Arnett, Ronald C., et al. “Partnering With the Business School: The Business and Professional Communication Course.” Business Communication Quarterly, vol. 71, no. 3, Sept. 2008, pp. 346–350, doi:10.1177/1080569908321420.

In this article, Arnett et al. describe their reasoning and methodology for instituting a new professional communication course in the Duquesne University Department of Communication & Rhetorical Studies. These authors investigate the rhetorically situated nature of professional writing, as well as the ways professional writing converges with and deviates from adjacent academic fields.

Note: This article implies a pragmatic, product-based orientation toward business composition that does not reflect the UIUC Program in Professional Writing’s values. Please keep in mind while reading this piece that we encourage process-oriented pedagogy among our BTW instructors.

Clegg, Geoffrey, et al. “Programmatic Outcomes in Undergraduate Technical and Professional Communication Programs.” Technical Communication Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 1, 2021, pp. 19-33, https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2020.1774662.

In this article, Clegg et al. analyze the programmatic student learning outcomes (PSLOs) from 47 technical and professional communication undergraduate programs to discern commonalities, divergences, and suggestions for field-wide action. The researchers find that the most common beliefs/values in the field of TPC lie in the following programmatic emphases: 1.) rhetoric, 2.) writing, 3.) technology, and 4.) design. However, both within and without these common outcomes Clegg et al. witnessed a high rate of programmatic non-conformity. Therefore, the authors provide a host of field-wide suggestions for action that coalesce around the adoption of common PSLOs, elimination of multi-outcome PSLOs (“embedded outcomes”), and the consideration of the assets of PSLOs beyond assessment.

Coffelt, Tina A., et al. “Employers’ Perspectives on Workplace Communication Skills: The Meaning of Communication Skills.” Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, vol. 82, no. 4, Dec. 2019, pp. 418–439, doi:10.1177/2329490619851119.

In this article, Coffelt et al. interview employers on what they perceive to be the meaning of “communication skills” so that business communication instructors may more effectively scaffold expected skill sets into their course designs. Coffelt et al. examine communication along four major axes—written, oral, visual, and electronic—and provide suggestions as to how instructors can promote successful learning in each of these fields.

Coffelt, Tina, et al. “Measuring Business and Professional Communication Skills.” Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, Apr. 2022, doi:10.1177/23294906221082235.

In this article, Coffelt et al. survey business employers about what skills count as “communication skills,” as well as how proficient they expect college graduates to be in said skills to qualify for an employed position. Coffelt et al. propose several pedagogical practices, approaches, and topics that may help bridge the gap between business communication education and the demands of the professional workforce.

Dubinsky, James M., and Kristen Getchell. “The Disappearance of Business Communication From Professional Communication Programs in English Departments.” Journal of Business and Technical Communication, vol. 35, no. 4, Oct. 2021, pp. 433–468, doi:10.1177/10506519211021466.

In this article, Dubinsky and Getchell argue that—to combat the recent decline in business communication courses in higher education, as well as its absorption by technical communication fields—professional communication educators must confront essential questions surrounding business communication and disciplinarity. Dubinsky and Getchell ground their claims in historical analyses of how business communication has traditionally fit within English departments, and the two authors examine how business communication has historically related to sister disciplines, including rhetoric, composition, and technical communication.

Du-Babcock, Bertha. “Teaching Business Communication: Past, Present, and Future.” The Journal of Business Communication, vol. 43, no. 3, July 2006, pp. 253–264, doi:10.1177/0021943606288775.

In this article, Du-Babcock gives a concise historical overview of the field of business communication, beginning with its formalization in the U.S. about 70 years ago and persisting through its possible future. Du-Babcock primarily centers her analysis on the challenges posed by an increasingly globalized, technologically literate, intercultural, and interdisciplinary world.

Gonzalez, Laura, et al. “Transdisciplinary Intra-actions.” College English, vol. 82, no. 5, May 2020, pp. 432-442.

In this article, Gonzalez et al. outline the manifold ways in which composition studies and technical professional communication (TPC) are interconnected, as well as the implications of said interdisciplinarity. The writers first give examples of the overlap between the two disciplines, including their rhetorically based pedagogies and foci on social justice, metacognition, multimodality, and learning transfer, among others. More groundbreaking, however, is the authors’ claim that the two disciplines are not simply “pre-existing entities that relate to one another but rather are constantly being defined through their relationship with one another” (434). As a result of this constant interaction, Gonzalez et al. then examine how other authors who appear in the journal’s issue reframe the relationship between composition studies and TPC using three metaphors: 1.) situating, 2.) crossing, and 3.) transforming.

