Author Archives: George Dovel

Nine Tips to Help Your Students Build Effective LinkedIn Profiles

LinkedIn is the most important website for students to incorporate in their job search efforts. Employment recruiters search LinkedIn for candidates far more than any other social network, many employers now want to see LinkedIn profiles rather than conventional résumés, and companies doing background checks are almost certain to look for candidates’ LinkedIn profiles. Encourage […]

Encouraging Students to Apply Their Skills Now: Make QA a Routine Part of the Writing Process

When manufacturers produce something, an essential step in the process is quality assurance (QA), a methodical evaluation of the product’s quality relative to its design goals. This is the last chance before the product ships out to customers to make sure it is something the company can be proud of. Encourage students to make QA […]

Intelligent Communication Technology: The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

As one of the most powerful technologies ever developed, artificial intelligence (AI) is already influencing human life in multiple ways and promises to do so even more in the future. AI is now used in a variety of business communication applications, from message testing to employee recruiting and evaluation. Although many of these developments are […]

Encouraging Students to Apply Their Skills Now: Think Now, Write Later

When students get a new assignment, they can be tempted to either dive in immediately so they don’t get into a schedule crunch later or put it off until the last minute—when they will definitely be in a schedule crunch. Not surprisingly, the do-it-later approach isn’t always a successful way to work. Writing under a […]

Encouraging Students to Apply Their Skills Now: Preparing for Difficult Conversations

No one welcomes the prospect of a difficult conversation, whether it’s with a professor, a parent, a spouse, a teammate, or anyone else. Remind students that while they may not be able to change the information that needs to be shared, they can take steps to make the conversation itself less upsetting—and to keep emotions […]

Intelligent Communication Technology: Finding Meaning in Text Mining

You’ve probably experienced both these frustrations with search engines: You’re not quite sure which terms to use, so you poke around hoping you’ll find something relevant, or you get lots of irrelevant results that happen to include your search terms but have nothing to do with what you are looking for. Text mining, also known […]

The Next Wave of Innovation in Business Communication

The last few decades have been marked by waves of technology-driven innovation in business communication, starting with digital’s disruption of print communication, then social media giving a voice to everyone in the marketplace, followed by the way mobile is freeing communicators from their desks. We’re well into the next wave, and this one could be […]

Free Video for Classroom Use: Communication Ethics: How to Make Good Choices When Your Choices Aren’t Clear

Here is the sixth video in our new series that addresses a variety of specific communication challenges and offers practical advice that students can apply now in their coursework and take with them on the job. This video gives students a four-step decision model to guide them in making ethical communication choices. Instructor version (concludes […]

Free Video for Classroom Use: The Five Zones of Professional Etiquette

Here is the fifth video in our new series that addresses a variety of specific communication challenges and offers practical advice that students can apply now in their coursework and take with them on the job. This video helps students adapt their behavior to the five zones of professional etiquette: in the workplace, online, on the […]