Translate this page:
Please select your language to translate the article


You can just close the window to don't translate
Library
Your profile

Back to contents

Litera
Reference:

Genre of Self-Presentation: Practical Results and Typical Mistakes of Students

Romanova Natalya Gennad'evna

ORCID: 0000-0003-1231-4237

PhD in Philology

Associate Professor at the Department of Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations, Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management

630099, Russia, Novosibirskaya oblast', g. Novosibirsk, ul. Kamenskaya, 56, of. 5-310

ngm_2006@mail.ru
Other publications by this author
 

 

DOI:

10.25136/2409-8698.2022.8.38685

EDN:

ZRLLPD

Received:

27-08-2022


Published:

03-09-2022


Abstract: The article is a study of the texts of self-presentation on the example of a video essay by students. The subject of consideration is linguistic means and techniques, compositional and stylistic features of mediated self–presentations, the implementation of pragmatic attitudes of speakers in them. The relevance of the work is due to the need to form and evaluate effective methods of teaching the genre of self-presentation as an important component of students' communicative competence in the field of business communication. In the course of the research, general scientific methods of observation, comparison, description, comparative analysis of linguistic material and the linguistic method of interpretive analysis were used. The methodological basis of the work was made up of current scientific publications in the context of the linguistic approach to the phenomenon of self-presentation, including articles on the methodology of teaching the creation of this type of texts. The material for the analysis and evaluation of lexico-stylistic, organizational and pragmatic characteristics of self-presentations were videos prepared by first-year students as part of a special assignment for the course of lectures "Business Communications". To solve the problems of the study, the parameters of the examination of speech works were determined: the presence of an object of self-presentation, the clarity of the target setting, tactical and strategic planning, intra-textual language regulatory means, the presence and relevance of speech creativity, etc. Special attention is paid to the verbal method of positioning. According to the results of the study, the most frequent shortcomings and speech errors, as well as typical problems and difficulties of students in the process of text generation are grouped and described. The degree of success of the implementation of the communicative plan was significantly influenced by the factor of students having professional communication experience. The pragmatic intentions of first-year students presuppose the presentation of qualities corresponding to the stereotypical images of professionals and conscientious employees formed in society. A positive image is created by students by orienting the formulations of the text being created and the factual and axiological series presented in them to the standard requirements of the business environment. At the end of the article, the author's version of a comprehensive methodological solution to the problem of the formation of self-presentation skills among students is proposed.


Keywords:

self-presentation, business communications, speech work, communicative competence, text, speech activity, speech genre, culture of speech, official-business style, language personality

This article is automatically translated.

Subject and purpose of the study

The term "self-presentation", following foreign research, appears with a regular frequency on the pages of the domestic scientific press. Being affiliated with representatives of various trends and schools – first of all, the corps of psychological knowledge and sociology, the phenomenon of self-presentation becomes a promising subject of research, of course, for linguists, since, ultimately, we are talking about a work created by a linguistic personality in a particular communicative context, in accordance with the conditions of the latter and the intentions of the speaker. Self-presentation as a popular and in-demand genre in the context of modern business communications has compositional and stylistic features, strict requirements for compliance with regulations and clarity of pragmatic attitude, at the same time leaving room for the manifestation of the speaker's speech creativity. The structure and content of the text of any business self-presentation is subordinated to the task of demonstrating their best professional and personal qualities that can cause a positive response from the interlocutor (or the intended addressee), that is, the transition to the stage of an active dialogue of interested parties. The success of solving this problem by a linguistic personality is determined by both the general high communicative competence of the speaker, and awareness of the specific genre code of self-presentation, the presence of relevant experience in creating such texts.

Thus, the relevance of our work is due to the need to form and evaluate effective methods of teaching the genre of self-presentation as an important component of students' communicative competence in the field of business communication.

The object of consideration is self–presentation as a genre of business communication.

The subject of the study is verbal and nonverbal characteristics of self–presentations and the implementation of pragmatic attitudes of speakers in them.

The purpose of the work is to investigate the practical results of students mastering the genre of self–presentation.