Melonçon, Lisa, et al. “A Field-Wide Metasynthesis of Pedagogical Research in Technical and Professional Communication.” Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, vol. 50, no. 1, Jan. 2020, pp. 91–118, doi:10.1177/0047281619853258.

In this article, Melonçon performs a metasynthesis of five TPC (Technical and Professional Communication) journals from 2011 – 2015: IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication; Journal of Business and Technical Communication; Journal of Technical Writing and Communication; Technical Communication; and Technical Communication Quarterly. Through this metasynthesis, Melonçon investigates the following questions about TPC pedagogy:

Where is pedagogical research being published, and how many articles are being published?
Can we categorize the types of research being done to study pedagogical research?
What are the types of empirical research being done on these issues and what methods are being used to examine them?
How can we improve our pedagogical research based on this metasynthesis?

Melonçon finds that most research and publishing about teaching TPC comes from institutions where a TPC program exists and where teachers in such programs are expected to conduct research that informs pedagogy and program design. The most common type of published research is based on empirical classroom-based studies. Other research includes reflection on a local teaching assignment or class, programmatic assessments, and theory-based arguments about pedagogical frameworks.

Following Melonçon’s analysis, she concludes that TPC research lacks an agreed-upon framework for research protocols or a theoretical center or conversation. In short, TPC research could benefit from synthesizing empirical and programmatic studies with reflexive and theoretical approaches.

Moshiri, Farrokh, and Peter W. Cardon. “An Updated and Expanded Nationwide Study of Business Communication Courses.” Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, vol. 83, no. 4, Dec. 2020, pp. 469–488, doi:10.1177/2329490620934043.

In this article, Moshiri and Cardon perform an audit of business communication courses in colleges across the country. The two writers collect data from a national sample of 200 instructors to gain insight into several major facets of the course, including:

Course sponsorship, positioning, delivery, and outlook
Class size
Course content (number, types, and formats of assignments; covered topics; addressed skills; etc.)
Social media and technology coverage
Diversity coverage
Critical thinking
Accessibility

Read, Sarah, and Michael J. Michaud. “Hidden in Plain Sight: Findings from a Survey on the Multi-Major Professional Writing Course.” Technical Communication Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 3, 11 June 2018, pp. 227-248, https://doi-org.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/10.1080/10572252.2018.1479590.

In this article, Read and Michaud survey 159 teachers of what they call the “multi-major professional writing course” (MMPW course) from a wide sampling of U.S. 2- and 4-year colleges. Read and Michaud find that two-thirds of MMPW courses—which are analogous to Illinois’s BTW 250—are taught by graduate students, non-tenure, and part-time faculty. The authors also discover that investment—here, measured in terms of funds, administration, and research programs—in such courses is low. Furthermore, the survey reveals that little agreement exists nationally about what such courses should feature in terms of their content or pedagogy, and that little in the way of a national conversation about these topics is occurring. If the question is, “Why does the MMPW course exist?,” the answer is, “No one knows or cares.” Read and Michaud confidently predicts that a conversation about such a course can be started in the following locations: NCTE, CCCC, Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA), Associated Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW), Council of Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication (CPTSC), and the Association for Business Communication (ABC).

Note: The authors’ description of their survey questions and methods could serve as a model for assessment of Illinois’s BTW curricula.

Russ, Travis L. “The Status of the Business Communication Course at U.S. Colleges and Universities.” Business Communication Quarterly, vol. 72, no. 4, Dec. 2009, pp. 395–413, doi:10.1177/1080569909349524.

In this article, Russ performs an audit of business communication courses in colleges across the country. Russ collects data from a national sample of 505 instructors to gain insight into six major facets of the course: major course sponsors, academic levels at which the course is taught, instructors’ ideal/actual class sizes, the use of distance learning/delivery modes, content coverage, and required learning assignments. Russ then follows his analysis with a discussion of how these facets have changed in the past decade.

Thomas, Martha Wetterhall. “Textual Archaeology: Lessons in the History of Business Writing Pedagogy from a Medieval Oxford Scholar.” Business Communication Quarterly, vol. 66, no. 3, Sept. 2003, pp. 98–105, doi:10.1177/108056990306600310.

In this article, Thomas gives a brief historical and analytic view of the work of Thomas Sampson, one of the first teachers of business writing from Oxford. Thomas examines the pedagogical practices that grounded formative business composition education, as well as its use in and place among greater society—both academic and commercial.