The History and Development of Business Communication Principles: 1776-1916

Modern rhetoricians George Campbell, Hugh Blair, and Richard Whately set forth the fundamentals of writing between 1776 and 1828. These fundamentals were then adopted—and improved upon—by nineteenth and early twentieth century rhetoric and composition authors. In 1916 George Burton Hotchkiss wrote the first impor tant college business communication textbook. Improving further on the fundamen tals of writing—and using the "you attitude"and the "Cs"as reminders—he emphasized the necessity of taking the reader's point of view and of following the "great" rhetorical principles of unity, coherence, and force.