HR Magazine

Talking language and gender – celebrating the diversity of office conversation

 

Research from English language experts indicates that gender differences may be innate, with neither gender’s approach to conversation being superior or inferior to the other. That being the case, we looked into why conversations had by different genders should garner equal respect in the work place.

According to research conducted in the field, men and women speak in languages so different that they may as well be countries apart. But, contrary to popular belief, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just something to make our everyday communications a little more interesting.

As an example, women – who are said by experts to talk in a supportive, cooperative manner – supposedly use more tag questions (rhetorical questions that hang on the end of a statement, e.g. ‘I think we need to order a larger quantity of paper clips next month, don’t you?’). Reportedly, females are far more likely than men to use this technique during the average conversation, and its alleged function is to build relationships. That being so, it’s important that in the future when a co-worker makes use of a tag question, male or female, we look at it as an olive branch, rather than uncertainty or a sign of weakness.

 

Commentary:

I wanted the article to be positive, so I focussed mainly on the difference theory being about variances in the languages of the two genders, rather than one being weaker or more dominant. Because I wanted this feeling, I used the dynamic verb ‘celebrating’ within the title so as to introduce the topic of ‘diversity of office conversation’ in a good light. If it’s worth celebrating, it’s surely worth reading about.

Because I was addressing non-specialists, I tried mainly to use high frequency lexis in this excerpt, for example ‘conversation’ rather than discourse. Where I did use jargon – such was the case with ‘tag question’, I explained myself fully, hopefully without patronising readers who are likely to be mature adults. The use of parentheses means that if readers are familiar with the term, they don’t have to read me definition. When I used an English language term, such as ‘rhetorical’ it was one that I felt was high frequency enough that any reader would know what I meant.

I also tried to steer away from the word ‘theory’ while talking about difference, as I didn’t want this explicitly to be a lesson. I thought that if readers of HR magazine felt they were being talked down to or taught something, they might be less inclined to continue reading.