Instructors from New York City to Singapore have used previous editions of this book in college classrooms, continuing education, corporate training, and vocational education programs since 1976. We detail some of the reasons that this book has been so successful for so long.
To the Student
According to a survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal, 80 percent of United States businesses cited written communication as their employees' biggest skill problem. We have written this book so that
- You will learn to communicate in a way that increases your credibility in business situations and in other business courses.
- You will learn to avoid embarrassing mistakes in your letters, emails, presentations and other communications.
- You will be able to create resumes, cover letters and other business communications that will help you to get and keep a good job.
We have incorporated features that we know you care about. These include:
- A real world emphasis on practical skills that you will use in your jobs.
- Up to date coverage of the communication techniques you need in today's workplace.
- An entertaining writing style that uses humor and anecdotes.
- Our assignments match the experience level of early college students.
- Job interview questions are featured. We have included questions most commonly asked during job interviews.
- A convenient and low cost format is featured. Business Communication 6th edition combines a textbook with a workbook, so you don't need to buy two separate books.
To the Instructor
This new edition has many features that help make your teaching more effective and convenient.
- Convenient annotated instructor's edition. You don't have to fumble back and forth between the text and the instructor's manual while teaching.
- Concise coverage of basic business communication. We have made this book concise so you can cover all the basics of business communication in one quarter or semester.
- Grading Guidelines. We provide guidelines for grading.
- Convenient textbook/workbook format. For short answer assignments, this format allows students to simply write their answers in the workbook, rip out the page and hand it in. It also means that you and the students do not need to deal with two separate books--a workbook and a textbook.
- Up-to-the minute coverage on the latest information technologies, including email, fax, voice mail, and the World Wide Web.
The Clear Organization of this Book
Originally this book was written to create a textbook with a coherent, progressive organization that makes it easy for students to grasp and apply the basics of business communication to many forms of communication--a textbook that avoided the ''grab bag'' form of organization that seemed to say to the reader ''it's all in there..., if you can only find it.''
The first chapter introduces a basic theory of communication and shows students the benefits of studying business communication. It introduces students to some of the ongoing themes that run throughout the book--including ethics in business communication and communication technologies.
The next three chapters present the basics of business communications: attractive appearance, a tone of good will, and clear and complete message.
The rest of the book applies these principles to different types of messages--routine and positive messages; negative, sales and persuasive messages; miscellaneous messages, communication on the internet, employment messages; and finally presentations, reports, and term papers.
We must say: We believe we have written the right book for today's changing basic Business Communication classes and that studying this book will help students get better jobs.
''The more things change, the more they remain the same'' goes the old expression. Since this book was first published over twenty years ago, the forms of business communication have changed dramatically. But the basics of organization and writing have remained the same. So by learning the basics and how they apply to many different forms, students get a solid foundation upon which to face the ever-changing forms of business communication that will emerge.
Features Which Help Students to Learn
This edition has many features that will help students learn business communication. They include:
- Designed for learning. The chapters include many checklists and writing improvement exercises, and end with a review exercise.
- More Examples. This edition has an even stronger visual presentation, with more diagrams and with more examples of letters, forms, emails, and web pages.
- Easy to read. A clear writing style that uses clear vocabulary and sentences makes the ideas understandable to students from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds. We work to write at the high school reading level, which is the same level as most business publications such as Business Week and the Wall Street Journal. We work hard to write a clear and understandable book, without oversimplifying ideas or talking down to the student.
- Checklists that students can use as guides to writing messages (such as email, sales letters. etc.) and to check their work for this class.
- Writing improvement exercises which give students the chance to immediately apply what they have learned.
- Boldfaced Key Terms. We write key terms in boldface type when they are first introduced in the book. This makes it easier for the student to find key terms and identify the most important ideas.
Up to Date Coverage
The book contains up to date coverage of issues such as ethics and technology.
- Ethics. This book does not tuck moral issues in business communication away in one chapter or limit it to a few boxed features lightly spread throughout the text. These issues are so important that we integrate them throughout the textbook.
- Technology. Chapter 11 contains computers, the internet and other communication technologies. Also, technological issues are covered throughout the main body of the text. This includes information technologies such as email, voicemail, desktop publishing, cell phones, and more.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to all those who have helped us with previous editions of this text, especially Hal Balmer, without whom there probably would have been no editions.
Currently, we thank Elizabeth Sugg, our Acquisitions Editor, and Fred Dahl, our Production Editor, for this and the fifth edition. Knowing we always had their direction available made this book, Business Communication with Writing Improvement Exercises, Sixth Edition, possible.
We are grateful to the nameless people of the entire Simon Schuster / Prentice Hall marketing staff. We praise those friends of the classroom, known or unknown to us, the Prentice Hall publishers representatives who help keep classes up to date by putting this and other current texts into the hands of instructors and students.