The study of the mechanisms of self-presentation in psychology has a half-century history. Typical for the psychological approach can be considered the definition of J. Tedeshi and M. Riesa: self–presentation is "a deliberate and conscious behavior aimed at creating a certain impression among others" [1, p. 27]. Transferring the understanding of the problem into the context of impression management, foreign and domestic supporters of the approach, their numerous followers interpret self-presentation as a means of organizing interaction with other people to achieve their goals. These conceptual frameworks can be traced, for example, in the work of T. I. Kulikova [2], where the subject of research is the psychological characteristics of senior schoolchildren that influence the choice of self-presentation strategy; in the article by O. A. Pikuleva [3], based on a sociological study identifying social and psychological factors that determine the strategies of self-presentation of students; in the dissertation research E. Y. Krylova, devoted to the formation of tactics of self-presentation among students in a virtual environment (see: Krylov E. Y. Formation of tactics of purposeful self-presentation among students in a virtual environment : abstract. dis. ... cand. psikhol. nauk. SPb.: A. I. Herzen State Pedagogical University, 2012. 22 p.).

The linguistic approach does not negate the importance of studying the mechanisms of impression management in interpersonal interaction. In the research of philologists, self-presentation is defined, rather, as a kind of functional orientation of the text and a genre of speech communication, which is currently widespread in the media space and the space of business communications. A significant number of scientific articles have been devoted to the study of linguistic means and structural features of the genre of self-presentation on the Internet in recent years. Thus, A. I. Dubskikh [4, 5] offers a description of humorous techniques for creating negative self-presentation in the context of current trends in Internet culture and in the context of trends in the media space.  Self-presentation in the works of the author and his colleagues-co-authors O. V. Kisel, A.V. Butova is interpreted as "self-identification of the user of the Internet space in order to present his "I" taking into account personal qualities, as well as taking into account the conditions of Internet communication" [6, p. 223].

The topic of creating and maintaining a negative or positive image in the process of Internet communications continues in many works, including the publications of E. A. Nepomnyashchikh [7], E. G. Zheludkova [8], Yu. A. Books [9], G. V. Kukueva [10]. The focus is on important extralinguistic factors, lexical and syntactic techniques for creating evaluativeness, which acts as a defining way of personification of personality in the virtual space. It is impossible not to agree with E. A. Nepomnyashchikh, who defines "evaluativeness as a basic principle when creating a self-presentation text" [7, p. 55].

Self-presentations on dating sites are particularly popular among domestic and foreign researchers of virtual communication platforms as a material for linguistic analysis [7, 8, 11-13]. The picture of the language tools and techniques used by the authors of self-presentations is necessarily supplemented by a review of sets of tactics and communicative moves, an assessment of the communicative strategy of the writer.

The works of N. V. Kulagina [14], S. K. Karaseva and S. A. Khazova [15], E. V. Zinchenko and A. A. Ivakhnenko [16], A.M. Chashchina [17] are devoted to self-presentations in the aspect of business communications that interests us. Thus, the article by N. V. Kulagina [14] describes the features of self-presentation behavior of managers (men and women) in the field of business relations. The author focuses on the role of the gender factor in impression management, self-monitoring and the choice of self-presentation tactics. Indicative and relevant, in our opinion, is the study of self-presentation in political discourse as a communicative strategy of political interview, undertaken in the article by A.M. Chashchina [17]. The result of the work were descriptions of various tactics of influencing the electorate and specific speech means of their implementation.

Another corpus of linguistic articles on the problems of self-presentation is devoted to the issues of teaching methods for creating this type of texts [18-21]. The essence of the process of teaching self–presentation, according to N. A. Belova and Yu. F. Kamkina, "consists in using certain methods and forms of work to form students' ability to present themselves in a variety of communication situations - official or unofficial, including taking into account the peculiarities of intercultural dialogue" [18, p. 119]. Possible models and programs for teaching self-presentation of undergraduate students are proposed in the article by I. I. Mishina [20]. In addition, I. I. Mishina assessed the conditions and necessary requirements for the implementation of this initiative.

The review of modern scientific publications presented by us testifies to the multidimensional nature of the phenomenon of self-presentation, which makes it a sought-after personal skill in the context of business communications, where it is necessary to form an image of "I" and maintain self-esteem, self-expression, presentation of one's personal qualities in the process of building trusting business relationships, the implementation of speech influence on others, on significant reputational audiences for formation of the desired impression. Following the assertion of the importance of self-presentation competence, the question naturally arises about the ways of its formation and educational practices.

Methods and materials

In the course of the research, general scientific methods of observation, comparison, description, comparative analysis of linguistic material and the linguistic method of interpretive analysis were used.

