TEXTBOOK COMPARISON

Business Communication and Character vs. Business Communication Today

A course-selection comparison for business communication instructors.

Figure 1. Both textbooks prepare students for contemporary professional communication, but they organize that preparation around different signature frameworks: character-centered communication and a recurring strategic writing process.

Textbooks Compared

Textbook	Edition, Author(s), and Publisher
Business Communication and Character	12th Edition, Amy Newman, Cengage
Business Communication Today	16th Edition, Courtland L. Bovée and John V. Thill, Pearson

At a Glance

Both textbooks provide comprehensive instruction in professional business communication, including interpersonal communication, writing, message design, data visualization, reports, presentations, employment communication, ethics, inclusion, and artificial intelligence. Business Communication and Character is distinguished by its character theme and the CAM model: character check, audience analysis, message and medium. 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™.

The current 12th edition of Business Communication and Character makes human authorship and accountability especially prominent as students learn to use AI as an assistant and collaborator. Business Communication Today shares that human-centered position but extends it through AI concepts, cautions, and practice in every chapter, including more than 100 AI-related questions, exercises, and activities. The clearest distinctions are therefore the organizing framework, course architecture, degree of separately assignable coverage, documented AI practice, and teaching-support ecosystem.

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 ethics and character, audience-centered planning, artificial intelligence, inclusion, modular course design, digital and visual communication, or teaching support.

How This Comparison Was Prepared

Descriptions of Business Communication and Character, 12th Edition, are based on Cengage’s official product information, its publicly indexed table of contents, Amy Newman’s edition announcement and chapter resources, and current MindTap information. 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 feature for the Newman text, 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 the CAM model and the Three-Step Writing Process organize student decision making.
• Compare the books’ treatment of character, audience analysis, message development, artificial intelligence, inclusion, digital and visual communication, and career preparation.
• Evaluate MindTap, 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 Their Instructional Philosophies Differ?
How Do the CAM Model 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 Do the Textbooks Address Inclusion and Diverse Learners?
How Does Each Textbook Integrate Artificial Intelligence?
How Do They 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 MindTap, 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 business communication, but they build that preparation around different educational centers. Business Communication and Character begins with the communicator’s character and uses the CAM model to connect self-awareness, audience analysis, message choices, and media decisions. Business Communication Today uses the Three-Step Writing Process to connect purpose, audience, evidence, media, drafting, revision, production, and evaluation across a broader modular curriculum.

Business Communication and Character and Business Communication Today both teach interpersonal communication, workplace writing, persuasive and bad-news messages, data and reports, presentations, employment communication, ethical judgment, and responsible technology use. Neither book should be characterized as teaching only writing mechanics or only abstract strategy.

The adoption question is which recurring framework, chapter architecture, and instructional support system best matches the course. That distinction matters more than a simple concise-versus-comprehensive label because either textbook can support a focused one-semester course.

Instructor Takeaway: Instructors who want character, authorship, accountability, and the CAM model to provide the course’s central identity gain that emphasis from Business Communication and Character. Instructors who want a recurring production process, more separately assignable media and research modules, AI practice in every chapter, and an additional integrated teaching system get those advantages from Business Communication Today.

Executive Comparison

The strongest contrast is character-centered communication planning versus a process-centered, modular system for planning, writing, completing, and evaluating communication. Both approaches are human centered, practical, and current, but they distribute instructional emphasis differently.

Comparison Area	Business Communication and Character	Business Communication Today
Signature educational contribution	Character as a visible foundation for communication, supported by the CAM model: character check, audience analysis, message and medium	The Three-Step Writing Process as a recurring framework for strategic communication across purposes, media, and workplace situations
Instructional philosophy	Human character, authorship, accountability, audience awareness, and practical real examples	Strategic decision making that connects purpose, audience, ethics, evidence, media, revision, and organizational outcomes
Course architecture	14 chapters, with major areas integrated into a compact six-part sequence	19 chapters in seven modular parts, with more areas separated for independent assignment
Artificial intelligence	AI presented as an assistant and collaborator while students retain authorship and accountability	AI integrated in every chapter through Human-First AI, with more than 100 AI-related questions, exercises, and activities
Inclusion and learner diversity	Updated focus on belonging plus guidance throughout for diverse cognitive and learning styles	Inclusive and intercultural communication, accessibility, ethical language, bias awareness, and audience adaptation across the curriculum
Digital and visual organization	Writing and design, data visualization, presentations, and media choices integrated within the 14-chapter structure	Separate chapters on digital media, social media, and visual communication, plus two presentation chapters
Digital course support	MindTap for course delivery, practice, assessment, grading, and analytics	MyLab Business Communication plus the exclusive Teaching and Learning Accelerator™

Table 1. Executive comparison of the two textbooks.

