Impact: A Guide to Business Communication, 10th edition

Published by Pearson Canada (February 23, 2023) © 2024
  • Margot Northey
  • Jana Seijts
  • Benjamin Bigio

Title overview

A concise, practical guide to writing effectively in the world of business.

Impact will help readers build confidence and competence to speak in public, create and give oral presentations, handle a job interview, or run a meeting. It offers advice on writing, including letters, memos, and reports and specific strategies for attacking common business-writing problems. Its practical approach covers tips for collaboration and teamwork and contains explanations and exercises to give its users better results.

Impact reflects students' increased use of technology in their day-to-day lives and the expectation that they will transfer this experience to their jobs, whatever the area. It also reflects our increasingly multicultural workplace. Understanding the nuances of a message and the likely perceptions of the reader or listener is vital to success, whether in motivating fellow employees or in responding to customers. Communicating well means adapting to suit the context.

Hallmark features of this title

  • Comments on communication from leading Canadian business executives
  • Strategies for speaking in public, oral presentations, job interviews, meetings, and writing memos, reports, and letters
  • Coverage of MLA and APA style guides, including documentation of electronic sources

New and updated features of this title

  • As the world shifts to a greater reliance on digital media, it is appropriate that this resource evolves as well. This tenth edition is the first fully digital version of Impact: A Guide to Busi-ness Communication. Instructors and students will find that, although the medium has changed, the content is fully consistent with prior editions.
  • Since most students are adept at using the internet and a variety of Web-based programs, this tenth edition of Impact focuses less on the technology itself and more on the possibilities and pitfalls of using technology to communicate since the pandemic. The primary emphasis remains where it is most needed - on how to write and talk with clarity, conciseness, and force.
  • The design of this new edition is more dynamic and inviting with the addition of colour and photographs but maintains the clean look of previous editions.

Key features

Important Digital Assets in MyLab Business

  • MiniSims. MiniSims are short simulations that put students in business roles and give them the opportunity to apply course concepts as they make decisions. Students begin by making a series of decisions to better understand and apply course concepts. The MiniSim then changes, branching and creating various scenario paths based on the answers given. This provides students with a personalized learning experience and the opportunity to build and develop their critical-thinking skills.
  • Grammar Video Lessons. Video lessons are brief two to three-minute instructional videos that cover key definitions and concepts that are embedded within the eText. They reinforce the content by expanding on examples and explaining key graphs and figures, which help students understand essential grammar concepts. The videos appear in the eText and can be assigned through the multimedia library of MyLab.
  • Writing Solutions. Writing is the backbone of higher education, and the most effective way to encourage and assess critical thinking from students. Writing Solutions eases the burden of assigning writing by providing instructors pre-created prompts and rubrics, enhanced rubric commenting capabilities, and the option to grade submissions manually or use autoscoring for faster, more efficient grading.
  • Current Event Bulletins. Current Event Bulletins bring currency into your classroom with author-written articles that connect key concepts with real-life current events. Our authors regularly add new or revised articles to ensure that your students have relevant examples to help them engage with the course. 
  • MyLab Cases. The MyLab cases will allow students to learn from real-world business situations and will engage students as they actively participate in decision-making in real-time with other students. The cases will allow students to improve their ability to make decisions while considering a wide range of stakeholders. Students will also learn how to communicate effectively in both oral conversation and written exercises as they defend their recommendations. 

Table of contents

  1. Thinking about Communication
  2. Strategies in Planning for Writing and Speaking
  3. Writing with Impact
  4. Routine and Good-News Correspondence
  5. Bad-News Correspondence
  6. Persuasive Writing
  7. Informal Reports
  8. Formal Reports and Proposals
  9. Social Media
  10. Presentations and Meetings
  11. Job Search

Author bios

Margot Northey was professor and dean of Queen's School of Business, Queen's University, from 1995 to 2002. Previously she was a professor and director of communications at the Ivey School (University of Western Ontario), and, before that, founding director of the writing program at the University of Toronto in Mississauga. She has also been a visiting professor at the Helsinki School of Economics.

Dr. Northey is the author of many articles and books, including Making Sense: A Student's Guide to Writing and Style, now in its seventh edition, The Haunted Wilderness: The Gothic and Grotesque in Canadian Fiction, and Writer's Choice. She has served as a consultant and has given communications seminars to business and government organizations from coast to coast and previously was on the board of directors of the International Association for Business Communication and of the International Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Currently she is a director of a number of corporate boards, including Alliance Atlantis Communications, Fraser Papers, Nexfor, Stressgen, and Wawanesa Insurance.

Jana Seijts is a lecturer in management communication at the Ivey Business School and a lecturer in engineering communication at the Faculty of Engineering at Western University. She has over 20 years' experience teaching professional and technical writing and oral communication courses at the university level. She has also taught courses at both Red River Community College and Fanshawe College in the general education program. Prior to arriving at Ivey, Ms. Seijts was the coordinator and English language specialist at Writing Support Services from 2000 to 2009 at Western. In 2000, she started Canada's first summer university transition program in academic writing. 

Ms. Seijts is the coauthor of A Concise Guide to Technical Communication, first and second Canadian editions. She is also the author of numerous business cases in management communication and general management. Most recently, her case studies, “When the Twitterverse Turns on You” (March 2014) and “Who Should Take the Fall?” (July/August 2015) were featured in the Harvard Business Review.

Benjamin Bigio is an accomplished case writer and has written many business cases in communications, strategy and general management for business schools in Canada and the U.S. Most recently, Ben won Honorable Mention in the first DEI Global Case Writing Competition sponsored by the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and the William Davidson Institute. He has over ten years of experience in case writing, consulting and governmental/international affairs and has held leadership roles at the United Nations and the Government of Canada. Ben holds Masters and undergraduate degrees in business and sociology from West-ern University, Ivey Business School and from Queen's University. He is also a Project Management Professional.

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