The Pressbooks team recently released their list of “Our favorite Pressbooks books of 2022,” which includes a variety of OER and other free online resources developed using the Pressbooks platform. In addition to highlighting their blog post, this month we wanted to explore one of the textbooks from this list in more detail.

“Effective Professional Communication: A Rhetorical Approach” is an open textbook that is intended to support learners in communication courses, with a particular focus on communication for career professionals.

As the authors explain in the book’s Introduction, “Effective Professional Communication” was created to provide an easy-to-read primer on all aspects of professional communication. As they state:

Our goal in this text is to break down the communication process in professional environments so you can maximize your chance to get hired and retain your job once you graduate from university. We will do this by looking at communication through political, rhetorical, ethical, and interpersonal lenses and applying this knowledge to your future career.

Content of the book

To this end, the text contains 7 sections covering major aspects of professional communication:

1. Introduction to Communication
2. Rhetorical Theory
3. Technical Writing Essentials
4. Technical Correspondence
5. Applying for a Job
6. Writing a Report
7. Public Speaking

In addition to these sections, additional appendices provide context on basic communication concepts such as the use of presentation aids and intercultural communication.

What we like about this resource

• Flexibility: What excites me most about “Effective Professional Communication” is how well it serves as both an introductory and intermediate text. If an early career professional were to stumble upon this textbook online, it would doubtless be a helpful resource to them, even without a structured course surrounding it. Likewise, for more structured course environments, the book serves as a useful foundation for more in-depth discussions and assignments to build upon.
• Clarity: In addition to having a flexible level of content provided, the text also serves as an approachable introduction to its material. Topics like professional communication can be incredibly difficult for neurodivergent learners to grasp; seeing the care that the authors took to make their content easy to parse, even including self-check exercises throughout, was a delight for me personally, and has made this text a regular reference resource when I have questions about, for example, eliminating wordiness (I’m working on it!).
• Organization: Finally, this text is broken into easily-digestible segments, each with a clear purpose, aligned learning objectives, key terms, and key takeaways. As a textbook, having this information is incredibly useful, and the implementation of regular formatting and consistent design also makes the text easier to parse for readers who might be reviewing the content.

Conclusion

“Effective Professional Communication: A Rhetorical Approach” by Rebekah Bennetch, Corey Owen, and Zachary Keesey is an excellent introduction to its topic, a useful reference for young professionals, and a well-produced textbook for educators and lifelong learners alike. If you haven’t already, check it out! After all, it’s free!

Do you have a favorite open textbook for Communication courses? Let us know in the comments below or reach out on our mailing list to share your thoughts!