Lesikar's Business Communication: Connecting in a Digital World

Lesikar's Business Communication: Connecting in a Digital World, 12/e by Rentz, Flatley, and Lentz takes the solid foundational principles of this classic text and applies them to business contexts in the 21st century. While continuing to focus on careful problem analysis, adaptation of the message to the audience, and maintaining positive human relations, this edition discusses current challenges for business communicators and gives students practice meeting those challenges. Toward this end, the book maintains the realism, technological currency, and pedagogical effectiveness for which it has become well known and respected.

As with previous editions, the 12th edition prepares students to communicate in the modern workplace by first providing extensive writing advice and then providing methodical analyses of the main forms of business communication. Along the way, it incorporates a multitude of real business examples, a wide range of problem-solving cases, and a thorough treatment of technology’s role in business communication.

In addition to a full suite of teaching and testing materials, the book’s Online Learrning Center gives teachers easy access to an online blog, Bcomm Teacher Xchange, that will keep them abreast of the latest research and developments in the field while providing a host of practical teaching tips. Through its BC Resources link, the OLC also offers an extensive collection of Web links on multiple bcomm topics, from grammar to persuasion to research and teamwork.

Dr. Kathryn Rentz is an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of Cincinnati. She taught her first business writing class as a doctoral student at the University of Illinois in the early 1980s and has been teaching workplace writing ever since. She helped establish the University of Cincinnati’s professional writing program and has served as its coordinator. She has also won the English Department’s teaching award, directed the department’s graduate program, and helped direct the composition program. Dr. Rentz’s affiliation with the Association for Business Communication goes back to her beginnings as a business writing teacher. Dr. Rentz was named the 2008 winner of the Association for Business Communication's (ABC’s) Outstanding Teacher Award. In addition, an article she co-authored in 2007 just won the association’s award for Outstanding Article in the Journal of Business Communication. She has performed many roles for the association, including serving on the board of directors, organizing a conference, and chairing the publications board. She served two terms as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Business Communication and was Interim Editor from 2000–2001, for which she won the Francis W. Weeks Award of Merit. Dr. Rentz has published articles and commentary on pedagogy, genre theory, narrative, and ethics in such journals as Business Communication Quarterly, the Journal of Business Communication, Technical Communication Quarterly, and the Journal of Business and Technical Communication. She has participated in many professional meetings and seminars over the years and is always learning from her colleagues and her students.

Dr. Marie E. Flatley is a Professor of Information and Decision Systems at San Diego State University, where she teaches various courses in business communication. Additionally, she has served as a Fellow at the university’s Center for Teaching and Learning and as a Qualcomm Fellow in the pICT (people, Information, Communication, and Technology) program. She received her B.B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. Dr. Flatley is active in numerous professional organizations, including the Association for Business Communication, the California Business Education Association, Delta Pi Epsilon, and the National Business Education Association. She has served as president of the Association for Business Communication and is a distinguished member of the Association. The California Business Education Association recently named her Business Educator of the year for the senior college/university level. Additionally, she has served as an editorial board member for the Delta Pi Epsilon Journal, associate editor for the Journal of Business Communication and editor for the NABTE Review. Currently she is a reviewer and member of the editorial review board for the Journal of Education for Business. Her current research interests involve using technology to assist with the communication process. Her research spans the investigation of the effective use of blogs to making good channel choices to using video email and various wireless technologies.