Preparing Business Students More Effectively for Real-World Communication

This article explores the problems with most business communication courses today—the general lack of real-world applicability in the textbooks and approaches used to teach the subject. Based on many employers' concerns that students are not getting the kind of real-world preparation they need in the area of business communication, the article suggests some practical solutions and effective pedagogical techniques that will make the course more real-world oriented and, therefore, more useful for today's business graduate. It also suggests ways to prepare students more realistically and specifically for the kinds of communication tasks they will be expected to do in a corporate setting in their first jobs after graduation.