This article explores how CEOs attempt to influence readers and project a
positive personal and corporate image in company annual reports. It examines
the role of metadiscourse, as a manifestation of the writer's linguistic and
rhetorical presence in a text, to show how CEOs use non-propositional material
to realize rational, credible, and affective appeals. The findings are based on a
close textual and linguistic analysis of 137 CEOs' letters drawn from a range of
international and Hong Kong companies, representing a mix of high- and
medium-performing corporations from various business sectors and registered
with the three major Chambers of Commerce in Hong Kong. Metadiscourse
allows CEOs to control the information they provide by using expressions that
organize and evaluate that information in order to direct readers how they
should understand and appraise the subject matter. The analysis reveals the
essentially rhetorical nature of CEOs' letters by comparing the frequency and
distribution of metadiscourse in CEOs' letters and directors'reports taken from
the same annual reports. The study suggests a descriptive framework for
metadiscourse in business communication and points to the need for a rhetori
cal awareness of this persuasive genre.
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