Does Business Writing Require Information Literacy?

Abstract

Although the business community increasingly recognizes information literacy as central to its work, there remains the critical problem of measurement: How should employers assess the information literacy of their current or potential workers? In this article, we use a commercially available assessment to investigate the relationship between information literacy and the key business communication skill of business writing. Information literacy scores obtained prior to instruction predicted performance in an undergraduate, upper-division business writing course. Similar results emerged regardless of whether participants considered English their best language.