Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach vs. Business Communication Today

by Courtland L. Bovée and John V. Thill

Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach vs. Business Communication Today

A course-selection comparison for business communication instructors.

Instructor and diverse college students apply the Three-Step Writing Process, audience analysis, digital media, and responsible AI to a workplace communication challenge.

Figure 1. Business Communication Today, 16th Edition, prepares students to solve workplace communication challenges through audience analysis, the Three-Step Writing Process, digital fluency, and responsible AI use.

Textbooks Compared

Textbook Release or Edition, Author(s), and Publisher
Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach 2024 Release, Paula Lentz, Kathryn Rentz, and Kristen Getchell, McGraw Hill
Business Communication Today 16th Edition, Courtland L. Bovée and John V. Thill, Pearson

At a Glance

Both textbooks teach the essential competencies of professional business communication, including audience analysis, ethical judgment, intercultural communication, research, message planning, clear writing, visual communication, routine and persuasive messages, reports, presentations, interpersonal communication, and employment communication. Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach is distinguished by making communication challenges, effective decision making, and the design of workable solutions the central frame for the course. Business Communication Today is distinguished by the Three-Step Writing Process, a 19-chapter modular architecture, Human-First AI, and the exclusive Teaching and Learning Accelerator™.

McGraw Hill’s current 2024 Release contains 14 chapters in four parts plus two reference chapters and is supported by Connect. Official materials identify AI technologies, inclusive and socially responsible communication, end-of-chapter problem scenarios, and strong coverage of style, grammar, visual communication, and oral communication. Business Communication Today documents AI concepts, cautions, and practice in every chapter, including more than 100 AI-related questions, exercises, and activities. The clearest adoption distinctions are therefore the course’s central organizing idea, chapter modularity, the documented distribution of AI instruction, and the surrounding teaching-support system.

Who Should Read This Comparison?

This comparison is designed for instructors, department chairs, curriculum committees, and program leaders selecting a textbook for undergraduate business communication, professional writing, managerial communication, or workplace communication courses. It is especially useful when the adoption decision involves problem-based learning, critical thinking, audience-centered decision making, course modularity, artificial intelligence, digital and visual communication, grammar support, oral communication, or digital teaching resources.

How This Comparison Was Prepared

Descriptions of Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach are based on McGraw Hill’s official current 2024 Release product page, its published table of contents and author information, McGraw Hill’s official Business Communication platform materials, and a public chapter preview used only for background on the book’s established planning orientation. Descriptions of Business Communication Today, 16th Edition, are based on the complete published manuscript, Pearson’s official product information, and documented teaching and learning resources. Where public materials do not establish a quantity, frequency, or chapter-level feature for Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach, this comparison does not infer one.

Learning Objectives

After reading this comparison, instructors will be able to:

  • Identify the major communication competencies both textbooks teach.
  • Explain how a problem-solving orientation and the Three-Step Writing Process organize communication decisions differently.
  • Compare the books’ treatment of audience analysis, ethics, research, writing, grammar, visuals, artificial intelligence, presentations, interpersonal communication, and career preparation.
  • Evaluate Connect, MyLab Business Communication, and the Teaching and Learning Accelerator™.
  • Match each textbook’s architecture and educational priorities to specific course outcomes and student needs.

Table of Contents

Why Compare These Textbooks?
Executive Comparison
What Do Both Textbooks Teach?
How Do the Textbooks’ Signature Contributions Differ?
How Do the Problem-Solving Approach and Three-Step Writing Process Differ?
How Do the Textbooks Compare in Scope and Course Flexibility?
Do Writing Style, Grammar, and Mechanics Distinguish the Textbooks?
How Does Each Textbook Develop Audience-Centered and Ethical Decisions?
How Does Each Textbook Integrate Artificial Intelligence?
How Do the Textbooks Teach Digital, Social, and Visual Communication?
How Does Each Textbook Prepare Students for the Workplace?
What Is New in Business Communication Today, 16th Edition?
How Do Connect, MyLab, and the Teaching and Learning Accelerator™ Differ?
Which Textbook Matches Each Instructional Priority?
Which Textbook Best Fits Your Course?
Key Takeaways
Glossary of Key Terms
References
About the Authors

Why Compare These Textbooks?

