In Denmark, as in many other countries, there are extensive efforts to revise texts that emanate from public authorities to make them easier to understand and more appropriate for an audience of lay citizens (a development akin to the campaign for plain English). Such efforts focus mainly on practice and not on evidence derived from research. Furthermore, insofar as the effects of revisions of texts from public authorities and private businesses have been tested by research, the revisions under examination have been conducted by researchers or at least for research purposes. This study takes a different approach by focusing on textual revisions made ‘at-source’ by employees at the Danish Tax Authority and independently of any research project. Taking as its point of departure the communicative goals laid down by the Authority, the main question addressed in this article is whether three ‘at-source’ textual versions vary in respect of their recipients’ levels of comprehension and perceptions. Three different versions of a letter from the Danish Tax Authority (an unrevised version and two versions that had been revised in different ways) were distributed at random. Each respondent read one version and then answered aquestionnaire about his/her level of comprehension and about his/her perceptions of the letter. A total of 714 questionnaires were collected. The analysis shows that the revised letter versions are, in fact, easier to understand, that the perceptions of these versions do vary, and that the variations are in accordance with the communicative goals of the Authority. However, the results also indicate that there is room for further improvement and they may suggest that the textual revision practices that are applied – or at least held up as ideal – by Danish authorities are not as effective as sometimes assumed.

Wally, Johannes. 2017. “Radegundis Stolze (2009): Fachübersetzen – Ein Lehrbuch für Theorie Und Praxis: Review”. Fachsprache 32 (1-2):74-75. https://doi.org/10.24989/fs.v32i1-2.1410.

Busch-Lauer, Ines-Andrea. 2017. “Bibliography of Recent Publications on Specialized Communication: 50th Installment”. Fachsprache 32 (1-2):76-84. https://doi.org/10.24989/fs.v32i1-2.1411.

The aim of this paper is to shed light on the diversity of the annual report in an international context from a genre perspective. In order to do so, a corpus-based small-scale study ofGerman, Danish, and English annual reports is presented. The research question to be answered is: to what extent are macro-structural genre conventions of annual reports, written in English and published by non-English companies, identical with the genre conventions of annual reports, written in English and published by English companies? On the basis of the genre approach by Engberg (2001), the annual report is presented as a complex genre which serves two subordinate communicative purposes that are potentially in conflict. A catalogue of ten potential categories of texts serves as point of reference for the analysis of the macro-structure as the main category of analysis. It is argued that not all texts serve both of the two subordinate communicative purposes equally and that they thus may contribute differently to the fulfilment of the overall communicative purpose of the annual report. The analysis documents that the genre conventions of German, Danish and English annual reports feature both similarities and differences and the results serve as an impetus for further research into the field.

Adamzik, Kirsten. 2017. “Busch-Lauer, Ines-Andrea, Hrsg. (2010): Kaleidoskop Der Kulturen: Review”. Fachsprache 34 (3-4):170-72. https://doi.org/10.24989/fs.v34i3-4.1354.

Grove Ditlevsen, Marianne, and Peter Kastberg. 2017. “Editors’ Preface”. Fachsprache 33 (3-4):137-51. https://doi.org/10.24989/fs.v33i3-4.1368.

Luttermann, Karin. 2017. “Hans-R. Fluck/Michaela Blaha, Hrsg. (2010): Amtsdeutsch A. D.? Europäische Wege Zu Einer Modernen Verwaltungssprache: Review”. Fachsprache 34 (1-2):94-96. https://doi.org/10.24989/fs.v34i1-2.1365.

Pimentel, Janine. 2017. “Faber, Pamela, Ed. (2012): A Cognitive Linguistics View of Terminology and Specialized Language”. Fachsprache 35 (3-4):155-58. https://doi.org/10.24989/fs.v35i3-4.1327.

Busch-Lauer, Ines-Andrea. 2017. “Bibliography of Recent Publications on Specialized Communication: 57th Installment”. Fachsprache 35 (3-4):167-77. https://doi.org/10.24989/fs.v35i3-4.1332.

Existing research reveals that patients’ perspectives are missing from mandatory patient information leaflets (PILs). At the same time, there is overwhelming consensus that they should be included in this genre, and a corresponding need for potential approaches to tackle this problem. This paper examines the appropriateness of perspectivist theory as a means of conceptualising<br/>the underrepresentation of patients’ perspectives in PILs. It also offers a framework for a possible solution that draws on polyocular theory, as polyocular approaches can support communication across perspectival asymmetries. The paper contributes theoretically in its innovative use of perspectivist theory in relation to text, and in identifying that the insights of polyocularity could valuably inform a new health communication paradigm, as current health communication paradigms do not fully recognize patients’ perspectives. Apart from its theoretical contributions, the paper includes guidelines to support the production of PILs where patients’ perspectives are included. The guidelines are informed by practices that have characterised previous polyocular communication events, as well as research into how to maximize patient participation in contexts where various forms of expertise are at play.