Business and Professional Communication Quarterly Mar 2026

Sentinel and Designer: Identities for Business Communication

Nelson Lamar Reinsch Georgetown University

Abstract

How should academics who work in the field of business communication (or management, professional, or technical communication) think of their work? I propose that business communication should be understood as a sentinel discipline and a designer discipline. By sentinel discipline I mean a community that continually monitors (and responds to) changes in business practice. By designer discipline I mean a community that understands the instructional task as shaping the ways in which graduates will shape (and reshape) business organizations through their communicative behavior.

Journal
Business and Professional Communication Quarterly
Published
2026-03-20
DOI
10.1177/23294906261426253
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Topics
technical communication professional writing
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