Quick Answer: Both books prepare students for the central tasks of workplace communication and workplace readiness, but they give the course different recurring centers. Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach begins with the communication problem, the decisions surrounding it, and the design of a successful solution. Business Communication Today uses the Three-Step Writing Process to connect purpose, audience, evidence, media, drafting, revision, production, and evaluation across a broader set of separately assignable topics.

Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach and Business Communication Today both teach students to understand audiences, communicate ethically, choose appropriate media, develop clear messages, use evidence, work across cultures, create visuals, prepare reports and presentations, and communicate during the job search. Neither book should be described as teaching only writing mechanics or only high-level strategy.

The adoption decision is therefore not whether students learn the fundamentals. It is whether the course should be organized primarily around solving communication problems or around a repeatable ten-task process that students apply across interpersonal, written, visual, digital, social, research, presentation, and career contexts. Business Communication Today supports selective assignment for a focused course while preserving access to a broader curriculum.

Instructor Takeaway: Instructors who want each communication assignment framed first as a workplace problem and decision gain that emphasis from Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach. Instructors who want problem solving embedded within a consistent Plan-Write-Complete workflow, more independently assignable media and career chapters, AI practice in every chapter, and an additional integrated teaching system gain those advantages from Business Communication Today.

Executive Comparison

The sharpest distinction is not practical versus strategic; both books are practical and require judgment. The stronger contrast is a problem-centered curriculum that asks students to diagnose communication challenges and design solutions versus a process-centered, modular curriculum that guides students through planning, writing, completing, and evaluating professional communication across contexts.

Table 1. Executive comparison of the two textbooks.

Comparison Area Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach Business Communication Today
Signature educational contribution A problem-solving mindset that emphasizes effective decisions, analysis of communication challenges, and successful solutions The Three-Step Writing Process as a recurring framework for strategic communication across purposes, media, and workplace situations
Instructional philosophy Problem diagnosis, audience-centered decision making, practical solutions, inclusion, social responsibility, and explanation of why communication advice works Strategic decision making that connects purpose, audience, ethics, evidence, media, revision, organizational goals, and consequences
Course architecture 14 chapters in four parts plus two reference chapters, creating a defined sequence through core workplace communication 19 chapters in seven modular parts, with more topics separated for independent assignment
Artificial intelligence Official current materials identify AI technologies and Connect-based AI learning resources; public evidence does not establish AI instruction in every chapter AI integrated in every chapter through Human-First AI, with more than 100 AI-related questions, exercises, and activities
Writing and correctness Strong coverage of sentence style and grammar, including a dedicated chapter and a grammar/mechanics reference chapter Strong coverage of writing, revision, style, grammar, and mechanics, including chapters on writing and completing messages and a grammar handbook
Digital and visual organization One chapter spans message forms from letters to social media; one chapter focuses on visual communication Separate chapters on digital media, social media, and visual communication, plus two presentation chapters
Digital course support Connect with eBook, adaptive assignments, course resources, analytics, and business-communication application tools MyLab Business Communication plus the exclusive Teaching and Learning Accelerator™

Instructor Takeaway: Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach gives the entire course a clear problem-solving identity within a compact 14-chapter sequence. Business Communication Today addresses the same need for workplace judgment while providing more chapter-level modularity, a consistent ten-task process, and a larger documented body of textbook-integrated AI practice.

What Do Both Textbooks Teach?

Quick Answer: Both textbooks teach the foundational competencies of professional communication: audience awareness, purpose, ethics, intercultural communication, information gathering, clear style, sentence control, document and visual design, routine and positive messages, bad-news communication, persuasion, proposals, reports, presentations, interpersonal communication, meetings, employment communication, grammar, mechanics, and responsible technology use.

Both programs connect principles with realistic workplace situations and require students to analyze, compose, revise, and evaluate messages. McGraw Hill emphasizes numerous end-of-chapter scenarios that let students solve communication problems in context. Business Communication Today uses chapter-opening workplace vignettes, model documents, cases, exercises, and decision-oriented applications throughout its 19 chapters.

Both also treat communication as more than producing correct sentences. Students must understand people, objectives, relationships, evidence, media, context, risk, and consequences. Fundamental topic coverage is therefore common ground rather than the primary basis for choosing between the books.

Instructor Takeaway: The meaningful differences are the recurring framework used to organize judgment, the number of separately assignable chapters, the documented depth and distribution of AI instruction, and the additional teaching resources surrounding each textbook.

