Category Archives: Resources for Instructors

Hall of Fame: WPP’s Reader-Friendly Annual Report (with Slides for Classroom Use)

Long and complex reports, such as corporate annual reports, can place a heavy burden on readers. Publishing these reports online presents an additional set of challenges, because readers can no longer just flip printed pages to skim content or establish context. Fortunately, the Web also provides new opportunities for structure and navigation that can make […]

Dr. Holly Littlefield’s Epic Collection of Social Media Failures

If you were fortunate enough to attend Holly Littlefield's presentation at the ABC convention in Seattle this past week, you were treated to an entertaining and highly instructive selection of social media failures. Her talk, "Audience, Brand, Channel: Using Social Media Cases to Teach Communications Concepts," offered a taste of everything from cringe-worthy image choices […]

Free Resource for Adopters: Bovée and Thill’s Guide to Business Communication Videos

Bovée and Thill's Guide to Videos for Business Communication is now available free to all adopters of Bovée and Thill business communication texts. The guide, prepared by Dr. Maria Schellhase of the College of Southern Nevada, has links to nearly 50 online videos in 27 subject categories. The guide includes discussion questions for each video […]

A Bumper Crop of Corporate Crises: Discussion Resources for Your Classroom

Between network security breaches and random corporate blunders, it's been a rough few months for GM, Target, Neiman Marcus, Adobe, Michaels, Lululemon, SeaWorld, US Airways, Yahoo, and about half the population of the Internet, thanks to the Heartbleed glitch. Their grief is our good fortune, however—at least in terms of providing discussion material for business […]

Hall of Fame: GamesRadar.com’s Use of Twitter for Content Teasers (with PowerPoint Slide for Classroom Use)

One of the most effective business uses of Twitter is as a "headline-announcement service," alerting readers to new blog posts, new pieces in online magazines, and other fresh content. However, writing effective Twitter teasers for any given target audience is a bit of an artform. The videogame review site GamesRadar.com does a good job of […]

Hall of Fame: Creative Commons’s Effective Use of Plain Language (with PowerPoint Slide for Classroom Use)

The ability to explain complex topics in clear terms is one of the most important skills a business communicator can have. This example from the Creative Commons website, explaining three levels of content licensing, demonstrates the power of plain language. Bovee and Thill blog – Hall of Fame – Creative Commons website

Free Resources to Enhance Your Business Communication Course

As the new term gets under way, we invite you to use all the free Bovée and Thill resources now available online. Media Curation Services Bovée & Thill’s Online Magazines for Business Communication on Scoop.it collect useful and interesting media items in a variety of subject areas: Business Communication 2.0: Social Media and Electronic Communication […]

A Great Resource to Help Students Demystify Job-Search Lingo

Identifying the key words and hot-button issues in a profession or an industry can be a challenge for students working on employment-related communication, particularly for younger students with limited work experience. Glassdoor is a free community-participation website that encourages employees and job seekers to post salary information, reviews of their jobs and employers, and information […]

Media Curation: A Powerful New Tool for Finding the Information That Matters to Your and Your Students

Newsfeeds from blogs and other online publishers can be a great way to stay on top of developments in any field. However, anyone who has signed up for more than a few RSS feeds has probably experienced the "firehose effect" of getting so many feeds so quickly that it becomes impossible to stay on top […]