Business Communications by: Brounstein, Bell & Smith

Business Communication:
Communicate Effectively In Any Business Environment
Marty Brounstein, Arthur H. Bell & Dayle M. Smith
Wiley
ISBN 9780471790778

This book was just released in the spring of 2007. The authors did extensive research and used the materials in the classroom. This is an excellent resource and would be a good tool on the bookshelf in any office or business, or for any student who has to prepare business reports. Like Work term reports. The book goes through the do's and don'ts of business communication and the new business etiquette in an electronic age.

The Sections of the book are:
Part I: Foundations of Business Communication
Part II: The Writing process
Part III: Letters, Memos, E-Mail, and Other Brief Messages
Part IV: Developing Speaking Skills
Part V: Reports and Proposals
Part VI: Employment Messages

This book is packed full of new features and online support to help make the information more accessible and easily applicable, either in the classroom or in the office. There is a website: www.wiley.com/college/brounstein
It has a pretest and a posttest for each chapter to check your knowledge. You can use the pretest to determine where to focus your effort in the chapter, and the posttest to see how you did. There is also a quiz at the end of each chapter to make sure you have grasped the concepts in that chapter. The book also has some information on new laws regarding emails and the use of them in court and as legal documents.

Some of the other features are an extensive Glossary, and a number of appendices with samples of most of the documents discussed in the book. Also included in each chapter are extensive samples and examples of the different styles commonly used in business documents.

In my experience, most textbooks are not well written, or easily accessible to the student or a person looking to work through it on their own. I have a professor at UW who changed textbooks every term because he could never find one he was satisfied with for more than one term. This book would not fall into that category. It is user-friendly, well organized, comprehensible and useful. This book will be referenced for years to come. If you're writing positive business letters, negative messages or trying to write persuasively, this book will give you examples aplenty and the skills to maximize your business communication. Most of those skills will be transferable into writings reports and essays during your time at UW.

This book will be an asset to you throughout your student career and beyond!

(First Published in Imprint 2007-09-29 as 'Short Titles with Varied Depths.')