How Do the Textbooks’ Signature Contributions Differ?

Quick Answer: Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach makes the communication challenge and the design of an effective solution the starting point for learning. Business Communication Today makes the Three-Step Writing Process the recurring structure for moving from analysis to a completed message. One foregrounds diagnosing and solving the workplace problem; the other foregrounds a transferable workflow for carrying strategic decisions through execution.

McGraw Hill describes Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach as a text that helps students take charge of workplace communication challenges through effective decision making, analysis, and solution design. Its chapter sequence and end-of-chapter scenarios reinforce the idea that communication advice matters because it helps solve real organizational and interpersonal problems.

Business Communication Today also treats communication as problem solving. Its distinctive mechanism, however, is a stable procedural architecture. The ten tasks within Plan, Write, and Complete recur across messages, digital and social media, visuals, reports, proposals, presentations, résumés, interviews, and AI-assisted work.

Instructor Takeaway: Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach gives instructors a strong overarching question: What communication problem must be solved, and what solution is most likely to work? Business Communication Today adds a repeatable process students use to carry that judgment from initial analysis through final delivery.

How Do the Textbooks Differ in Instructional Philosophy?

Quick Answer: Both books are audience centered, practical, ethical, and oriented toward workplace performance. Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach frames competence through diagnosis, effective decisions, inclusive and socially responsible communication, and practical solutions whose rationale is made visible. Business Communication Today frames competence through strategic choices carried across the Three-Step Writing Process, with explicit attention to organizational goals, relationships, evidence, media, ethics, technology, and consequences.

The 14-chapter architecture of Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach moves from workplace communication problems and positive responses through culture, message and visual design, style, common documents, reports, presentations, interpersonal communication, and the job search. The sequence creates a defined pathway and keeps practical problem solving visible throughout.

The 19-chapter architecture of Business Communication Today separates more topics for independent assignment and uses the Three-Step Writing Process as connective tissue. This lets instructors build either a tightly focused survey or a broader course without changing the textbook.

Instructor Takeaway: The first book creates coherence through a problem-solving mindset and a compact sequence. The second creates coherence through a repeatable strategic process and a more modular curriculum.

How Do the Problem-Solving Approach and Three-Step Writing Process Differ?

Quick Answer: The frameworks overlap in audience analysis, goal setting, information gathering, message choices, drafting, and revision, but they operate at different instructional levels. Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach begins with the larger workplace problem and the decisions needed to solve it. Business Communication Today organizes the work of producing and completing communication into ten recurring tasks within Plan, Write, and Complete.

A problem-solving orientation helps students ask why communication is needed, what business or relationship outcome is at stake, what constraints apply, and which solution is both desirable and feasible. This is especially useful for open-ended cases in which the correct response is not predetermined.

The Three-Step Writing Process gives students a stable sequence for transforming those judgments into communication. Planning includes analyzing the situation, gathering information, selecting media and channels, and organizing the information. Writing includes adapting to the audience and composing the message. Completing includes revising, producing, proofreading, and distributing the message.

The Business Communication Today Three-Step Writing Process organizes ten recurring communication tasks under Plan, Write, and Complete.

Figure 2. Business Communication Today supplies a repeatable ten-task workflow for planning, writing, and completing professional communication.

 

Table 2. Comparison of the two recurring instructional frameworks.

Instructional Question Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach Business Communication Today
Where does the framework begin? With a workplace communication challenge that requires analysis and effective decision making With analysis of the communication situation as the first task in a ten-task writing process
What does it emphasize? Defining the problem, understanding stakeholders and constraints, considering options, and designing a successful solution Moving systematically from purpose and audience through evidence, media, organization, drafting, revision, production, and distribution
How is it reinforced? Through the book’s central problem-solving orientation and numerous end-of-chapter scenarios Through repeated use of Plan, Write, and Complete across chapters and communication contexts
What is the main transfer benefit? Students learn to view communication as part of solving larger workplace and relationship problems Students learn a stable workflow they reuse for nearly every professional communication task

Instructor Takeaway: Both frameworks provide systematic guidance and require judgment. The distinction is whether the course’s primary organizing idea is the larger workplace problem or the recurring process used to create and complete the communication solution.

How Do the Textbooks Compare in Scope and Course Flexibility?