Instructor Takeaway: Business Communication and Character gives the course a highly visible human and ethical center through character, authorship, and the CAM model. Business Communication Today gives the course a highly visible strategic-process center while providing more chapter-level modularity and a larger documented body of AI practice.

What Do Both Textbooks Teach?

Quick Answer: Both textbooks teach the foundational competencies of professional communication: audience awareness, ethics, teamwork, interpersonal communication, writing and design, routine and positive messages, persuasion, bad-news communication, data visualization, reports, presentations, employment communication, clear style, and responsible technology use.

Both programs use practical business situations to connect principles with decisions. Newman emphasizes real examples and a character check before communication choices are made. The Business Communication Today uses chapter-opening workplace vignettes (for greater student engagement), model documents, cases, exercises, and decision-oriented applications throughout its 19 chapters.

Both also treat communication as more than sentence correction. Students must understand people, purposes, relationships, media, context, evidence, 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 how communication judgment is framed, how the curriculum is divided into assignable units, how AI learning is documented and reinforced, and what additional teaching resources surround the textbook.

How Do the Textbooks’ Signature Contributions Differ?

Quick Answer: Business Communication and Character makes character the starting point for effective communication: students consider who they are, what they intend, and how their choices demonstrate accountability before analyzing the audience and designing the message. Business Communication Today makes the Three-Step Writing Process the recurring architecture for communication: students Plan, Write, and Complete messages through ten connected tasks. One foregrounds the communicator’s character; the other foregrounds a transferable production and decision process.

Newman’s title states the educational premise directly. Communication demonstrates character, and the character check asks students to examine purpose, self-awareness, legal implications, and ethical choices before moving forward. This creates a clear identity for courses that want communication competence connected explicitly to personal and professional responsibility.

Business Communication Today also integrates ethics, credibility, empathy, audience awareness, and accountability. Its distinctive mechanism, however, is procedural: the same Three-Step Writing Process is applied to written messages, digital media, reports, proposals, presentations, career communication, and AI-assisted work.

Instructor Takeaway: Business Communication and Character provides the stronger explicit character-and-authorship identity. Business Communication Today provides the stronger explicit course-wide process architecture. The distinction is not human values versus technique; both teach both. It is which concept serves as the most visible organizing center.

How Do Their Instructional Philosophies Differ?

Quick Answer: Both textbooks are practical and audience centered, but they begin from different questions. Business Communication and Character asks students to check character, understand the audience, and choose the message and medium. Business Communication Today asks students to analyze the situation, define purpose, gather evidence, select media, organize, write, revise, produce, proofread, and distribute. Newman foregrounds identity and responsibility; Bovée and Thill foreground a repeatable sequence of strategic decisions and production tasks.

The Newman approach encourages students to recognize that every message communicates something about the sender. The 12th edition strengthens this premise in the AI era by emphasizing students’ humanity, individual voice, authorship, and accountability.

Business Communication Today reaches a similar human-centered conclusion through Human-First AI and through repeated attention to audience needs, ethics, evidence, verification, tone, accessibility, and organizational consequences. The difference is that these decisions are embedded in a detailed process used throughout the text.

Instructor Takeaway: Business Communication and Character is especially coherent for courses that want personal character and responsible authorship to shape the entire course. Business Communication Today is especially coherent for courses that want a single strategic workflow to connect every major communication assignment.

How Do the CAM Model and Three-Step Writing Process Differ?

Quick Answer: The CAM model in Business Communication and Character guides communication through three linked considerations: character check, audience analysis, and message and medium. The Three-Step Writing Process in Business Communication Today organizes ten tasks within Plan, Write, and Complete. CAM begins with the communicator’s character and moves toward audience and message choices; the Three-Step process provides a more granular path from situation analysis through final distribution.

