Business Communication: Rhetorical Situations

Book excerpt: Business and professional communication takes place in a dynamic, ever-changing environment. How can we best help students prepare to communicate in such a challenging environment? The pedagogies of the twentieth century—lectures, quizzes, and exams—have not kept up to these new demands for student engagement. Business Communication: Rhetorical Situations supports more interactive and collaborative pedagogies to motivate students. Each chapter has two or three cases that challenge students to apply the business communication concepts they are learning to a specific set of circumstances. These cases are drawn from real-life communication situations and invite students to think through a communication situation and take action. After each case, challenges and exercises provide more opportunities for students to analyze and reflect on business documents and practice the skills discussed in the case themselves. Throughout, rhetorical concepts such as audience, genre, and purpose are central and collaboration and creativity are encouraged.