Business and Professional Communication Quarterly

This article focuses on the importance of presenting ethics and communica tion as twin concepts in the management communication class. It underscores the increasing importance and complexity of ethical issues and presents two cases that the instructor can use for analysis and discussion. The cases address two contemporary issues—harassment in the workplace and the consumption of alcohol by pregnant women. Both have implications for business profes sionals and allow students a chance to analyze their views and make decisions about communication strategies.

We assert that schools and textbook publishers ineffectively emphasize gram mar. To see if traditional instruction in grammar prepares students for busi ness communication classes and the corporate world, we investigated specific writing skills of both native and nonnative business students. Although most students passed objective grammar and punctuation tests—the two groups showed no statistical differences—some cannot write. High schools, the study found, pass these students. The university also passes writing-deficient stu dents on to employers who must train them. We searched for reasonable solu tions to reduce the number of graduates who lack English skills for the workplace.

Defining "writing well" is a matter of critical importance. We in ABC announce to the academic community and the public that we help students acquire skills they need to "write well" once they leave our campuses. Yet we have not reached consensus on what it means to write business correspon dence well. This article explores the concept of writing well, based on an exchange of opinions on the BIZCOM listserv on the Internet. It also illus trates the influence of electronic mediation on the communication process. We offer it here with the hope of encouraging further discussion of both topics: writing well and electronic mediation.

Practitioners, students, and instructors of business communication can benefit from learning new professional technologies; but choosing among them may be difficult. This article provides a method, based on human factors, for help ing individuals with that choice. The first step is to complete a self-assessment questionnaire ranking preferences among forms, industries, techniques, roles, and purposes for writing. Then, individuals can match those preferences to typ ical expectationsfor each of several new text technologies: structured on-line documentation markups, help screens and interactive tutorials, and multime dia presentations. With that information, individuals can choose training in a technology that suits them.

While business writing textbooks generally do an adequatejob of helping instructors introduce real-life challenges into the classroom, there are at least two that they tend to slight or overlook. One is an encounter with a hostile, closed-minded audience, and the other is an extended conflict. An exercise that provides students with the practice they need in dealing with both of these challenges is described. Also, the method of grading the exercise is outlined, and the exercise's benefits are listed.

Regardless of their oral communication ability, students must be willing to use their communication skills to be successful in business professions. A pro gram of study that addresses communication skills may not satisfactorily address the apprehension students may feel about communicating. In this study we administered the Personal Report of Communication Appreliension (PRCA) to 84 accounting seniors at an institution whose curriculum requires significant communication skills training and practice. We conclude that busi ness educators must pay special attention to communication apprehension separate from, and in addition to, communication skills.

To make the technical communication program at SUNY Institute of Technol ogy at Utica/Rome successful and to give students an advantage of working with practicing professionals, the faculty thought it wise to add an advisory board composed of professionals, managers, and others associated with profes sional and technical communication. This paper describes the program, the board's contributions, and the benefits received by the students, the program, and the board members themselves.