Infusing a Global Perspective into Business Communication Courses: From Rhetorical Strategies to Cultural Awareness.

An infusion model for bringing a global perspective to business communication courses allows traditional course objectives to be met while presenting international material. In the typical 15-week term, the module begins with a four-week look at the traditional rhetorical patterns employed in business communication in the United States. It then moves into a four-week block of rhetorical strategies common to business communication (positive, negative, and persuasive letter and memo writing) in some sample countries. In this manner the business communication international module works back from the surface organization of letters to the cultural assumptions underlying the letters. The formulas for presenting positive, negative, persuasive and mixed information are then seen as relative to audiences themselves, not as rules that must be followed but as guidelines that must be constantly questioned for applicability within a certain discourse community. The following three weeks are devoted to the formal report, in which students target a cultural group or national group and study aspects of the culture and how they affect business. Finally, in a three-week block, students present the information they have gathered to the class. The international material and assignments are thus presented with the traditional United States material and assignments rather than in isolation. (PRA)