheres of business life.

General stylistic features of official business speech: 1) accuracy of presentation, which does not allow for the possibility of other interpretation, detailed presentation; 2) stereotype, standard presentation; 3) a prescriptive character.

1. Scope of use

Sphere of office work and official relations

2. Topic

Official relations between states, legal entities, civilians, etc.

3. Objectives

donations to international

native level through agreements and protests

Establishing relations between state

gifts and citizens, organizations and civilians at the level of the law

Establishing relations between management and subordinates at the level of orders, instructions and various kinds of business papers

4. Substyles

Diplomatic

Legislative

Clerical

5. Main genres

Agreement, convention, memorandum, note communiqué, negotiations

Law, charter, constitution, decree

Order, protocol, statement, receipt, power of attorney, business conversation, negotiations

6. Basic language features

Cliché, stylistically colored phraseology, lack of means of expression

7. Leading style features

Standard, stereotyped, formality, concreteness, generalized - abstract nature of information, emotionlessness, dispassion, conciseness, compact presentation of informative richness.

2. Basic language features.

Vocabulary:

The system of the official business style is made up of the following language means:

Having the appropriate functional and stylistic coloring (vocabulary and phraseology), for example: plaintiff, defendant, protocol, job description, delivery, prepayment, identity card and etc.;

Neutral, interstyle, as well as general book language means;

Linguistic means, neutral in color, but in the degree of use in the official business style, which have become its "omen", for example: raise a question, express your disagreement;

There is a tendency to reduce the number of meanings of words, to the uniqueness of the words and phrases used, the desire to terminology p hech. In the texts of this style, precise definitions or an explanation of the terms (terminological combinations) used are given if they are not in common use, for example: The underdelivery was caused by force majeure (heavy rains washed out the driveways);

Many of the words have antonymic pairs: rights - duties, acquittal - accusatory, action - inaction; synonyms are used little and, as a rule, belong to the same style: supply = supply = supply; wear = depreciation; solvency = creditworthiness.

To convey the accuracy of meaning and unambiguous interpretation, complex words are used, formed from two or more words: tenant, employer, above, above

And stable combinations: tax return, destination, joint stock company. The uniformity of such phrases and their high repetition lead to the clichédness of the used linguistic means, which gives the texts of the official business style a standardized character;

Preference is given to generic concepts: to arrive (come, fly, come), transport means (bus, plane, train), populated paragraph (city, village, town), etc., because official business speech reflects social experience; in the foreground here is the typical to the detriment of the individual, peculiar, specific, since the legal essence is important for an official document.

Morphology:

The use of common nouns as proper names in order to generalize and standardize the document: this Agreement, the composition of the Contracting Parties;

Preferred use of prepositional - case forms of verbal nouns: on the basis, in relation, by virtue of;

Many verbs contain the topic of a prescription or imperative: prohibit, allow, oblige, indicate, assign and under.;

The verb form does not denote a constant or ordinary action, but an action that is prescribed by law under certain conditions: The accused is guaranteed the right to defense;

When naming a person, nouns are most often used, denoting a person on the basis of an action or relationship, which is designed to accurately indicate the "roles" of the participants in the situation: applicant, tenant, tenant, executor, guardian, adoptive parent, witness, etc.

Nouns denoting positions and titles are used in the masculine form even when they refer to females: police officer Smirnova, defendant Proshina, etc..

The use of verbal nouns and participles is typical: arrival of transport, making claims, servicing the population, replenishing the budget; given, indicated, assigned.

Syntax:

Phrases that include complex abbreviated prepositions: in part, along the line, on the subject, in order to avoid, and also with the preposition on and the prepositional case, expressing the temporal meaning: upon return, upon reaching;

The use of complex syntactic structures, impersonal and incomplete sentences: They listened ..., decided ...;

Cleared phrases: Please accept me for the position ... in the department ... at the rate ... from ....

Business speech is characterized by impersonal presentation and lack of evaluativeness. There is an unhindered statement, presentation of facts in a logical sequence.

So, the accuracy, unambiguity and standardization of the means used are the main features of the official business style of speech.

2. Brief characteristics of sub-styles.

Diplomatic Substyle found in diplomatic documents: diplomatic note, government statement, credential. It differs in specific terms, most of which are international: status quo, persona non grata, ratification, preamble and others. Unlike other sub-styles, the language of diplomatic documents encounters high, solemn vocabulary to give the document an emphasized significance, and etiquette formulas of politeness are also used in international public communication: I ask you, Mr. Ambassador, to accept the assurances of my highest consideration ... or The Foreign Office Shows Their Respect ... .

Communiqué- an official announcement of important events for the state.

Convention- an international treaty, an agreement on any issue.

Memorandum- 1) a memorandum, service information on any issue; 2) a document setting out the essence of the issue under discussion in diplomatic correspondence; 3) a letter with a reminder of something; 4) a list of circumstances in the insurance policy that are not covered by the insurance.

Note- an official diplomatic written statement from one state to another.

Legislative (documentary) sub-style Is the language of legislative documents related to the activities of official bodies. It is characterized by the vocabulary and phraseology of civil and criminal law, various acts, codes and other documents serving the official documentary activities of state and public organizations, as well as citizens as officials.

Constitution- the basic law of the state, which establishes the foundations of the political and social structure.

Law- an official state document regulating any sphere of public life and intended to be observed by all residents of the state.

Decree- an official state document prescribing the implementation, creation, etc. anything at the state level.

The charter- an official legislative document of an internal nature that establishes norms of behavior, business communication, the rights and obligations of members of a society, labor collective, etc.

Stationery sub-style found in business correspondence between institutions and organizations and in private business papers. In this substyle, the severity of drafting documents is somewhat weakened, business letters and other papers can be written in any form.

Power of attorney- business paper of a personal nature, trusting something to someone.

Contract- a written or verbal agreement on future actions or mutual obligations, which is accepted by two or more persons, enterprises, states, etc.

Statement- business paper containing a request (to issue or allocate something, to take somewhere) to a superior person or to a superior authority.

Order- an official business document containing an order from the authorities.

Protocol- 1) a document containing a record of any factual circumstances, official statements (at a meeting, court, interrogation, etc.); 2) an act of the commission or an official containing a description of the actions performed by him and the established facts.

Receipt- business paper of a personal nature, which is drawn up by a person who borrows something from someone.

Agreement- a formal agreement about something with someone.

Negotiation- a kind of business conversation, involving an official meeting of representatives of enterprises, various organizations, etc. in order to make or develop mutually beneficial decisions.