Framing Sustainability: Business Students Writing About the Environment

Maureen A. Mathison University of Utah ; Natalie Stillman-Webb University of Utah ; Sarah A. Bell University of Utah

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility is a topic that is increasingly incorporated into business school curricula. This article describes a study of undergraduate business majors who wrote about an environmental topic in response to an Analytical Writing Assessment question in the Graduate Management Admission Test™. Of 187 students, only 76 mentioned natural resources in their responses. The study examines this smaller corpus for stance, framing, and argument. The results indicate that the majority of those 76 students supported sustainable practices but were less adept at presenting their perspectives, invoking a personal frame over a professional one. The authors suggest ways to help students develop stronger skills in writing about corporate social responsibility.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
2014-01-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651913502488
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Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Journal of Business and Technical Communication

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