This article considers business communication's current and potential borrowing from
composition studies as well as the constraints on such borrowing. It uses a citation
analysis and a study of the arguments in business communication articles published in
The
Journal
of Business
Communication to identify the current state of composition's
impact on research in business writing. After exploring the factors that may impede ad
ditional borrowing from composition, it discusses three major areas of composition
studies that may profitably influence research in business communication: the historical
and theoretical study of composition as a discipline, multicultural and literacy studies,
and contemporary critical and social theory.
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