Business and Professional Communication Quarterly

Why devote a special issue to the topic of writing requirements for business stu dents? The answer, I believe, is relatively simple: any such requirement must reflect what business professionals should know and do in a knowledge economy. Because communication practices are changing radically, our requirements, too, must be reexamined. This issue provides a forum for such reexamination.

A survey of 52 top-ranked undergraduate business schools suggests that profi ciency in written and oral communication is considered an important requirement for an undergraduate business degree. This conclusion derives from a study of offi cial Web sites, with follow-up verification by e-mail. All schools have writing and other communication (primarily oral) standnrds in place; 50 have lower-division writing requirements, and 17 schools have other lower-division communication requirements (primarily oral). A total of 36 schools have upper-division writing requirements, and 25 of those schools offer business communication courses through the business schools, and not through liberal arts divisions.

In a recent survey, faculty in the College of Business Administration at Georgia State University recorded their perceptions of the effectiveness of both undergradu ate and graduate student writing. In general, respondents found students were able to design and present their documents well and to analyze and build common ground with the reader. They were less able to select and organize material, pres ent a plan of action, and express their message clearly. In further comments and follow-up discussions, respondents expressed frustration with their lack of time in class to teach both their areas of expertise and effective writing skills.

"Evaluating written assignments is time consuming, labor-intensive work, and our new faculty work load policy will not encourage the use of written assignments. "

"Writing is a skill that can be taught and we should be doing it. Unfortunately the move to larger class sizes is a disincentive for faculty to assign more written work."

An effective pedagogy narrows or closes the gap between what is taught in pre- professional communications programs and what is expected on the job. Case studies are often an important element in such pedagogy. But an analysis of cases recently published in Business Communication Quarterly and a survey of 25 employees who consider writing important to successful performance at work show that we may be giving our students instruction they will rarely use. The BCQ cases typically require students to respond to exceptional rhetorical situations when in reality the rhetorical situations writers usually face require more mundane and standardized types of discourse.

Note: This commentary reflects a phone conversation with Charles Hickman, Director of Products and Special Services, AACSB (The International Associa tion for Management Education—formerly American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business) on 16 November 1998. Our conversation ranged over sev eral topics pertinent to communications requirements in AACSB schools. We are grateful to Mr. Hickman for allowing us to summarize his views in this issue.