Quick Answer: Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach provides a predefined 14-chapter pathway through core business communication. Business Communication Today supports the same focused course design through selective assignment while preserving access to 19 chapters and more separately assignable coverage of collaboration, digital media, social media, visual communication, research, reports and proposals, presentations, résumés, and interviewing.

The compact structure of Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach reduces course-design complexity. Its four-part organization integrates related subjects into broad chapters, including message forms from letters to social media, persuasive messages and proposals, interpersonal communication and meetings, and a single job-search chapter.

Business Communication Today divides comparable territory into more independent modules. Digital media, social media, and visual communication receive separate chapters; research, report planning, and report writing span three chapters; presentations span two chapters; and career communication spans two chapters. The modular design lets instructors omit chapters without losing the Three-Step Writing Process that connects the course.

Business Communication Today’s 19 chapters are organized into seven modular parts that support multiple course pathways.
Figure 3. Business Communication Today separates 19 chapters into seven modular parts that instructors configure for focused or expanded course designs.

Instructor Takeaway: Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach builds focus into the textbook’s boundaries. Business Communication Today supports a concise course through selective assignment while retaining greater room to expand or reconfigure the curriculum.

Do Writing Style, Grammar, and Mechanics Distinguish the Textbooks?

Quick Answer: No. Both textbooks provide substantial instruction and practice in clear style, sentence construction, revision, grammar, mechanics, and correctness. Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach gives these topics especially visible placement in Chapter 6 and Reference Chapter A. Business Communication Today addresses them in its writing and completing chapters, grammar handbook, and end-of-chapter practice.

McGraw Hill explicitly identifies style and grammar as continuing strengths of Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach. Business Communication Today likewise teaches adaptation, clarity, conciseness, tone, paragraph development, revision, proofreading, document production, and correctness and provides extensive grammar and mechanics support.

The placement differs, but both books treat writing control as essential. It is therefore misleading to present grammar, mechanics, editing, or revision as an exclusive advantage for either textbook.

Instructor Takeaway: Both textbooks provide strong writing and correctness support. Adoption should turn on the organizing framework, course architecture, AI program, media coverage, and teaching ecosystem rather than on a claim that one book alone develops writing control.

How Does Each Textbook Develop Audience-Centered and Ethical Decisions?

Quick Answer: Both textbooks require students to understand audiences, anticipate responses, communicate ethically, and consider the effects of their choices. Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach connects these concerns to positive responses, cultural diversity, inclusion, social responsibility, and the design of workable solutions. Business Communication Today embeds audience analysis, ethics, inclusion, credibility, channel choice, and relationship impact throughout the Three-Step Writing Process and message chapters.

The early chapters of Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach establish communication problems, positive audience responses, and culturally diverse audiences before moving into message design. That sequence makes stakeholder response and social context visible at the beginning of the course.

Business Communication Today begins with professional communication in the age of AI, collaboration and interpersonal communication, and communication challenges in a diverse global marketplace. It then carries audience and ethical judgment through planning, writing, completing, digital and social media, visuals, messages, reports, presentations, and employment communication.

Instructor Takeaway: Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach gives positive response, cultural context, and socially responsible solution design prominent early visibility. Business Communication Today reinforces comparable audience-centered and ethical decisions across a larger set of independently assignable contexts.

How Does Each Textbook Integrate Artificial Intelligence?

Quick Answer: McGraw Hill’s current materials state that Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach addresses AI technologies and that Connect for Business Communication includes AI-related preparation and application activities. The public evidence does not establish AI instruction in every textbook chapter. Business Communication Today integrates AI concepts, cautions, ethical questions, and hands-on practice into every chapter through a Human-First AI philosophy and more than 100 AI-related questions, exercises, and activities.

The competitor’s current public description places AI alongside inclusion, social responsibility, the contemporary workplace, and communication problem solving. McGraw Hill’s Business Communication platform also offers adaptive learning, application-based activities, document makeover exercises, writing assignments, and presentation tools, including newer AI-supported features.

Business Communication Today treats AI as a curriculum-wide communication issue rather than a single technology topic. Students encounter AI when collaborating, planning, drafting, revising, evaluating sources, creating visuals, preparing reports and presentations, developing résumés, and interviewing. Human-First AI keeps purpose, evidence, judgment, voice, ethics, and final approval with the communicator.