The CAM model is memorable because it begins with the sender. Students consider purpose, self-awareness, legal and ethical implications, then analyze the audience and decide what to say and which medium to use. This sequence makes character and audience central before drafting begins.

The Three-Step Writing Process includes analyzing the situation, gathering information, selecting media and channels, organizing, adapting to the audience, composing, revising, producing, proofreading, and distributing. It therefore includes the same broad concerns while extending further into drafting, revision, production, and completion.

Framework Element	CAM Model	Three-Step Writing Process
Starting point	Character check: purpose, self-awareness, legality, and ethics	Analyze the situation: purpose, audience, context, and desired outcome
Audience	Audience analysis is a named CAM stage	Audience analysis and adaptation occur throughout planning and writing
Message and medium	Message content and medium are considered together	Information, organization, media, and channel are separate planning tasks
Drafting and style	Developed in later writing and message chapters	Explicitly included in the Write stage
Revision and production	Developed through writing, design, and message instruction	Explicitly included in the Complete stage
Course-wide identity	Character-centered planning model	Ten-task process for planning, writing, and completing communication

Table 2. CAM and the Three-Step Writing Process cover overlapping decisions but organize them differently.

 

Figure 2. The Three-Step Writing Process expands the workflow from planning through writing, revision, production, and distribution.

Instructor Takeaway: Both frameworks provide disciplined guidance rather than leaving students to write intuitively. CAM gives character and authorship unusual visibility at the start; the Three-Step Writing Process gives instructors a more detailed shared vocabulary for the entire communication-production cycle.

How Do the Textbooks Compare in Scope and Course Flexibility?

Quick Answer: Both textbooks support a comprehensive business communication course. Business Communication and Character organizes the curriculum into 14 chapters and integrates several media and skill areas within broader chapters. Business Communication Today distributes comparable territory across 19 chapters, creating more independent assignment choices in digital media, social media, visual communication, research, reports, presentations, and career communication. The broader architecture does not require instructors to assign every chapter.

The compact structure of Business Communication and Character moves from character and relationships to writing and design, message types, data and reports, presentations, and employment communication. It reduces the number of chapter-selection decisions and gives the semester a direct progression.

Business Communication Today separates digital media, social media, and visual communication into three chapters; separates research from report planning and report completion; provides two presentation chapters; and provides two career chapters. This architecture supports a focused course through selective assignment while preserving additional options for programs that want broader coverage.

Figure 3. Business Communication Today organizes 19 chapters into seven modular parts that instructors configure for focused or expanded course designs.

Instructor Takeaway: Business Communication and Character provides concision through a compact predefined architecture. Business Communication Today supports the same focused course design through selective assignment while retaining access to a broader modular curriculum.

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

Quick Answer: Both textbooks provide substantial instruction in clear, correct, audience-appropriate writing. Business Communication and Character gives writing and design a dedicated chapter and follows it with a chapter on improving writing skills. Business Communication Today embeds style, clarity, revision, proofreading, and correctness within the Three-Step Writing Process and provides extensive grammar and mechanics practice. These shared capabilities are not the strongest adoption differentiators.

Newman’s chapter architecture gives instructors a visible two-chapter sequence for writing, design, and improvement before students move into neutral, persuasive, and bad-news messages. This provides a clear skills foundation for the message chapters that follow.

Business Communication Today teaches comparable writing control through planning, audience adaptation, composition, revision, document design, production, proofreading, grammar reference material, and end-of-chapter practice. Its distinction is not exclusive ownership of writing correctness but the way these skills are connected to the recurring process and broader media curriculum.

Instructor Takeaway: Instructors should not choose between these textbooks on the assumption that only one provides serious writing instruction. The sharper differences are character and CAM, process architecture, course modularity, AI practice, and teaching support.

How Do These Texts Address Inclusion and Diverse Learners?

Quick Answer: Both textbooks treat inclusive communication as a workplace requirement. The 12th edition of Business Communication and Character updates Chapter 3 around belonging and adds guidance throughout for students and audiences with diverse cognitive and learning styles. Business Communication Today addresses inclusion, intercultural communication, bias, accessibility, respectful language, and audience adaptation across chapters on global communication, visuals, digital media, collaboration, and AI.