The material for the study of lexico-stylistic and pragmatic features of business and professional self-presentations were videos (video visuals) prepared by first-year students as part of the study of the subject "Business Communications".

To assess the practical results of mastering the genre of self–presentation, two control groups of students (the total official roster – 42 people, attended classes in both groups - 29 people) were given homework in the following wording: to prepare a self-presentation in the format of a video clip to solve a potentially urgent task (employment, elections to the Board of students of the faculty, obtaining a place in team, etc. options – personal choice, taking into account current life plans), regulations – 1-2 min. Students were given two weeks to prepare, which corresponds to the frequency of seminars in groups. Previously, during the practical lesson, students got an idea of the types and purposes of self-presentations, the basic principles of constructing these speech works, verbal and nonverbal characteristics of their stages (the stage of the first impression and the stage of a short story about themselves). After getting acquainted with the video examples of the genre, a step-by-step plan for the development of professional self-presentation was compiled in each group by joint efforts. During the lesson, students also learned about current trends in business communications (working on a personal brand in social networks, focusing on the Elevator pitch rule, preparing a video suit), popular recommendations and a system of prohibitions when making self-presentations. After 2-3 improvised self-presentations in each group, the difficulties encountered and the mistakes made by the students were reflected and analyzed. In conclusion, as a summary of the lesson, rules were generated, or rather, a "roadmap" for self–preparation of self-presentation in video format.

The total number of works submitted by the specified deadline, which served as the material for this article, is 23. Students' speech works in the genre of self–presentation in the format of videos made it possible to more carefully consider the verbal and non-verbal (including those related to technical parameters) levels of implementation of the communicative plan. For the completeness of the analysis of the linguistic and compositional features of student texts, we have prepared transcripts of monologues based on videos.

Description of the results

To solve the research tasks , the most important parameters of the examination of the speech works of first- year students were:

- the presence of the object of self–presentation - the target audience (the potential addressee of the video card);

- clarity of the target setting: to declare yourself in the context of the business communications being built and to elicit a positive response from the addressee;

- tactical and strategic planning of self-presentation, expediency and effectiveness of the techniques used;

- combination of factual information with evaluative information;

- a system of evaluation tools (lexical, grammatical and stylistic techniques) that contribute to the creation of a student's business image;

- intra-textual language regulatory means - lexical and syntactic techniques, separate partial categories that serve to express the intentions of the subject,

- the degree of meaningfulness of the use of linguistic and non-linguistic means, as well as elements of the background, the appearance of the speaker, the composition of the frame, etc. (compliance with the developed "road map" of the video frame);

- the presence and relevance of speech creativity.

On the first point, we note that in the bulk of the works, the employer acted as the intended target audience of the message, in the 3-video case, the addressee was obviously representatives of the university administration, and in one case, the addressing was unclear. Thus, the priority targets are getting a job (19 texts), becoming a member of a university sports team (2 texts), social activities at the university – becoming a mentor to a group of first–year students (1 text), self-presentation without a clear target setting (1 text).

