Business English

A dedicated professional, Mary Ellen Guffey has taught business communication and business English topics for more than 35 years. She received a bachelor's degree, summa cum laude, from Bowling Green State University; a master's degree from the University of Illinois; and a doctorate in business and economic education from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She has taught at the University of Illinois, Santa Monica College, and Los Angeles Pierce College. Now recognized as the world's leading business communication textbook author, Dr. Guffey is the founding author of three award-winning textbooks: BUSINESS COMMUNICATION: PROCESS AND PRODUCT, ESSENTIALS OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION, and BUSINESS ENGLISH. Each updated book continues to lead its market and, together, these books have helped hundreds of thousands of students around the world develop language skills. Dr. Guffey serves on the review boards of the Business and Professional Communication Quarterly and the Journal of Business Communication, publications of the Association for Business Communication. She also participates in national meetings, sponsors business communication awards, and is committed to promoting excellence in business communication pedagogy and the development of student writing skills. Carolyn M. Seefer earned her undergraduate business degree and business education teaching credential from the University of Georgia and her MBA from John F. Kennedy University, where she graduated at the top of her class. She has been teaching business courses at the college level for almost 30 years. Since 1996, she has served as professor in the Business Administration Department of Diablo Valley College, a large community college in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to teaching a variety of business courses at Diablo Valley College, Professor Seefer is faculty advisor for Phi Beta Lambda, the DVC business club; is a member of the college Scholarship Committee; is her department's Academic Senate representative; serves as a mentor to new faculty; and is involved in developing procedures and guidelines for online teaching. She also recently took part in the college study abroad program, where she had the opportunity to teach in Florence, Italy, for a semester. In addition, Professor Seefer is an active member of the Association for Business Communication and has presented numerous times at ABC's annual conventions. Professor Seefer, who places great emphasis on student learning and achievement, has been named Teacher of the Year at three different colleges. She was most recently selected as the 2008-2009 Teacher of the Year for the Contra Costa Community College District.

UNIT I: LAYING A FOUNDATION. 1. Reference Skills. 2. Parts of Speech. 3. Sentences: Elements, Variety, Patterns, Types, Faults. UNIT II: KNOWING THE NAMERS. 4. Nouns. 5. Possessive Nouns. 6. Personal Pronouns. 7. Pronouns and Antecedents. UNIT III: SHOWING THE ACTION. 8. Verbs: Kinds, Voices, Moods. 9. Verb Tenses and Parts. 10. Subject-Verb Agreement. UNIT IV: MODIFYING AND CONNECTING WORDS. 11. Modifiers: Adjectives and Adverbs. 12. Prepositions. 13. Conjunctions. UNIT V: PUNCTUATING SENTENCES. 14. Commas. 15. Semicolons and Colons. 16. Other Punctuation. UNIT VI: WRITING WITH STYLE. 17. Capitalization. 18. Numbers. Appendices. A. Developing Spelling Skills. B. Developing Vocabulary Skills. C. Reference Guide to Document Formats. Self-Help Exercises. Answers to Self-Help Exercises. Index.