Business Communication Today integrates a Human-First AI workflow across every chapter and multiple professional communication contexts.

Figure 4. Business Communication Today distributes Human-First AI instruction and practice across every chapter while keeping purpose, verification, ethics, revision, and final approval with the communicator.

Instructor Takeaway: Both programs prepare students to work with AI. Instructors who want AI repeatedly embedded in the textbook’s chapter-level instruction and assignments have more extensive documented coverage in Business Communication Today.

How Do the Textbooks Teach Digital, Social, and Visual Communication?

Quick Answer: Both textbooks teach students to select appropriate forms and channels and to communicate visually. Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach integrates formats from letters to social media in Chapter 4 and devotes Chapter 5 to visual communication. Business Communication Today separates digital media, social media, and visual communication into three chapters, providing more independently assignable depth and a clearer pathway for courses in which these topics are major outcomes.

The integrated organization of Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach helps students compare communication forms within a single message-design chapter. Its visual communication chapter and oral-communication coverage reinforce the idea that successful solutions often require more than prose.

Business Communication Today gives digital media, social media, and visual communication separate learning objectives, cases, examples, ethics discussions, and AI applications. It also separates presentation planning from presentation visuals and delivery, allowing more granular assignment.

Instructor Takeaway: Both books address contemporary channels and visual design. Business Communication Today offers greater chapter-level modularity when digital, social, visual, or presentation communication deserves sustained independent treatment.

How Does Each Textbook Prepare Students for the Workplace?

Quick Answer: Both textbooks prepare students to make communication decisions, write common workplace messages, conduct research, create reports, present ideas, participate in conversations and meetings, and compete for employment. Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach emphasizes authentic challenges and contextual problem solving. Business Communication Today adds a broader set of separately assignable media, research, presentation, résumé, interviewing, and AI modules.

McGraw Hill’s description emphasizes realistic business conditions, numerous end-of-chapter scenarios, flexibility, authenticity, collaboration, diversity, and practical explanations of why communication advice works. These features support transfer by asking students to reason through situations rather than memorize rules.

Business Communication Today uses workplace vignettes and applications across 19 chapters and gives career communication two chapters: one on careers and résumés and one on applications and interviewing. AI guidance is integrated throughout both career chapters, as it does across research, messages, reports, and presentations.

Instructor Takeaway: Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach gives workplace realism a clear problem-centered form. Business Communication Today offers the stronger fit when career preparation, media fluency, research, presentations, and AI competence are extensive separately assessed outcomes.

What Is New in Business Communication Today, 16th Edition?

Quick Answer: Business Communication Today, 16th Edition, integrates artificial intelligence throughout all 19 chapters, adds more than 100 AI-related questions, exercises, and activities, updates chapter-opening workplace vignettes, and expands instruction in digital, social, visual, research, presentation, and career communication for an AI-influenced workplace.

The edition presents AI as a collaborative tool that assists with brainstorming, drafting, revising, research, visuals, presentations, and employment communication while also creating risks involving accuracy, bias, confidentiality, intellectual property, transparency, overreliance, and loss of human voice.

The Human-First AI philosophy requires students to begin with human purpose and judgment, evaluate AI output critically, verify evidence, revise for audience and context, and retain responsibility for the final message. This philosophy is integrated with the Three-Step Writing Process rather than treated as a detached technology unit.

Instructor Takeaway: The new edition’s primary contribution is not simply more AI content. It is the systematic integration of AI literacy, ethical judgment, and human accountability across the full business communication curriculum.

How Do Connect, MyLab, and the Teaching and Learning Accelerator™ Differ?

Quick Answer: Connect and MyLab Business Communication are full digital course platforms that support assignments, eBooks, assessment, analytics, and instructor resources. The distinguishing difference is the exclusive Teaching and Learning Accelerator™, which adds an integrated collection of teaching, coaching, individualized feedback, assessment, and career-preparation resources to the Business Communication Today program.

McGraw Hill’s current Business Communication offering describes adaptive grammar and writing practice, application-based activities, document makeover exercises, writing assignments, comprehensive question banks, SmartBook, and presentation support through GoReact. Availability depends on the course setup and release.

