This study is dealing with a corpus of 50 telephone consultations from the years 1993 to 1995. On the basis of detailed analyses it was proved, that the majority of these consultations did not meet the requirements for this type of text and consequently couldn't contribute much to the solution of the problems. The following observations confirm this result: In some consultations the advisers couldn't offer any solutions or the solutions given even turned out to be incorrect.The pieces of advise given did only rarely constitute a sufficient basis for an immediate decision, in particular in consultations concerning complex problems. Therefore further consultation was absolutely necessary. The validity of important information, that the callers needed to act, was very often reduced and thus the facts of the matter were marked as indefinite. However, in contrast to these results, such telephone consultations are still very popular. In addition to this central question about the quality of these consultations it was analysed to what extent socio-demographic parameter affect the way of passing on information. It could be established that origin (East or West German) as well as membership of a certain institution (under public law or private) influence the consultation style of the experts. |