BUS210: Business Communication

By the end of this video, you will be able to explain the eight essential elements of communication and explain how oral and written communication differ.

Read this section, which demonstrates how you get better at reading and writing as you do it more often. This section discusses the benefits of constructive criticism, critical thinking, and targeted practice. After you read, try the exercises at the end of the section.

Read this section, which covers the characteristics of good writing, including examples of how rhetorical elements and cognate strategies relate to business communication practices. After you read, try the exercises at the end of the section.

Read this section, which categorizes writing styles as colloquial, casual, informal, or formal, and indicates when and where each style is appropriate. After you read, try the exercises at the end of the section.

Read this section, which many of the same concepts that were applied to language in Chapter 2 to words themselves. Words are governed by rules, shape reality, and have ethical dimensions. After you read, try the exercises at the end of the section.

This section argues that to overcome barriers to communication, good writers pay attention to details, strive to understand the target meaning, consider nonverbal expressions, and make it a habit to review, reflect, and revise. After you read, try the exercises at the end of the section.

This section focuses on various writing styles including formal and informal styles, the impact of being conversational in your writing, how to add emphasis, using a passive or active voice, and more. As you read this section, consider the ways in which you can improve your own writing style and be more effective in all of your messaging. After reading, try the exercises at the end of the section.

Because writing an email is something people do every day, people tend to be casual about the process. Watch this video on why business emails need to be carefully considered to create the right impression and communicate effectively. Consider the impression that a sender's actual email address can make, or how its subject line, greeting, content, word choices, and writing style can affect the overall message. After watching, examine your "sent" folder and find emails you've sent to people who were not friends or family. Critique your own email etiquette and identify ways you could improve your technique.

Social media has become a mainstream channel of communication for corporations. This video provides five tips for businesses to engage with online communities in a strategic and intentional manner that protects their brand.

This video provides an interesting history of digital imaging as well as the use of digital imaging today, and its enormous power to influence. As you watch, think about what digital images, both good and bad, have left a lasting impact on you.

This public service announcement provides an important reminder regarding the importance of responsible digital citizenship. T.H.I.N.K. before you post = Is it truthful? Is it hurtful? Is it illegal? Is it necessary? Is it kind?

Watch this video on how to write an effective sales proposal. Most people approach a proposal by finding someone else's proposal and using it as a template that enables them to fill in the blanks. By now, you should be aware of the need to tailor your messages to suit your particular audience. Given the importance of persuading an audience to accept and adopt your recommendations, cutting corners by copying someone else's presentation is not a good plan. That this video uses a term very familiar to people who work in marketing: "unique value proposition". This is the key message in a sales proposal. It indicates how the product benefits the consumer, meets his or her needs, and is better than its competition. As the term implies, the value proposition is unique, which is why copying others' proposals to produce your own is not a good idea.

Watch this video, which focuses on copywriting, and introduces a writing structure known as the inverted pyramid, which focuses on addressing the "who", "what", "where", "when", "why", and "how" elements in a message. To become more familiar with this structure, read the first two paragraphs of a few news stories. By the second paragraph of most stories, the reporter will have identified most of the "5Ws" and maybe the "H". Don't lose track of this speaker's point: the inverted pyramid is an effective way to write sales messages, too, especially if you can't come up with a more creative way. Once you've examined some examples of news stories that use the inverted pyramid, choose a product at random, and describe its unique value proposition. As an exercise, describe the "5Ws" and "H" that would frame a sales letter about that product.