References
1. Koryagina, N. A. (2012). Problems of research of socio-psychological factors of self-presentation. In Modernization of Russian Education: Trends and Prospects. Book 3 (pp. 24-44). Krasnodar: ANO Center for Socio-Political Studies «Premier».
2. Kulikova, T. I. (2019). Self-presentation as a characteristic of the social behavior of high school students. Russian Journal of Education and Psychology, 10 (4), 48-53.
3. Pikuleva, O. A. (2014). Social and psychological factors in the choice of assertive tactics of self-presentation of personality by students. Bulletin of the Moscow University. Psychology, 1, 33-46.
4. Dubskikh, A. I. (2019). The Internet space as a sphere of realization of negative self-presentation by humorous means. TSPU Bulletin, 2, 14-20.
5. Dubskikh, A. I., Butova, A.V., Kharitonova, S. V. (2017) Solidarization as a tactic of self-presentation of a public person in a "star" interview. Questions of Cognitive Linguistics, 1, 99-106.
6. Kisel, O. V., Dubskikh, A. I., Butova, A.V. (2019). Motives of self-presentation of a person in the Internet space by means of a nickname. Philological sciences. Questions of theory and practice, 12 (5), 222-225.
7. Nepomnyashchikh, E. A. (2018). Evaluation as a principle of image formation in the genre of self-presentation on a dating site. Philology and Culture, 3, 54-60.
8. Zheludkova, E. G. (2013). The role of stereotypes in the discourse of self-presentation in French dating ads. Bulletin of Kemerovo State University, 2, 50-55.
9. Kniga, Yu. A. (2019). Language game as a means of self-presentation in Internet discourse (based on posts of the social network Twitter). Bulletin of Kurgan State University, 1, 90-94.
10. Kukueva, G. V. (2019). Self-presentation of the language personality of the writer (based on the material of the Internet essay genre). Siberian Philological Journal, 1, 252-264.
11. Bondareva, E. P., Chistyakova, G. V. (2017). Tactical and strategic analysis of virtual self-presentations. Siberian Philological Journal, 1, 137-148.
12. Chistyakova, G. V., Bondareva, E. P. (2017). The relationship of the gender of a native speaker with the tactical and strategic planning of speech. News of Saratov University. A new series. Philology. Journalism, 17 (1), 17-23.
13. Elizarova, O. S., Ukhova, L. V. (2014). Interpersonal advertising as an effective personal marketing tool. Yaroslavl Pedagogical Bulletin, 3 (1), 172-177.
14. Kulagina, N. V. (2016). Features of self-presentation of men and women in the field of business relations. Bulletin of Perm University. Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology, 3, 122-128.
15. Karaseva, S. K., Khazova, S. A. (2012). Self-presentation competence of a modern competitive specialist. Bulletin of the Adygea State University. Pedagogy and Psychology, 4, 55-64.
16. Zinchenko, E. V., Ivakhnenko, A. A. (2016). Self-presentation strategies and communicative control among representatives of various professions. Engineering Bulletin of the Don, 4. Retrieved from https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/strategii-samoprezentatsii-i-kommunikativnyy-kontrol-u-predstaviteley-razlichnyh-professiy
17. Chashchina, A.M. (2015). Analysis of the discourse of a political interview: a strategy of self-presentation. Bulletin of the Moscow State Linguistic University. Humanities, 19, 273-281.
18. Belova, N. A., Kamkina, Yu. F. (2016). Methods of teaching the genre of self-presentation in Russian language lessons in the context of multicultural education at school. Science and School, 4, 118-123.
19. Luneva, L. P., Mishina, I. I. (2017). Criteria for assessing the skills of speech self-presentation. Scientific Notes of the Orel State University, 3, 239-241.
20. Mishina, I. I. (2016). Teaching self-presentation in the higher education system. Proceedings of the Samara Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Social, humanitarian, medical and biological sciences, 18 (1), 79-82.
21. Horoshih, V. V. (2013). Self-presentation as a resource of a modern young specialist. Society. Communication. Education, 1, 22-24.

Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The subject of the reviewed article is non-trivial, it concerns the verbal and non-verbal characteristics of self-presentation and the implementation of the pragmatic attitudes of the speakers in them. In my opinion, this vector is in demand in the mass of critical sources and reviews, therefore, the work complements the circle of formed provisions on the conceptual structuring of self-presentation. At the beginning of the work, the author notes that "the term "self-presentation", following foreign research, appears with a regular frequency on the pages of the domestic scientific press. Being affiliated with representatives of various directions and schools – first of all, the corps of psychological knowledge and sociology, the phenomenon of self-presentation becomes a promising subject of research, of course, for linguists, since, ultimately, we are talking about a work created by a linguistic personality in a particular communicative context, in accordance with the conditions of the latter and the intentions of the speaker. Self-presentation as a popular and in-demand genre in the context of modern business communications has compositional and stylistic features, strict requirements for compliance with regulations and clarity of a pragmatic attitude, at the same time leaving room for the manifestation of the speaker's verbal creativity." The propaedeutic part is quite appropriate, in fact, it organizes the entire further course of thought development. The work is differentiated into so-called logical blocks, it seems that such an arrangement organizes the correct reception of the material after the researcher. The theses / main provisions of the article have been verified and objectified, no serious errors or contradictions have been revealed. For example, "self-presentations on dating sites are particularly popular among domestic and foreign researchers of virtual communication platforms as a material for linguistic analysis. The picture of the linguistic means and techniques used by the authors of self-presentations is necessarily supplemented by a review of sets of tactics and communicative moves, an assessment of the writer's communicative strategy", or "the works of N. V. Kulagina, S. K. Karaseva and S. A. Khazova, E. V. Zinchenko and A. A. Ivakhnenko are devoted to self-presentations in the aspect of business communications that interests us, A. M. Chashchina. Thus, N. V. Kulagina's article describes the features of self-presentation behavior of managers (men and women) in the field of business relations. The author focuses on the role of the gender factor in impression management, self-monitoring and the choice of self-presentation tactics," etc. In the process of this research, the author uses general scientific methods of observation, comparison, description, as well as the method of comparative analysis of linguistic material and the method of linguistic interpretation. It is worth noting that "the material for the study of lexical, stylistic and pragmatic features of business and professional self-presentations were videos (video visuals) prepared by first-year students as part of the study of the subject "Business Communications". I note that this basis has been little studied from these positions, thus, the work objectifies the scientific novelty of the assessment. The statistical data are specified, the necessary references are included in the text of the essay: "according to a study conducted by HeadHunter in 2019 (see: Employers' requirements for applicants without experience [Electronic document] // HeadHunter : Official website. Access mode: https://novosibirsk.hh.ru/article/25484 (date of application - 08/07/2022), the rating of key skills and personal qualities that employers value most in young professionals is headed by responsibility (22%), dedication (10%). Among the main required personal qualities in vacancies for young applicants, diligence (7%), accuracy (6%) are also in the lead, and the most valuable skills are literate written and oral speech (25.8%) and PC skills (10%). A similar picture is revealed in the self-presentations we have received. Among the personal qualities highlighted by students, responsibility, dedication, perseverance and scrupulousness, hard work and diligence are in the lead (they scored from 17 to 30%). PC skills are slightly higher (13%) – students note computer programs and information and reference systems of which they are users." In my opinion, the most important points in the organization of the self-presentation format are described and analyzed. For example, the author focuses on the analysis of language in the following fragments: "the means of assessing business and personal qualities reflect the level of communicative literacy of the speaker (the student's speech culture) and his speech creativity, general erudition. A popular technique is the presentation of disadvantages along with advantages in the form of defensive structures "(not)... but / but ..." to verify the qualities of objectivity and honesty at the same time. Cf.: "... I am often criticized for my pickiness in the design of works, but it is important to me that everything is according to the law. There is no other way "; "I consider attention to detail to be another of my strengths. Yes, sometimes it takes quite a long time, but I am always confident in the result of the work I have done," or "the student actively used professional terminology, preferred complex syntactic constructions, clearly focusing on the choice of grammatical means for the clerical syllable ("in the exercise of their duties", "when taking up a position ", etc.). As we can see, the main content blocks are in place, the lack of experience is compensated by more careful prescribing of skills and life principles, there is a description of professional prospects and a final cliche phrase that gives the self-presentation a complete look. Let's clarify that, unfortunately, only 50% of the total number of video cards are marked with the standard label ending - "Thank you" / "Thank you for your attention" / "Thank you for your time" and in one case the aloof familiar "All the best", etc. The available text volume is enough to disclose the topic, the purpose of the study has been achieved. In the final of the reviewed work, it was noted that "self-presentation is an effective way to create an image for young people building communication links in the field of professional activity and in related fields - to solve various life tasks. However, the implementation of this speech genre is fraught with difficulties, since in the process of preparing self-presentation, students are also forced to solve the tasks of self-identification and self-assessment in order to achieve the goal of creating an attractive and realistic individualized image at the same time." "In the first experiments of the self-presentation genre, students describe their inherent business qualities and achievements, focusing on the standard expectations of the prospective employer. The pragmatic attitude, which is based on a cliched positive image of a young professional - a responsible and purposeful employee, did not allow a significant part of the students to focus on their own individuality. At the same time, there is absolutely no intention of contrasting oneself with others (possible competitors, for example, applicants with extensive practical experience). The data presented in the self–presentation - the facts of biography, estimates, assumptions – are the result of the author's selection, indicative for the addressee of the video message. The video frame acts as a variant of mediated self-presentation." The style of the work corresponds to the scientific type itself, terms and concepts are introduced into the text taking into account connotations. The bibliographic list is full, the sources reflect the degree of study of the issue. I recommend the article "The genre of self-presentation: practical results and typical mistakes of students" for open publication in the journal "Litera".