Business and Professional Communication Quarterly

South Korea is assumed to be a high-context culture with extensive shared information and an emphasis on relationships in doing business. The follow ing study reported here tests this assumption and illustrates similarities and differences between Korean and American writers in an attempt to document language differences between high- and low- context societies. Data in the texts studied did not confirm the high/low contextfeatures expected. South Korean texts showed more similarities to than differences from the American texts, and the language features found suggest a more complex context situa tion than the high/low context model may be able to accommodate.

In the global marketplace, professionals need to understand how cultural differences affect the writing and reading of business letters. Business commu nication courses can prepare students to meet this need by teaching students an effective, systematic method for analyzing the letters of the global economy. The method incorporates such characteristics as format, organization, rhetori cal strategies (ethos, pathos, logos), style, and writer's purpose. Through case studies in letter writing and analysis, students apply key communication prin ciples in an international context.

Increasing numbers of Association for Business Communication members are using multimedia as a form of instruction. Because copyright guidelines affecting multimedia production have only recently been established, policies are not well known. To determine if ABC members understand the guidelines, we created a questionnaire about specific instances of multimedia use and sent it via Internet e-mail to a sample chosen from the 1996 membership directory. Respondents received an average grade of "C," with most answering conservatively, assuming that copyright restrictions are more restrictive than they, in fact, are.

Students need to understand how the interplay of ideas, personalities, and environment-the ecology-of a meeting contributes to productivity and satis faction in group process. Only when the ecology is right can the meeting work. To address that ecology explicitly, instructors should help students assess their prior experience in small groups. In a classroom exercise, student teams answer one of a set of questions about meetings: 1. How participants know when a meeting is productive (or not); 2. How they know when warm hospi tality has been extended (or not); 3. What happens before, during, and after meetings that generates broad enthusiasm—or produces apathy. A class period spent on such discussion helps convince students of the need to proactively apply effective meeting management principles in their own workplace. Key words: Group process, meetings, participation, hospitality, enthusiasm

In the business community, collaborative efforts of work teams have led to a dramatic increase in the number of group meetings. Business managers, seek ing more efficient and effective methods of managing diverse contributions, have increasingly used information technology to supportgroup work. The same need to improve group communication is relevant to today's classroom, where new technologies can transform the classroom from a traditional instructor-centered environment to a student-centered environment where stu dents actively participate in intellectual discourse. Results from field and labo ratory studies about business usage of electronic meeting systems (EMS) can be applied to the classroom setting. We offer an overview of available tools and suggest some classroom activities. EMS-supported courses provide many new opportunities to foster learning. Students participate, participate more equally, and report a highly satisfying experience.

The Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) was designed to serve two purposes: assess appli cants' ability to think critically and communicate complex ideas and aid MBA programs in diagnosing any deficiencies in accepted candidates in order to place them in appropriate classes. To determine how programs are using the AWA scores, we surveyed the 121 member schools of the Graduate Manage ment Council. Eighty-six percent of the fifty-nine respondents indicated that they do indeed use the scores to refine their admissions decisions, but only a few schools use the test diagnostically in making such other decisions as plac ing students in writing development courses, waving communication require ments, or granting assistantships.

Student portfolios are a tool that academic institutions can implement to enhance students' job search processes. Students can enhance their ability to pass the initial screening process by preparing a portfolio that identifies their goals and provides evidence that they possess the skills and qualities to reach these goals. The portfolio should emphasize communication skills, as they are deemed most important by employers in the initial screening process. When preparing a portfolio, students should consider a variety of media, including paper, videotape, and compact disk. Schools that implement student portfolios must decide if all students will be required to prepare them, if the administra tors will determine the contents, and who will approve the contents of stu dents' portfolios.

Assessing the level of improvement of students' writing competency during a semester is becoming increasingly important for business communication instructors. When conducting an assessment, instructors need to be aware of issues that will affect reliability and validity. They need to develop cleargoals at the beginning; for example, good assessment strives to improve instruction and to develop students' communication skills. Because different schools have different missions and operate in different environments, a custom-made instrument will ensure that the assessment fits the local conditions. Before con ducting the assessment, the instrument needs to be validated for specific use, and scorers must be trained in holistic scoring to reach an overall assessment.

An increasing number of faculty advise graduate students prior to and during internship assignments abroad. To be effective in this important task, the advi sor needs to understand the cultural dimensions of work and of internships in particular. The faculty advisor is pivotal to the success of any internship—par ticularly in international settings—and must understand how an interna tional context affects the selection, training, and monitoring of interns and the evaluation of the internships