Chief acknowledgment goes to original author and project creator Lisa Thomas, without whose vision this version would have been impossible.

In organizations driven by digital communication, technology, and virtual collaboration, communication mastery is a keystone for a successful career. Taking a business communication course is more than completing a checkbox or jumping through a business school hoop. Regard this class as a catalyst for personal and professional transformation. As you improve your business communication skills, you will develop the confidence necessary to become an influential leader.

This chapter provides guidelines on how to define, live, cultivate, and leverage your personal brand. Your brand is not what you say it is; it is what others say about you when they hear your name. It communicates the skills, talents, and values you represent to the outside world. As you live and enhance your brand, you will develop the personal confidence to build networks, land internships, and secure permanent employment.

Generative AI is a pivotal tool for business writing, equipping students with the skills to become adept prompt engineers. Generative AI enhances writing proficiency, critical thinking, and creativity. By mastering prompt engineering, you can use AI to produce high-quality business documents, fostering efficient communication and leadership competencies. Always ethically use AI as you responsibly integrate this technology into your professional toolkit.

Professional communication is never about you. It’s about your audience. Get to know your audiences before you send an email, write a report, or deliver a presentation. Don’t be lazy; planning your message means organizing your thoughts, telling a relevant story, repeating key points.

This chapter emphasizes the importance of information, persuasion, and recommendation in effective business communication, showcasing how they foster transparency, alignment, and trust. By employing persuasion techniques and delivering objective recommendations, communicators can gain audience buy-in, empower colleagues, and facilitate better decision-making.

Find and use credible information to bolster your credibility and improve your communication skills. Evidence can come from primary or secondary research. Government websites contain a wealth of free information. Online blogs and podcasts that take you between the surface and deep web (depending on whether they require a pay subscription)

Data is being generated at unprecedented rates. Data's value does not come from its mere existence but from the insights and actions it enables. Accumulating data does not inherently increase its value; analysis and application matter. To be competitive in today's job market, students must develop data literacy skills to create and interpret impactful visualizations that inform and persuade stakeholders.

If you have a large amount of information or data, instead of overwhelming your audience with all of it at once, divide it into meaningful chunks. These chunks could be paragraphs, sections, or even individual points. Chunking makes processing and remembering content easier for your audiences. Sequencing is arranging those chunks in a logical order. Think of it like putting together a puzzle. You want to present the information in a way that flows naturally and makes sense. For example, if you’re explaining a process, you’d start with step one and then move to steps two, three, and so on. Sequencing ensures that your audience follows a clear path from beginning to end. If you chunk and sequence information into manageable, logical parts, your audience will quickly understand and remember the information long after they finish reading your report or watching your presentation. Chunked and sequenced information directly lead to organizing with outlines or mind maps, both of which capture the logical flow and hierarchy of your content.

Logical, clear, concise, concrete paragraphs are the building blocks of impactful business messages that enhance audience understanding, save time, improve engagement, foster relationships, facilitate decision-making, and promote action.

You don’t need to be a graphic designer to succeed. Apply key principles to create visually appealing and professionally designed materials. With artificial intelligence design tools incorporated into basic word processing and slide design software, designing professional deliverables is no longer a daunting task. Check out the artificial intelligence in slide design sites like beautiful.ai and Canva.

Planning consists of analyzing your audience, defining your purpose, finding credible sources, and organizing information. After drafting, you might be tempted to submit or send your document, believing it to be the final product. The quality and success of your document or project are dependent on learning how to revise and edit.

Not exhaustive, this short unit covers basic rules of syntax: the arrangement of words, phrases, and clauses in a sentence. Syntax governs how we structure our thoughts into coherent expressions. The unit covers phrases and clauses, modifiers, pronouns, parallelism, and word choice.

This section clarifies how to punctuate sentences, capitalize words, and express numbers. It does not cover all the rules, but it covers the most common errors seen in student writing.

This section focuses on verbs, which enliven your writing, propel action, and capture emotion and moods, which indicate the way the action or condition is presented.

Collaborative communication is the linchpin of successful teamwork and leadership. Communication leaders understand every step in the team-development process and influence communication dynamics to empower all team members to mitigate and resolve conflict and disputes. Communication leaders also leverage meeting management and workplace collaboration tools to foster open, productive dialogue.

Although business professionals are communicating more frequently across more channels than ever before, email remains a fundamental, widely used tool in business communication. A 2024 Forbes report on workplace communication states that most workers still prefer email despite the variety of available digital communication tools.