Drawing on preliminary linguistic analysis, analysis of course and assignment related documentation and situational andcontextual features, the core communicative purpose of the business case report genre is hypothesised here as:persuasion of/demonstration to the lecturer reader that the writer has knowledge of, understands, and can apply corebusiness specialist concepts as taught during the course programme, and further can generate appropriate, logically justifiedand effective advice for action presented in an appropriate academic style and format.The framing of these communicative purposes is heavily influenced by the notion of business case reports as texts intendedfor learning and assessment. Rhetorical moves were identified and characterized within the framework of the thesecommunicative purposes which themselves can be seen as more narrowrealizations of students’ overall programme purposesof persuading or demonstrating to the lecturer their competence at an appropriate level in their business specialist field.