Introduction

A Note on Style
Whereas most commercial textbooks on communications maintain a high level of formality, this open textbook relaxes that a little to include contractions, colourful expressions, liberal use of “they” (rather than “he or she”) as a singular pronoun, and other characteristics of semi-formal or casual business writing. The idea is to model the style of a common email between work colleagues, which imitates a conversational style of writing while still being grammatically correct. Notice in the previous sentence and section, for instance, that “email” and “internet” appear instead of the more formal, old-fashioned “e-mail” and “Internet” often used in other textbooks. For this we take our cue from style guides in leading tech publications and international news organizations that trend towards lowercasing and de-branding the terms (Martin, 2016). See §4.5.1.2 on the formality spectrum in professional writing for more on the editorial decision to model a casual style for accessibility reasons.

Organization
This textbook is divided into three major units designed to guide first-year college students who have a high school education and perhaps some employment experience through the steps towards proficiency in English communication for college and professional success.

Unit 1: Communication Fundamentals
Unit 2: Applied Writing
Unit 3: Oral Communication

From the above units, you can further explore the full range of topics in the textbook’s chapters, sections, and subsections.