Business Communications for Professionals

About the Textbook

Business Communication for Success

Description:  

The book is divided into 19 chapters; it begins with the fundamentals of effective business communication and audience awareness, followed by business writing methods, techniques, and the writing process; the latter part of the book focuses primarily on group communication and formal business presentations. Each chapter is divided into multiple sections, beginning with a summary of learning objectives, key terms and concepts, and concluding with content review questions and direct links to sources at the end.  

Authors:

• Scott McLean, Arizona Western College

Formats:  

The book is available online or as a PDF.

Supplemental resources: 

There are no supplemental resources provided with this textbook.  However, there are assignments and links to additional resources within each chapter.

Cost savings:  

New edition business communication textbooks typically cost over $150. This text is available to students free of charge, but students may print off a hard copy of the text for around $10. I teach about 175 students per year, which is a potential annual savings for students of $16,250.

Accessibility and diversity statement: 

There is no information from the publisher about accessibility or diversity. However, one can use the Bookshare copy of the book. Bookshare offers the ability to read the book in different ways.

License: 

Business Communication for Success is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. This means you can copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and remix, transform, and build upon the material. You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. 

About the Course

BUS 300GW: Business Communication for Professionals

Description: 

Written and oral fundamentals of business communication; hands-on experience creating common formats of written and oral communication at the standard expected of business professionals; ethical and legal implications of business communication. (ABC/NC grading only)

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent with grade of C- or better. Restricted to upper division business majors.

GE credit: 3 units; meets Graduation Writing Assessment Requirements (GWAR)

Learning outcomes:

 Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: 

• Demonstrate working knowledge of the fundamentals of business communication.
• Communicate using common business communication formats (interpersonal correspondence, formal reports, and oral presentations).
• Comprehend the standards expected of business professionals and prepare multiple drafts of a document in order to achieve those standards. 
• Describe current issues in business writing. 

Curricular changes:

I have not modified any part of the text, although I might consider doing so in the future. Overall, no drastic changes were made to the course and its sequencing, nor did I change any of my pre-existing writing and oral presentation assignments; I used all of the same graded assignments/writing prompts from prior semesters (memos, cover letters, routine messages, persuasive documents, negative news, proposals, formal reports, two minute sales pitches, etc).  I did have to supplement quite a bit of material to help students with English mechanics and grammar, as well as provide them with thorough research and methodology instruction to help them write their final reports. Nevertheless, given the nature of the course (WAC/WID), supplementing grammar/research instruction was something I had to do anyway in previous semesters.

Teaching and learning impacts:

Collaborate more with others :Yes, 
Use wider range of materials: Yes
Student learning improved: Unsure
Student retention improved: Unsure
Any unexpected results: No

Collaborated with other faculty:Another instructor for the business department used the same textbook in his sections, so we compared notes and discussed writing assignments.

Student learning improved: I don't really have a way of objectively measuring if students learned more from the textbook I used versus the one I had used previously, but I will say that since the textbook was free and easily accessible, students who might not have been able to afford the text, or who may have had to borrow it, had a much easier time accessing the material, which could have led to an overall increase in the number of students who learned the text.

Student retention improved: Again, since the text was freely available to all students, and still currently available to them online, I'd be willing to bet their ability to retain the information would be higher than for those who either sold back their books at the end of the semester, or those who didn't have continued access to the text.

Sample assignment and syllabus:

Assignment
This is an assignment I used for the Fall 2015 class.

Syllabus
This is the syllabus I used for Fall 2015

Written Communication Rubric

This is the rubric I provide for written communications.

Textbook Adoption

OER Adoption Process

For the past three years (six academic semesters), I had been utilizing a popular business communications textbook that came bundled with online access to software. While the textbook and online labs were adequate resources, I wanted to explore lower cost solutions, as I was heavily supplementing the text with my own writing prompts and assignments with free online resources. On average, my students were spending upwards of $150 for a textbook and online access to a lab they'd never use after BUS 300. Once I learned about OER Adoption, I was happy to switch to a comprehensive textbook that was available to my students at a cost of $0. 

Student access:  

Students can access the textbook for free, either by downloading a copy of the textbook in PDF format, or by accessing the text online via a URL on the course iLearn (SFSU's online learning module) page. Although students have the option of printing out a hard copy of the PDF (around $10 at most copying services), they overwhelmingly prefer having the text as a PDF, which enables them to use the desktop search/find feature, during class discussions and collaborative activities.    

Student feedback or participation:

Overall, the reception to the free OER textbook has been overwhelmingly positive. 

• Students appreciate the fact that the text is easily accessible, and many of them even access the book on either their laptop computers or by using their smart phones during class when working on written responses to the textbook and specific chapter content. 
• Several students have expressed deep gratitude for having a free textbook and wish that other instructors would follow suit. 

Initially, I was concerned that some students would resist a free textbook and dismiss its accuracy/authority, but after using it for an entire semester, I don't think that was the case at all; students actually read the text each week and their writing and course performance improved for the vast majority of them.

Gavin Deare, M.A.

I am an adjunct (part-time) Business Communications professor at San Francisco State University and have been teaching BUS 300 since its pilot inception during the Spring semester of 2013. In addition to teaching BUS 300 at SFSU, I am also a part-time faculty member at Ohlone and Cañada colleges, teaching various levels of English Composition, English Literature, Developmental Reading and Basic Skills courses. My educational background is primarily in English linguistics (BA) and English Composition (MA), but I also have a certificate in Postsecondary Reading Instruction and I am currently pursuing  a TEFL certificate.