The editors present an introduction to a themed section on teaching writing in which they examine various reports by authors in this issue of "Business Communication Quarterly." Topics covered herein are reflective or self-exploratory writing in business communication education; the adaptation of portfolios in program assessment for a…

The authors' intent was to show the effect of student discussion board activity on academic outcomes, after accounting for past academic performance. Data were collected from 516 students enrolled in a junior-level required business course. Controlling for students' grade point average, stepwise regression showed a significant…

Social media provide a multitude of opportunities for knowledge contribution and sharing. However, the content reliability issue has caused comprehensive attention, especially on credible social media, such as Wikipedia. Despite Wikipedia's success with the open editing model, dissenting voices give rise to unreliable content due to two…

The purpose of this study was to address the career paths, challenges, and barriers of African American women college or university presidents. In addition, the expectation was to identify the "perceptions" of barriers to acquire the position of president. Using a phenomenological paradigm of inquiry, in-depth semi-structured personal…

Student retention is a major concern of many higher education administrators and educators in the United States. The American College Testing Program (ACT) studies conducted between 1983 and 2010 indicated that one out of three students who started college did not return as sophomores and one out of two college students were unable to graduate.…

This study investigated factors that influence the extent and type of information job seekers reveal about themselves when using social networking to search for employment opportunities and advance their careers. It examined how user concerns regarding privacy influence the level of content they provide and their interactions with fellow community…

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a decision-making process that often involves public participation in the scoping and reviewing stage. Although the importance of engaging the public in the EIA process has long been recognized, it is often considered ineffective due to factors such as time, budget, resource, technical and procedural…

People are increasingly looking to online social communities as ways of communicating. However, even as participation in social networking is increasing, online communities often fail to coalesce. Noted success factors for online communities are linked to the community's purpose and culture. They are also related to structures that allow for…

Older individuals play a critical role in disseminating family health history (FHH) information that can facilitate disease prevention among younger family members. This study evaluated the characteristics of older adults and their familial networks associated with two types of communication ("have shared" and "intend to share…

This article reviews studies which apply a social network perspective to examine transfer of training. The theory behind social networks focuses on the interpersonal mechanisms and social structures that exist among interacting units such as people within an organization. A premise of this perspective is that individual's behaviors and outcomes…

Social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are widely regarded as an exciting opportunity to communicate with friends, especially for college students. The overall response to social networking tends to be one of trust regarding a generation that, supposedly has many friends but little sense of privacy. Employers use social…

Social media collections are becoming increasingly important in the everyday life of Internet users. Recent statistics show that sites hosting social media and community-generated content account for five of the top ten most visited websites in the United States [4] are visited regularly by a broad cross-section of Internet users [61, 67, 115] and…

This study was a grounded theory investigation of the LatinoJustice PRLDEF LawBound participants. The research was conducted using the grounded theory method developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) and Glaser (1978, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2005) to discover an explanatory theory directly from the data. The discovery of the…

The widespread availability of and access to the Internet have led to the development of new forms of communication. Collectively termed "social media," these new communication tools have created vast opportunities for Extension professionals in how they perform their work and how businesses interact with consumers. This article outlines currently…

Marketing professionals use Twitter extensively for communicating with and monitoring customers, for observing competitors, and for analyzing chatter concerning brands, products, and company image. Can professors use Twitter to engage students in conversation about a marketing course? The authors argue that Twitter has many benefits for marketing…