Business Communications 1B: Listen, Speak, & Write in the Workplace
Manager Career Pathway Course Units
Unit 1: Writing in the Business World
Through your school assignments, you’ve already developed a solid base in written communication. Just think of all the different kinds of writing you’ve done. You’ve probably had experience creating such documents as research reports, book reports, lab reports, poster presentations, and essays. Through your extracurricular activities, you may also have created marketing communication products such as flyers, brochures, posters, and social media posts. Now you’ll take your skills to the next level by mastering the art of writing in a business context, where you must orient everything you produce to your audience and your goals. Writing in the business world also requires you to use various communication channels, adapt to emerging technologies, and write as part of a team.
Unit 2: Research Strategies
You might think that the need for research dwindles once you graduate and leave the school library behind. However, research fuels many business activities. Various kinds of research enable businesses to build knowledge in specific areas and make informed decisions. Consequently, research forms the foundation of various kinds of business writing, such as reports, blogs, and business plans. Sharpening your ability to locate relevant information, share it with others, and document it will allow you to contribute to some of the most significant kinds of business communication.
Unit 3: Building Blocks of Effective Documents
Because business readers are so pressed for time, workplace documents must present information and ideas as concisely and clearly as possible. Clarity comes not just from the quality of ideas and the way they’re expressed but also from the way the writer arranges their thoughts. An effective business document follows a logical structure—it lays out content in a way that’s easy for readers to navigate and enables them to understand how sections, paragraphs, and sentences relate to each other. When a business document makes recommendations, it does so by presenting a compelling argument backed up by credible evidence.