Generic structure of ASUU’s correspondences: a focus on Monday Igbafen’s 2021 ASUU-led industrial dispute in Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria

Abstract

The conventional classification of literary forms into poetry, prose, drama, ballad, epic, among others, has given way to a more sociological approach, called genre classification. It lays emphasis on communicative events and the roles of such events. Given this current thinking in genre analysis, this study explains the generic classification of correspondences which the leadership of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma in Edo State (hereafter, AAUE) Chapter deploys as a tool during its strike action in 2021 to press home members’ demand for better conditions of service. Based on the theory of generic structure analysis, the study explores ASUUE’s communicative discourse for qualitative analysis of its correspondences. The study is carried out from the perspective of discourse (language) analysis, with particular reference to AAUEChapter of ASUU’s recent 2021 strike action, embarked on to press for the payment of members’ several months of unpaid salaries and the non-remittance of more-than- a year check-off dues and other sundry deductions in the University. Findings showed that formal correspondences provided members of the union, including the stakeholders with the required information, aimed at resolving the conflict. The prominent pattern of discourse correspondence, includes declarative, imperative and interrogative sentence types, and/ or physical acts, to negotiate the cooperation of all concerned. A conclusion is therefore drawn that the peculiar features of ASUU’s correspondences constitute effective subgenre means of communication.