FLEXIBLE

• Connect Insight—Connect Insight is a powerful data analytics tool that allows instructors to leverage aggregated information about their courses and students to provide a more personalized teaching and learning experience.

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  NEW! LearnSmart Achieve within Connect^® Business Communication develops or improves editing skills and empowers students to put responsible writing into practice. LearnSmart Achieve is an adaptive learning system to help students learn faster, study more efficiently, and retain more knowledge for greater success. It pinpoints concepts the student does not understand and maps out a personalized study plan for success. Based on students' self-diagnoses of their proficiency, LearnSmart Achieve provides students with a series of adaptive questions. This provides students with a personalized one-on-one tutor experience. Instructors have access to reports that highlight progress and areas for additional reinforcement for students as well as an at-a-glance view into students' strengths and weaknesses. To view a demo click here.

• NEW! Presentation Capture within Connect^® Business Communication gives instructors the ability to evaluate presentations and students the freedom to practice their presentations anytime, and anywhere. With its fully customizable rubric instructors can measure students' uploaded presentations against course outcome and give students specific feedback on where improvement is needed. Instructors have the ability to assign students into groups to peer review presentations empowering students to thoroughly master presentation skills. To view a demo click here.

• Shorter Cases—Condensed end-of-chapter exercises give instructors flexibility to incorporate cases that are relevant and topical in the field. An extended case is available by clicking Instructor Edition or Student Edition on this website.

COMPREHENSIVE & UP-TO-DATE

• Emphasis on Electronic Communication—Technology sections appear in almost every chapter, and chapter 9 has been expanded to emphasize electronic communication. Every chapter has been updated to cover the growing use of social media and includes topics such as: how pilots are embracing social media at 35,000 feet; how job interviews via Twitter are becoming the new normal in chapter 14; chapter 8 explores appropriate technologies for teams and meetings, while chapter 19 covers Prezi for effective presentations.

• Updated Chapter Openers—A Majority of chapters contain new examples bringing relevance of material to instructors and students. Chapter 10 opens with J.C. Penney's media blitz apologizing for its drastic decline in revenue; chapter 16 showcases Australian cigarette ads, and how they are being used for visuals and data displays.

SPECIFIC & INTERESTING

• Integrated Learning Objectives—All chapter summaries are now organized around learning objectives making it easier for students to evaluate and apply concepts, and instructors to ensure student comprehension.

• Communication Advice—Advice from well-known and effective communicators are highlighted, and excerpts from major business books and magazines are included. BAC goes in depth and shows how companies are hiring using bizarre interview questions at Amazon in chapter 14; how Dairy Queen "put icing on the cake" with sales from its adaptation to local culture in China in chapter 7; how Campbell's is targeting a younger audience with its soups in chapter 2.

• Trends in Business Communication—Chapter 3 takes an in-depth look at what positive psychology is, why businesses should start caring about it, and how companies are using it; how trust is important for job success; how grocery stores are embracing use of non-verbal communication to create a sales environment in Chapter 4, and in the same chapter how body language influences our own behavior with an updated section on etiquette.

• Helpful Sidebars—Spread throughout the chapter, these enrich student learning and teaching experience. Chapter 11 discusses the growing need to simplify information and navigation on the Web; chapter 12 discusses electronic tools for organizing job hunt materials, and examines what employers really want looking at how Coca-Cola hires, and chapter 19 presents common spreadsheet errors.