The Next Big Thing in Business Communication?
The graphic novel can be a powerful learning tool, this study finds. wikimedia commons
Whether you’re reading up on the latest business communication strategies or just seeking tips for effective learning, don’t miss this Business Communication Quarterly article highlighted in the latest issue of Scientific American Mind. In a piece in the magazine entitled “How to Be a Better Student,” Sunny Sea Gold writes:
…[E]ducators and researchers say that you do not need the carefree mind of a grade-schooler or the late-night stamina of a teenager to be a good student. All you need is the determination to learn something new and the right tools. Read on:
[Read more in Scientific American Mind]
#1 Get visual. Apparently, learning via graphic novels is about to become the next big thing. In a recent study in Business Communication Quarterly, University of Oklahoma professor Jeremy Short found that comic books were better at helping business majors remember things word for word than traditional textbooks. It makes sense, when you think about it. “I can recite lines from movies and literature, but I can’t walk around quoting textbooks,” Short says. He used the graphic-novel approach himself to brush up on math when he was getting his Ph.D.: “I bought the Cartoon Guide to Statistics. It was a really interesting book and got me back on track with what I should’ve already learned.” Such graphic guides exist for just about anything you might want to learn more about—genetics, the environment, the history of the universe. Kaplan even has an SAT vocabulary study guide in comic-book form.
The paper, “Graphic Presentation: An Empirical Examination of the Graphic Novel Approach to Communicate Business Concepts,” was published in the Business Communication Quarterly September 2013 issue by Jeremy C. Short of the University of Oklahoma, Brandon Randolph-Seng of Texas A&M University–Commerce, and Aaron F. McKenny of the University of Oklahoma.
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