MyLab Business Communication provides digital course delivery, assignments, practice, assessment, and analytics for Business Communication Today. The Teaching and Learning Accelerator™ extends beyond the standard course platform with resources such as the Elevator Pitch Studio™, Listening & Nonverbal Analyzer™, Job Application Package Reviewer®, AI Interview & Presentation Coach™, Visual Storytelling Coach™, Communication Risk Radar™, and Case Transformation Tool®.

Instructor Takeaway: Connect provides established digital course support for Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach, while MyLab Business Communication supports Business Communication Today. The exclusive Teaching and Learning Accelerator™ adds a separate integrated layer of teaching, coaching, feedback, assessment, and career preparation to the Business Communication Today experience.

Which Textbook Matches Each Instructional Priority?

Quick Answer: Both textbooks support multiple course designs, but they serve instructional priorities differently. Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach provides a defined pathway centered on workplace problems, effective decisions, authentic scenarios, and practical solutions. Business Communication Today supports the same problem-solving goals while adding a ten-task writing process, broader chapter modularity, AI integration in every chapter, and the exclusive Teaching and Learning Accelerator™.

Table 3. Matching textbook architecture to instructional priorities.

Instructional Priority Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach Business Communication Today
Make problem solving the course’s central identity Direct fit: communication challenges, decision making, solution design, and contextual scenarios define the program Strong support: workplace problems are addressed through strategic analysis and the Three-Step Writing Process
Teach a concise, predefined course Direct fit: 14 chapters in four parts plus reference chapters Supports a concise course through selective chapter and activity assignment
Use one repeatable process across assignments Problem-solving orientation provides conceptual continuity; current public materials do not specify one named ten-task workflow Direct fit: the ten-task Three-Step Writing Process recurs across communication contexts
Emphasize writing, grammar, and correctness Strong fit through Chapter 6, Reference Chapter A, and Connect practice Strong fit through writing and completing chapters, grammar handbook, exercises, and MyLab practice
Emphasize digital, social, and visual communication Strong integrated coverage, including message forms through social media and a visual chapter Stronger modular fit through separate digital, social, and visual chapters
Integrate AI repeatedly across the textbook Current materials address AI technologies and Connect offers AI-related activities; chapter-by-chapter frequency is not publicly documented Direct fit: AI in every chapter and more than 100 AI-related questions, exercises, and activities
Expand reports, presentations, and career communication Core coverage in report, presentation, interpersonal, and job-search chapters Greater modularity through three research/report chapters, two presentation chapters, and two career chapters
Add an extensive teaching and coaching ecosystem Connect provides course delivery, adaptive learning, activities, assessment, and presentation tools MyLab plus the exclusive Teaching and Learning Accelerator™

Instructor Takeaway: Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach provides a distinctive problem-centered identity within a compact curriculum. Business Communication Today addresses the same core communication outcomes while offering greater chapter modularity, a more extensive documented AI program, a repeatable ten-task writing process, and an additional integrated teaching and coaching system.

Which Textbook Best Fits Your Course?

Quick Answer: Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach offers a strong fit for instructors who want a compact course organized explicitly around diagnosing workplace communication challenges, making effective decisions, and designing practical solutions. Business Communication Today offers the stronger fit for instructors who want those problem-solving fundamentals together with a repeatable ten-task writing process, broader modular coverage, AI integration in every chapter, and the exclusive Teaching and Learning Accelerator™.

For a tightly sequenced course, Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach establishes the boundaries through 14 chapters and gives problem solving, positive audience response, cultural diversity, message and visual design, style, major document types, presentations, interpersonal communication, and the job search a clear progression. Business Communication Today supports the same focused course through selective assignment while retaining access to 19 chapters and more distinct modules as outcomes expand.

For instructors who want current technology addressed through a combination of textbook coverage and Connect resources, Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach provides a contemporary platform. For instructors who want AI concepts and practice embedded inside every textbook chapter, Human-First AI, separate media chapters, and an additional teaching and coaching system, Business Communication Today provides the broader platform.

For instructors who want a concise course without limiting future instructional options, Business Communication Today offers the stronger overall fit. Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach remains a clear alternative when the central course identity is communication problem diagnosis and solution design within a predefined compact sequence.

Instructor Takeaway: Course outcomes should guide adoption. When the goal is problem-solving competence plus maximum modular flexibility, curriculum-wide AI practice, a repeatable ten-task process, and integrated teaching support, Business Communication Today provides the broader instructional platform.

