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Telling It Like It Is: The Use of Certainty in Public Business Discourse

Ball State University, Muncie, IN

Jensen J. Zhao

Ball State University, Muncie, IN

Rod Davis

Ball State University, Muncie, IN

Melody W. Alexander

Ball State University, Muncie, IN

How do large corporations use certainty in their public business communications? Do corporate profit status, industry type, or communication mode (oral versus written) affect their use of certainty? The "Management Discussion and Analysis" section of the 10-K reports of 72 Fortune 500 companies and corporate spokesper sons' recorded public oral business discourse were analyzed with a text-analysis software program (DICTION 4.0) to test the hypotheses. The results indicate that (a) corporate use of certainty in public business discourse is not affected by orga nizational profitability status or industry type; (b) a significant difference in the use of certainty exists between corporate oral and written communications; and (c) the use of certainty in corporate public business discourse does not differ signifi cantly from that in general discourse.

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