Newman’s edition announcement makes learner diversity an explicit revision priority. The book’s belonging-centered approach seeks practical strategies that can apply broadly rather than limiting inclusion to a list of demographic groups.

Business Communication Today gives inclusion a broad communication-systems context. Students examine cultural competency, inclusive language, stereotypes and bias, accessible visuals and presentations, digital accessibility, ethical audience analysis, and the risk that AI can reproduce bias or exclude users.

Instructor Takeaway: Business Communication and Character offers a distinctive, explicit emphasis on belonging and neurodivergent learners in the new edition. Business Communication Today offers broader separately assignable coverage of intercultural, visual, digital, accessibility, and AI-related inclusion decisions.

How Does Each Textbook Integrate Artificial Intelligence?

Quick Answer: Both textbooks reject the idea that AI should replace human judgment or authorship. The 12th edition of Business Communication and Character teaches students to use AI as an assistant and collaborator while maintaining their own voice, authorship, character, and accountability. Business Communication Today integrates AI into every chapter through Human-First AI and more than 100 documented questions, exercises, and activities involving AI tools or AI-related analysis.

Newman’s character framework gives AI instruction a clear ethical foundation: technology does not relieve the communicator of responsibility for the message. Publicly available materials establish this position but do not provide a chapter-by-chapter count of AI discussions or activities, so this comparison does not infer one.

Business Communication Today applies AI repeatedly to planning, collaboration, writing, revision, research, digital and social media, visual communication, reports, presentations, and employment communication. Students also evaluate fabrication, bias, privacy, confidentiality, intellectual property, overreliance, tone, and loss of authentic voice.

Figure 4. Both programs keep people responsible for AI-assisted communication; Business Communication and Character frames that responsibility through character and authorship, while Business Communication Today turns it into a curriculum-wide process reinforced through more than 100 documented activities.

Instructor Takeaway: Both books provide a defensible human-centered approach to AI. Business Communication and Character offers the stronger explicit connection between AI, character, and authorship; Business Communication Today offers the stronger documented evidence of repeated AI practice across the full curriculum.

How Do They Teach Digital, Social, and Visual Communication?

Quick Answer: Both textbooks prepare students to communicate through contemporary media, but they organize the material differently. Business Communication and Character integrates medium choice into CAM and combines writing, design, data visualization, reports, and presentation visuals within its 14-chapter sequence. Business Communication Today provides separate chapters on digital media, social media, and visual communication, followed by additional chapters on research, reports, presentations, and presentation visuals.

The integrated Newman structure can help instructors connect medium choice directly to character, audience, purpose, and message development without adding multiple standalone technology chapters. Data visualization and presentation visuals also receive visible treatment within the later course sequence.

The modular structure of Business Communication Today makes digital media, social media strategy, and visual communication independently assignable. It also separates presentation development from presentation visuals and integrates accessibility and AI considerations into these media decisions.

Instructor Takeaway: Business Communication and Character offers an efficient integrated route through message and media choices. Business Communication Today offers greater chapter-level control when digital, social, visual, research, and presentation media are major independent course outcomes.

How Does Each Textbook Prepare Students for the Workplace?

Quick Answer: Both textbooks prepare students for teamwork, workplace relationships, professional messages, reports, presentations, job searching, interviewing, and responsible technology use. Business Communication and Character ties readiness closely to character, audience awareness, real examples, and a compact two-chapter employment sequence. Business Communication Today covers the same career foundation while adding more separately assignable pathways in digital, social, visual, intercultural, research, presentation, and AI-enabled communication.

The Newman sequence concludes with writing for the job search and interviewing and starting a new job. The character theme also reinforces how students present themselves, build trust, demonstrate accountability, and communicate authentically with employers and colleagues.

Business Communication Today devotes two chapters to career building, résumés, applications, interviewing, and employment communication. Its broader architecture lets instructors connect career readiness to separate instruction in collaboration, etiquette, digital media, social media, visual communication, research, reports, presentations, and AI-assisted employment tasks.

Instructor Takeaway: Both books provide substantial career preparation. Business Communication and Character gives professional identity and character unusual visibility; Business Communication Today gives programs more options for connecting career preparation to a wider set of separately assignable workplace competencies.

