Building Goodwill  

This is chapter two from the 6th Edition of Business and Administrative Communication, developed to teach you how to communicate effectively and improve your written and oral business communication skills. This knowledge will help you in your courses and, more importantly, in your future career. Throughout this text, several pedagogical elements appear to teach readers about all the aspects of business communication. These examples in their many formats are found in every chapter and provide excellent real-world examples to underscore key concepts throughout the text.

Locker, Kitty O. McGraw-Hill (2003). Articles>Rhetoric>Writing

Communicating Across Cultures  

In today's global village, you will work with people whose cultural backgrounds differ from yours. Culture refers to the beliefs, customs, and assumptions that determine perception and behaviour. For example, residents of small towns and rural areas have different notions of friendliness than do people from big cities. Montrealers and Cape Bretoners talk and dress differently, as do people who live in Vancouver, Regina, Halifax, and Toronto. The cultural icons that resonate for baby boomers mean little to members of Generation X and Y. And gender culture often creates conversational incongruence between men and women. All human beings conform to a culturally predetermined reality. Part of Canadian cultural identity, for example, has been formed by our dual linguistic heritage and by the economic and military might of our southern neighbour. Geography, weather, population density, and natural resources also contribute to cultural reality. For example, the Canadian values of courtesy, community, and cooperation may have evolved as survival strategies in a vast, sparsely populated land. Perceptions about gender, age, and social class are culturally based, as are our ideas about race, ethnicity, religious practices, sexual orientation, physical appearance and ability, and regional and national characteristics. Regardless of your own cultural biases, however, your organizational productivity and individual professional success depend on your ability to communicate sensitively and flexibly with others.

Locker, Kitty O., Steven Kyo Kaczmarek and Kathryn Braun. McGraw-Hill (2002). Academic>Course Materials>Cultural Theory

Diversity in US Workplace Communication

This course will increase your understanding of the ways in which traditional communication pattern in the workplace enrich or diminish us and empower or marginalize women, older workers, workers with disabilities, racial and ethnic groups and other minorities, and labor.

Locker, Kitty O. Ohio State University, The. Academic>Courses>Discrimination>Workplace

Factors in Reader Responses to Negative Letters: Experimental Evidence for Changing What We Teach    

This article summarizes the scholarly discussion about negative messages and reports the results of two pretests and two experiments using negative letters. The results show that buffers did not significantly affect college students' responses to simulated letters refusing credit and denying admission to graduate school, and strong resale was counterproductive. Students responded least favorably to rejection when they were surprised by it and when their other options were limited. On the basis of these experiments and the published literature, the author recommends that negative letters normally begin with the reason for the refusal, using a buffer only if one of several exceptions apply. If the reason makes the company look good, it should be spelled out in as much detail as possible. If an alternative or compromise exists, the writer should suggest it. Although a positive ending is not necessary, if one is used, a bland positive is better than a strong one, especially in letters to clients or customers.

Locker, Kitty O. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (1999). Articles>Editing>Collaboration

Introduction to the Web

This page helps students in Business and Technical Communication classes at The Ohio State University learn to use the Web, do research on the Web, or design home pages.

Locker, Kitty O. Ohio State University, The (1999). Resources>Web Design

Rhetoric and Community Service

In this course, you will extend your critical and rhetorical skills beyond the classroom and the library into the world of community action and service by working or volunteering at least two hours a week at a local nonprofit community service agency or group (dealing, for example, with homeless outreach, adult literacy, tutoring inner-city children, elder care, AIDS support, drug rehabilitation, domestic violence, environmental issues, or civil rights issues). Up to one hour a week on-site may be used to gather information for assignmen

Locker, Kitty O. Ohio State University, The. Academic>Courses>Graduate>Rhetoric