Key Takeaways

  • Both textbooks provide comprehensive preparation in professional writing, audience analysis, intercultural communication, research, reports, presentations, employment communication, ethics, visuals, and responsible technology use.
  • Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach organizes the course around workplace challenges, effective decisions, and solution design; Business Communication Today organizes communication work around the ten-task Three-Step Writing Process.
  • Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach provides a compact 14-chapter pathway; Business Communication Today supports the same focused course design through selective assignment while retaining a broader 19-chapter modular curriculum.
  • Both books provide substantial support for style, grammar, mechanics, editing, revision, and correctness; these areas are not meaningful adoption differentiators.
  • Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach addresses AI technologies and is supported by current Connect resources; Business Communication Today documents AI instruction in every chapter and more than 100 AI-related questions, exercises, and activities.
  • Connect and MyLab provide full digital course support; the exclusive Teaching and Learning Accelerator™ adds an additional integrated layer of planning, coaching, feedback, assessment, and career preparation to Business Communication Today.
  • For instructors seeking a problem-solving orientation together with broader modularity, curriculum-wide AI practice, a repeatable ten-task process, and an additional teaching ecosystem, Business Communication Today offers the stronger overall fit.

Glossary of Key Terms

Problem-solving approach: An instructional orientation that treats communication as part of diagnosing workplace challenges, making effective decisions, and designing successful solutions.

Communication problem: A gap, obstacle, conflict, unmet need, or decision that communication helps address within a larger workplace situation.

Audience-centered communication: Communication designed around what receivers know, need, expect, value, and how they respond.

Three-Step Writing Process: The Business Communication Today framework that organizes ten communication tasks within Plan, Write, and Complete.

Human-First AI: The Business Communication Today principle that AI assists communication but people retain responsibility for purpose, evidence, judgment, ethics, voice, and the final message.

Modular course design: A course architecture that lets instructors assign, omit, combine, or expand relatively independent chapters and activities.

Evergreen release: McGraw Hill’s release-centered model for delivering updated textbook and digital-platform content without relying only on traditional numbered editions.

Connect: McGraw Hill’s digital learning platform associated with Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach.

MyLab Business Communication: Pearson’s digital course platform associated with Business Communication Today.

Teaching and Learning Accelerator™: The exclusive integrated resource system that supplements Business Communication Today and MyLab with teaching, coaching, feedback, assessment, and career-preparation tools.

References

Bovée, C. L., & Thill, J. V. (2026). Business Communication Today (16th ed.). Pearson.

Lentz, P., Rentz, K., & Getchell, K. Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach, 2024 Release. McGraw Hill.

McGraw Hill. Business Communication discipline page and current Connect feature descriptions: https://www.mheducation.cont product page, table of contents, author biographies, and Connect details.

McGraw Hill. “Navigating Contemporary Business Communication Challenges with a Problem-Solving Approach,” official Author’s Corner webinar materials, 2024.

McGraw Hill. Public chapter preview, “Writing Effectively for Your Audience, Purpose, and Medium.” Used only as background on the book’s established planning orientation, not as proof of current-release counts or chapter-specific features.

Pearson official Business Communication Today, 16th Edition overview.

Pearson MyLab Business Communication overview.

Descriptions of the Teaching and Learning Accelerator™ and its tools are based on materials supplied by the Business Communication Teaching & Learning Center.

About the Authors

Courtland L. Bovée and John V. Thill are the authors of Business Communication Today, Excellence in Business Communication, and Business in Action. Their work combines classroom experience, professional communication practice, textbook development, instructional design, and contemporary workplace research.

Bovée taught business communication for 22 years and held the C. Allen Paul Distinguished Chair at Grossmont College. Thill is a communications consultant and former corporate professional whose work has included organizations ranging from entrepreneurial firms to large multinational companies.

Paula Lentz is a professor and academic program director in business communication at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. Kathryn Rentz is a professor emerita of English at the University of Cincinnati with extensive leadership and scholarship in business communication. Kristen Getchell is an associate professor of business communication at Babson College whose research and teaching include virtual communication, collaboration, artificial intelligence, and persuasive strategy.

Editorial disclosure: Because Bovée and Thill have a direct professional relationship with Business Communication Today, this comparison begins with common ground, uses official public sources for Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach, identifies source limitations, avoids unsupported quantitative claims, and ties conclusions to specific instructional priorities rather than universal claims.

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