The Association for Business Communication named Robert Nelson (MSB ’03) as a finalist in its first annual national business writing competition. Although Nelson was among seven other undergraduate business students around the country who underwent the extensive finalist review process, ultimately, Anna Culhane, a student in the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California was named the winner and given the $200 prize.
The business-writing contest was open to undergraduate business students at various universities throughout the United States. In February, a Student Awards Committee reviewed the entries.
“A panel of six business persons ranked the finalists’ entries, using a similar holistic scale as is used for the GMAT. The entrants responded to the case with two documents: an analysis of the weaknesses of the original `persuasive’ memo distributed to the employees and a suggested improved memo,” Nancy Schullery, chair of the Student Awards Committee said.
“When I started taking [Dr. Reinsch’s] class, I had no clue about the competition going on. Dr. Reinsch is one of the best professors I’ve had here, and he really made everything fun with business communication. Entering me in the contest was his idea, and it stemmed from what we were doing in the class, then everything just kind of fell into my lap because of that,” Nelson said.
Lamar Reinsch, who was Nelson’s managerial communication professor last fall, asked students to analyze a Wall Street Journal article about a senior executive who sent out a memorandum threatening the mass firing of employees. Disgruntled employees forwarded the memo until it reached New York, prompting stockholders to sell shares and ultimately costing the corporation millions of dollars. The memorandum, condemning employees who had missed work because of a blizzard, said work should be their first priority.
The ABC, according to its mission statement, “is an international organization committed to fostering excellence in business communication scholarship, research, education and practice.” Reinsch is a member of ABC and served as the president when the idea for this competition was planned.
“This was the first year for this competition, but we expect to receive more entries in future years,” Reinsch said.
The ABC, although already the largest international association for faculty who teach business communication, will continue to grow as the association meets in Europe, the Pacific Rim, the Caribbean and all over the United States, Reisnch said. “There are already lots of members in Japan and Europe where the business environment is multilingual,” he said.
Business students currently in Reinsch’s Managerial Communication course will participate in the second annual contest to be held this year.
