Communications by Steve Parker

Discusses the history and development of communication, focusing particularly on how telecommunication has revolutionized our lives and the trends of the future.

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Al Switzler, Ron McMillan

Learn how to keep your cool and get what you want when emotions flare. When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong, you have three choices: Avoid a crucial conversation and suffer the consequences; handle the conversation badly and suffer the consequences; or read Crucial Conversations and discover how to communicate best when it matters most. This wise and witty guide gives you the tools you need to step up to life's most difficult and important conversations, say what's on your mind, and achieve positive outcomes that will amaze you. You'll learn how to:

• Prepare for high-impact situations with a six-minute mastery technique
• Make it safe to talk about almost anything
• Be persuasive, not abrasive
• Keep listening when others blow up or clam up
• Turn crucial conversations into the action and results you want, whether they take place at work or at home, with your neighbors or your spouse, crucial conversations can have a profound impact on your career, your happiness, and your future
• With the skills you learn in this book, you'll never have to worry about the outcome of a crucial conversation again.

The Business Style Handbook: An A-to-Z Guide for Writing on the Job with Tips from Communications Experts at the Fortune 500 by Helen Cunningham, Brenda Greene, Brenda Greene

Whether it is a letter, e-mail or memo, in business you are called on to write nearly every day. And the skill and polish of your writing style—more than any other factors—will affect how your audience receives your message and responds to it.

It's not easy to write well on the job—especially at a time when the language of business is rapidly evolving. Should you write e-business, eBusiness or E-business? Is it proper to refer to a client as senior vice president or Senior Vice President? Should long distance have a hyphen? Does résumé have two accents? And how do you handle that Web address?

The Business Style Handbook is today's most comprehensive, practical and easy-to-use guide for writing effectively on the job. This helpful reference grammar focuses on the writing issues identified as most important in the workplace by communications executives from the Fortune 500. Written in plain English, it is filled with tips and advice for improving your on-the-job writing skills. The Business Style Handbook provides more than 1,200 A-to-Z entries covering

• Usage  
• Grammar
• Punctuation
• Spelling  
• Style