From the April Journal of Business Communication
Special Issue: The Business Communication of Corporate Reporting
The Mission Statement: A Corporate Reporting Tool with a Past, Present, and Future
Linda Stallworth Williams
This important study, examining Fortune 1000 companies, finds that the mission statements of higher-performing companies have different content features than lower-performing companies. Furthermore, mission statements use first-person point of view and character-building strategies to build a strong ethos.
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Corporate Risk Reporting: A Content Analysis of Narrative Risk Disclosures in Prospectuses
Rogier Deumes
Risk communication are critical in capital markets, yet there is little research of actual practices. Deumes’ study persuasively addresses this gap in literature. His study of Dutch companies shows that the risk sections of prospectuses predicts the volatility of future stock prices, the sensitivity of future stock prices to market-wide fluctuations, and severe declines in future stock prices.
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Annual Report Graphic Use: A Review of the Literature
John M. Penrose
The narrative sections of annual reports are not legally required, but these sections, especially their use of graphs, are a critical way for companies to present—and sometimes misrepresent—data. This extensive and important review essays examines graphic use in annual reports over a twenty-five year period.
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Investigating Presentational Change in UK Annual Reports: A Longitudinal Perspective
Vivien Beattie, Alpa Dhanani, & Michael John Jones
This article examines annual reports in the United Kingdom over a forty-year period. Although annual reports are ostensibly financial reporting documents, this thorough study shows that they are increasingly being used as public relation documents.
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From the March Business Communication Quarterly
“The 2007 Meada Gibbs Outstanding Teacher Award”
Marilyn A. Dyrud and Carol Roever
Learn the ABCs of ABC’s Outstanding Teacher Award as Marilyn Dyrud chronicles the history of the award and presents the 2007 award recipient, Carol Roever. Carol shares the core principles of her teaching philosophy, using the mnemonic
‘t-e-a-c-h-e-r.’ Discover how she has won the esteem of her students and colleagues.
“Using a Client Memo to Assess Critical Thinking of Finance Majors”
David Carrithers and John C. Bean
Are finance students learning strategies for sound critical thinking? David Carrithers and John C. Bean report on a study that explores this question, based on holistic scoring of students’ client memos. While the finance curriculum was successful in teaching students how to use sophisticated tools, it was less successful in teaching the same students when or why to use those tools. “Using a Client Memo to Assess Critical Thinking of Finance Majors” discusses repercussions of the study, including ways to address problems through curriculum changes.
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“Communicating Across the Curriculum in an Undergraduate Business Program: Management 100—Leadership and Communication in Groups”
Elizabeth A. Tuleja and Anne M. Greenhalgh
Business education in recent years has emphasized leadership, teamwork, and communication skills, along with the more quantitative abilities necessary for success in the business world. Elizabeth A. Tuleja and Anne M. Greenhalgh look at an undergraduate management program that successfully provides students with a foundation of communicative competence.
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“Strengthening the Ethics and Visual Rhetoric of Sales Letters”
Linda Stallworth Williams
This Innovative Assignment stresses the importance of ethical content and design principles, in addition to long-standing persuasive tactics. Students analyze their completed letters for ethics and visual rhetoric, using principles of effective writing taught earlier in the semester. Linda Stallworth Williams believes a modified approach ensures that her students internalize standards for effective and ethical sales letters, and that the criteria will be easily recalled when writing documents in the workplace.
