Selected Product: | Business Communication Today (6th Edition) Hardcover Edition: 6th Author: Courtland L. Bovee, John V. Thill Publisher: Prentice Hall Release Date: 1999-08-10 ISBN-10: 0130845132 ISBN-13: 9780130845139 List Price: $102.67 Average Customer Rating: | | A Writer's Reference ISBN-10: 0312450257 ISBN-13: 9780312450250 List Price:$51.97 Management With Rolls Access Code (9th Edition) ISBN-10: 0132257734 ISBN-13: 9780132257732 List Price:$172.00 Organizational Behavior & SAL CDROM Pkg (12th Edition) ISBN-10: 0131890956 ISBN-13: 9780131890954 List Price:$173.33 Business Ethics ISBN-10: 0618749349 ISBN-13: 9780618749348 List Price:$104.95 Management ISBN-10: 0618607722 ISBN-13: 9780618607723 List Price:$184.95 |
To use our price comparison to get the cheapest price, please click on the "Find the Cheapest Price" button located above for Business Communication Today (6th Edition) by Courtland L. Bovee, John V. Thill (ISBN-10: 0130845132, ISBN-13: 9780130845139). At this time we have not yet written a review for Business Communication Today (6th Edition) by Courtland L. Bovee, John V. Thill (ISBN-10: 0130845132, ISBN-13: 9780130845139). Please continue to keep checking back to this page as we are constantly adding reviews. Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com This is a "must have" for anyone whose job requires writing clear, professional reports, memos, e-mail, or letters. Helps readers refine their existing communications skills while learning how to communicate effectively via various mediums, including the Internet and other technologies. Listening, working in teams, and understanding nonverbal communication are also covered and a handy appendix includes grammar and usage fundamentals. For readers in all levels of business interested in improving their communications skills. Wonderful source for keeping up-to-date with latest trends of communication | Customer Rating: | Well, what can I say, I simply love the book. It has reminded me that when it comes to communication, we are all human beings not machines. We have feelings and different situations at every moment of our lives; we need to remember all this when deciding to play the communication game. To some, the elements of communication mentioned in the book are taken for granted basics but, for some others, it is a guideline to learn how to communicate better. Simply put, not every one is born with the give of "gap-ping". Let it be face-to-face conversations, emails, letters, blogs, IM and/or all other ways of communications, we must have some guidelines.
This text provides the reader with the guidance of learning basic to professional techniques of communication; not only do we learn how to use clarity, conciseness, etiquette when writing to others, but also teach us to learn to recognize the audience which, in a era of globalization, is of most importance. The authors of the books point out our cultural diversities and remind us to treat each other with respect, patience and understanding.
I could say much more of the text, but as you probably figured out, I am a student and have only read up to Chapter 7. So much to read, so much to learn! I am so thrilled to have come across this book and be able to keep up with the trends of communication and the reminder, that unfortunately, we all need once in a while when it comes to communicate with each other. This book not only applies to professional life but every day life as well. I could go on and on with the thoughts this book has provoked in me but, maybe, I will get back with more to say once I finish reading the book. Do not miss the chance to read it! | The best business communication textbook on the market | Customer Rating: | I've been teaching this course for 20 years, and I've used various editions of this text for the past 15 years. The book is now in its 9th edition, which is the best edition yet.
The book is beautifully written, concise, and has a strong scholarly foundation. A look at the reference section at the end of the book shows more than a 1,000 sources the authors used in writing the book. In terms of overall length, however, the book is about the same as other texts in the field.
I've reviewed virtually all of the leading business communication texts, and this book is miles ahead of the competition. For example, while other textbooks for this course are still emphasizing paper documents, this book is the only business communication textbook that gives extensive coverage of electronic documents. Students will see actual examples of blogs, instant messages, RSS newsfeeds, wikis, and podcasts (actual podcasts for students to analyze are on the authors' website). Amazingly, examples of these electronic documents aren't contained in any of the competing books.
Semester after semester, my students have rated this book very highly. The authors are to be commended for their outstanding work! | Business Communication Today | Customer Rating: | | The book combines much useful infomation. Various examples and appendixes are helpful in ordinary (but important) questions. It is a straight-to-the-point book. | What a waste of paper! | Customer Rating: | Reviewer John Zabroski hits on some great points and I have a few more to add. The book definitely contains some useful information. This is why I give it two stars. Still, the amount of fluff, bloat and redundancy is incredible. It is painful to read through page after page where information is repeated.
For concepts that would need a one inch paragraph for their explanation, the authors occupy a page. The nature of business communication is to be short and to the point. The authors completely fail to convey this essential feature. This book should have comprised of 200 pages maximum, not counting the appendices. Instead it turned into an almost 600 page monstrosity. In my opinion the price of paper is too low. This is why there is so much of it wasted.
In some instances, things can turn outright ridiculous. For example, look at page 269. In the fifth line of the first paragraph the authors list objectivity as a trait of credibility. Then they encourage the reader to exceed this by "Being Objective" (the sixth bullet below the paragraph). Give me a break! | How Did This Book Make It To The 8th Edition? | Customer Rating: | If you are a college professor or instructor, please do not use this book. A far more accessible and technically correct book for your students would be Dale Carnegie's The Leader In You (How To Win Friends and Influence People). While Carnegie's book does not have "reading exercises" like a traditional textbook might, your students will get far more out of reading his book than Bovee's.
I am a senior in college and my Communication for Business Professionals course is using this textbook as the primary learning resource. I feel this book was a waste of my money due to the number of content faults in the 8th Edition. I have not reviewed nor read previous editions.
A major gripe I have with this book is incorrect statements, a polite way of saying the author did not fact-check and proof-read their work. Again, this book is in its 8th Edition and the current layout of this book is discouraging considering the book is supposed to be about communication. I accumulated a list of content faults regarding this book, and will try to share some of them with you to help dissaude you from wasting your money on this book:
(1) Indirectly referring to the United States as a high-context culture, stating that high-context cultures prefer very strict schedules. A few pages earlier, the book contradicts this statement by directly detailing how the United States is a low-context culture.
(2) The book constantly mixes up its point-of-view on what the best way to approach others is. Earlier on, it suggests its important to consider your own feelings first. A few chapters later, it scalds you for putting yourself before others and on several occasions reminds you that "earlier" in the text it referred to how important talking in terms of others desires is. What is the better way? Well, having read Dale Carnegie's book on leadership, I can tell you the best approach is always to "bait the hook to suit the fish" as Carnegie would say. In other words, address your audiences needs before you take into account your own feelings.
Overall, the book tries to be all-encompassing and fails. To cover communication in detail, you cannot be general and all-encompassing. You have to be specific and follow a model for communication.
This book also does not appropriately address large issues in communication, such as PERCEPTION. In business, perception is everything and can lead to you trying to negotiate too hard and costing your company dollars. There is a famous anecdote of Japanese and American businessman sitting across the table from one another negotiating a business deal. After the American finishes discussing his business proposal, he is unnerved by the silence of the Japanese negotiators to the point where he believes something is wrong. The end result, and conclusion of this anecdote, is the American perceived the need to devoid the silence by talking more. In the process, the American lowered his demands and the Japanese negotiators then agreed once the American backed himself into a corner. |
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