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

Quick Answer: Business Communication Today, 16th Edition, is the most extensive revision in the title’s history. It integrates AI in every chapter, formalizes Human-First AI, adds more than 100 AI-related questions, exercises, and activities, updates chapter-opening workplace vignettes and examples, and expands practice in visual, digital, collaborative, ethical, and career communication.

• AI concepts, cautions, and applications throughout all 19 chapters.
• More than 100 questions, exercises, and activities involving AI tools or AI-related analysis.
• More than 230 new questions, exercises, and activities overall.
• Nineteen new chapter-opening workplace vignettes and extensive current examples.
• Expanded attention to inclusive communication, visual communication, accessibility, verification, privacy, bias, and authentic human voice.
• The exclusive Teaching and Learning Accelerator™, which extends instruction beyond the textbook and MyLab.

Instructor Takeaway: The sixteenth edition gives instructors a large, explicitly documented body of new practice for connecting durable communication principles with current workplace technologies and AI-enabled decisions.

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

Quick Answer: MindTap and MyLab Business Communication are both established digital course platforms for assignments, practice, assessment, grading, and learning support. The additional adoption distinction is the exclusive Teaching and Learning Accelerator™, which extends Business Communication Today beyond the textbook and MyLab with an integrated system for course planning, current examples, coaching, individualized feedback, assessment, and career preparation.

Cengage pairs Business Communication and Character with MindTap, which supports online course delivery, quizzes and tests, grading, performance analytics, and textbook-connected learning activities. These are substantial digital course capabilities.

MyLab Business Communication similarly supports Business Communication Today with course delivery, assignments, practice, feedback, and eText access. The Accelerator is not a replacement for MyLab; it is an additional modular resource system that helps instructors design courses and assignments and helps students practice, receive coaching, improve work, and prepare for employment.

Representative Accelerator Tools

• Case Transformation Tool™: Converts conventional cases into assignments that require authentic analysis and reduce superficial AI-generated responses.
• Always Current™ Teaching System: Turns current business developments into classroom-ready discussions, cases, and activities.
• Listening and Nonverbal Analyzer™: Supports guided analysis and feedback for frequently neglected interpersonal skills.
• Job Application Package Reviewer™: Reviews résumés, cover letters, and related employment materials using employer-focused criteria.
• AI Interview and Presentation Coach™: Provides feedback on organization, delivery, confidence, professionalism, and effectiveness.

Additional tools support visual and intercultural communication, conflict and communication risk, workplace bias, assignment development, rubric creation, syllabus design, assessment, presentations, and career preparation. The system is modular, so instructors select only the resources that fit their goals.

Instructor Takeaway: MindTap provides established digital course support for Business Communication and Character, while MyLab Business Communication supports Business Communication Today. The exclusive Teaching and Learning Accelerator™ extends the Business Communication Today experience beyond the digital course platform with integrated resources for teaching, coaching, feedback, assessment, and career preparation.

Which Textbook Matches Each Instructional Priority?

Quick Answer: Both textbooks support multiple course designs, but they serve instructional priorities differently. Business Communication and Character is especially well aligned with courses that foreground character, ethical self-awareness, authorship, belonging, audience analysis, and the compact CAM framework. Business Communication Today supports those same human-centered goals while adding broader modular coverage, a ten-task writing process, AI integration in every chapter, and the exclusive Teaching and Learning Accelerator™.

Instructional Priority	Business Communication and Character	Business Communication Today
Character, ethical identity, and personal accountability	Signature strength: character check and authorship are central to the book’s identity	Strong coverage through ethics, credibility, Human-First AI, audience impact, and accountability
Memorable planning framework	CAM: character check, audience analysis, message and medium	Three-Step Writing Process: ten tasks within Plan, Write, and Complete
Compact predefined course sequence	14 chapters provide a direct, integrated pathway	A focused course is built through selective chapter and activity assignment
Digital, social, and visual modularity	Media and design are integrated across broader chapters	Separate chapters on digital media, social media, and visual communication
AI literacy and repeated practice	AI as assistant and collaborator; students retain authorship and accountability	AI in every chapter plus more than 100 AI-related questions, exercises, and activities
Belonging and diverse learners	Explicit 12th-edition emphasis on belonging and diverse cognitive and learning styles	Broad treatment of inclusion, intercultural communication, accessibility, bias, visuals, and AI
Integrated teaching and coaching resources	MindTap digital course platform	MyLab plus the additional Teaching and Learning Accelerator™

Table 3. Matching textbook architecture to instructional priorities.

