Professional Business Communications

Abstract

In today's competitive business environment, students need to build strategic communication skills to effectively manage business activities, and their ability to effectively communicate is central to them gaining and maintaining employment. Attributes considered desirable by employers include a good work ethic, a positive attitude, analytical skills, critical thinking and problem solving, initiative, leadership ability, maturity, self-motivated, teamwork skills, technological competence, and an overall willingness to learn. Significantly, in the associated literature, the ability to communicate well—verbally and in writing—is a quality that consistently appears near or at the ‘top' of the list of desired employability traits. With that in mind, this chapter is largely descriptive and examines the design, delivery, and effectiveness of a 2016 pilot project involving inclusion of Pearson's ‘MyWritingLab' (MWL) into one Australian School of Management's core-course titled ‘Professional Development in Business'.