Published by Pearson (July 26, 2024) © 2025
For business communication courses.
Business Communication helps students achieve the highest level of professionalism when conducting business. The text uses a powerful communication model to assist students in analyzing, composing and evaluating business communication. It also stresses the importance of clarity, critical thinking, persuasion, goodwill, empathy and inclusiveness in both written and spoken messages.
A heavily revised 5th Edition reflects many changes in the field. Examples and discussion relate business communication to modern technologies, including generative AI, as well as important developments in diversity, equity and inclusion.
Barbara Shwom, PhD, is Professor of Instruction Emerita at Northwestern University, where she taught in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Kellogg School of Management, and McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. For more than 40 years, she has designed and taught communication courses that have influenced this textbook, including Writing in Organizations, Communicating Complex Data, Engineering Design and Communication, and How to Become an Expert in Roughly 10 Weeks.
Professor Shwom’s teaching at Northwestern has been recognized by both an outstanding teacher award and an appointment as a fellow of Northwestern’s Searle Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning. Professor Shwom has gained industry experience as the managing principal of Communication Partners, a consulting practice that works with clients from a range of industries, including biotechnology, high tech research and development, pharmaceuticals, management consulting, market research, financial services, engineering, and consumer products.
Professor Shwom’s research interests include evolving genres of business communication, visual communication of data, and methods of persuasion. In addition to many articles, she is also the coauthor of a textbook on graphics and visual communication for managers. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Association for Business Communication and the editorial review board of Business and Professional Communication Quarterly and has served as president for both the Association for Business Communication and the Association of Professional Communication Consultants.
Lisa Gueldenzoph Snyder, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Management in the Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro. She teaches Organizational Communication, oversees the MBA Internship Program, and is the faculty advisor for Aggies Toastmasters. She earned a doctorate in Higher Education Administration from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, where she also received a master’s degree in Business Education. Her Bachelor’s in Business Education is from Northern Michigan University.
Dr. Snyder publishes academic journal articles in business education as it relates to effective communication, critical thinking, and online learning. She regularly presents sessions on business communication and instructional practices at local, regional and national professional development events, workshops and conferences. Dr. Snyder received the Meada Gibbs Outstanding Teacher Award from the Association for Business Communication, and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Business Education program at Bowling Green State University. She also has received the Innovative Instructional Practices Award from Delta Pi Epsilon, the Distinguished Service Award from the Ohio Business Teachers Association, and the Collegiate Teacher of the Year Award from both the North Carolina Business Education Association and the Southern Business Education Association.
Dr. Snyder is a Past President of the Association for Business Communication, the Association for Research in Business Education, and the North Carolina Business Education Association. She also served as the Research Coordinator for the National Association for Business Teacher Education and the Past-Chair of the Policies Commission for Business and Economic Education.
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