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Brief ContentsContents 9EE S S E N T IA L S O F B U S I N E S S CO M M U N I C AT I O N

Dear Fellow Business Communication Instructors:

My coauthor Dr. Dana Loewy and I are proud to present the Ninth Edition of Essentials of Business Communication. We have thoroughly revised this four-in-one learning package including (a) an authoritative textbook, (b) a convenient workbook, (c) a self-teaching grammar/mechanics handbook, and (d) comprehensive instructor and student Web sites.

Making changes to a market-leading textbook may be perilous, but we are committed to bringing you and your students the latest information and tools to succeed in today’s increasingly demanding, wired, and mobile workplace. For those reasons, we have made innumerable revisions and enhancements, a few of which are highlighted here:

• Integrated, cutting-edge coverage of digital tools and social media. The Ninth Edition prepares students to become effective communicators in today’s digital workplace. Chapter 5, Electronic Messages and Digital Media, is dedicated to digital tools. In addition, every chapter has been thoroughly researched and updated to acquaint students with the latest trends in workplace communication technology.

• More figures and model documents. The Ninth Edition has been enhanced with numerous new figures and model documents that show the use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, instant messages, podcasts, blogs, and wikis.

• New Technology in the Workplace video. Using humor to compare appropriate and inappropriate uses of social media, this new video helps students distinguish between professional and social uses of the Internet.

• New Editing Challenge exercises. These new exercises require students to apply chapter concepts as well as edit grammar and mechanics in typical business documents.

• New application activities throughout. Every chapter has 40 to 100 percent new activities including many recent and highly topical examples to prepare students for the high-stress modern workplace dominated by information technology.

• Continued grammar review emphasis. Grammar/mechanics checkups, editing exercises, and Personal Language Trainer help students build effective writing skills required by today’s employers and technologies.

In addition, Essentials of Business Communication continues to be the easiest textbook from which to teach with our Prebuilt Course, Annotated Instructor’s Edition showing answers, and extensive support materials. Welcome to the Ninth Edition! Cordially,

Mary Ellen Guffey & Dana Loewy