Instructor Takeaway: Business Communication and Character provides a distinctive character-centered identity within a compact curriculum. Business Communication Today addresses the same core communication outcomes while offering greater chapter modularity, more extensive documented AI practice, and an additional integrated teaching and coaching system.

Business Communication and Character vs. Business Communication Today–Which Textbook Best Fits Your Course?

Quick Answer: The best fit depends on what instructors want to make most visible and repeatable. Business Communication and Character offers a strong fit for courses organized around character, ethical self-awareness, authentic authorship, belonging, audience analysis, and a compact 14-chapter sequence. Business Communication Today offers the stronger fit for instructors who want those human-centered outcomes together with broader modular coverage, AI integration in every chapter, a ten-task Three-Step Writing Process, and the exclusive Teaching and Learning Accelerator™.

Business Communication and Character gives instructors a coherent way to connect communication skill with who the communicator is and what the communicator stands for. Its CAM model is memorable, the 14-chapter structure is efficient, and the current edition’s emphasis on human authorship and diverse learners is particularly timely.

Business Communication Today can be taught just as selectively, but it preserves access to a wider instructional framework. Instructors can assign separate chapters on digital, social, and visual communication; research; report development; presentation visuals; résumés; interviewing; and AI-related decisions without changing textbooks as course or program priorities expand.

For instructors who want a concise course without limiting future instructional options, Business Communication Today offers the stronger overall fit. For instructors whose central course identity is explicitly character, authorship, belonging, and CAM, Business Communication and Character offers a clear and distinctive alternative.

Instructor Takeaway: Course outcomes should guide adoption. When the goal is human-centered communication plus maximum modular flexibility, curriculum-wide AI practice, and integrated teaching support, Business Communication Today provides the broader platform.

Key Takeaways

• Both textbooks provide comprehensive preparation in professional writing, interpersonal communication, reports, presentations, employment communication, ethics, and responsible technology use.
• Business Communication and Character organizes communication around character and the CAM model; Business Communication Today organizes it around the ten-task Three-Step Writing Process.
• Business Communication and Character 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 keep people responsible for AI-assisted communication; Business Communication and Character foregrounds character and authorship, while Business Communication Today documents AI practice in every chapter and more than 100 AI-related activities.
• Business Communication and Character gives belonging and diverse cognitive and learning styles explicit new visibility; Business Communication Today connects inclusion to intercultural communication, accessibility, digital and visual media, and AI bias.
• MindTap 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 human-centered communication together with broader modularity and a larger documented body of AI practice, Business Communication Today offers the stronger overall fit.

Glossary of Key Terms

CAM model: The communication model in Business Communication and Character that links character check, audience analysis, and message and medium.

Character check: A precommunication examination of purpose, self-awareness, legal implications, and ethical choices.

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 may assist communication but people retain responsibility for purpose, evidence, judgment, ethics, voice, and the final message.

Authorship: Responsibility for the ideas, choices, accuracy, voice, and consequences of a communication, including when AI assistance is used.

Belonging: An inclusion-oriented approach that seeks communication practices through which people can participate, contribute, and be respected.

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

MindTap: Cengage’s digital learning platform associated with Business Communication and Character.

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. Complete published manuscript, Chapters 1-19.

Newman, A. (2027). Business Communication and Character (12th ed.). Cengage. Print edition released in 2026.

Cengage official Business Communication and Character, 12th Edition product page

Cengage faculty product page and table of contents

Amy Newman, “12e Is Available!” edition highlights

Amy Newman chapter resources for Business Communication and Character

Cornell SC Johnson College of Business profile of Amy Newman

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 coauthors 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. Additional details about him can be found on his LinkedIn profile.

Amy Newman is senior lecturer emeritus of management communication at Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business. She taught business writing, oral communication, persuasive communication, corporate and crisis communication, and organizational behavior and has held corporate and consulting roles in several industries.

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 and Character, avoids unsupported quantitative claims, and ties conclusions to specific instructional priorities rather than universal claims.