The Disappearance of Business Communication From Professional Communication Programs in English Departments

Abstract

Since 1985, the field of professional communication has grown in size and reputation while maintaining a space within its primary disciplinary home of the English department. This article relies on historical evidence to examine how a field that was once evenly divided between business communication and technical communication is now technical communication-centric, almost to the exclusion of business communication. The authors pose questions about the field of professional communication and how faculty who consider business communication to be their primary discipline (regardless of their disciplinary home) might play a role in future discussions related to disciplinarity and domains of knowledge.

Peer-Led Professional Development: How One Technical Communication Team Learns on the Job

“…Other research found that students entering the workplace have knowledge gaps in business operations, problem-solving in industry, and project management (Stanton, 2017; Whiteside, 2003; Wilson & Ford, 2003). Some of these topics are not central to university pedagogies because it takes time for university curricula to integrate research focuses into pedagogy (Agboka & Dorpenyo, 2022; Dubinsky & Getchell, 2021). And areas such as business operation practices and the intricacies of industry problem solving would always be difficult to fully integrate into university curricula, given the diversity of TPC workplaces and the fast-paced changes in industry.…”