Ties that Bind: Ancient Epistolography and Modern Business Communication.

Abstract

Recently, critics of business communication have claimed that many principles of the field repeat themselves from one generation to the next (for example, see Pauly, Moran and Moran, and Selzer). I will argue that these critics are right: not only have the leading principles of the field been transmitted through generations of textbooks beginning around 1910, but several striking parallels between the 2000-year-old Greek and Roman epistolographic, or letter-writing, tradition and modern business communica tion exist. Just as business communication textbooks do today, ancient epistolographic manuals recommended adaptation to the letter-writer's audi ence, natural, everyday speech, and at least three of the so-called C's of effective communication: conversational tone, clarity, and conciseness. Just as textbooks do today, these letter-writing manuals took pains to develop elaborate typologies to classify letters. And just as today business communi cation stands at the fringes of the educational establishment, so in the ancient world epistolography never was fully integrated into the system of classical education; indeed, much of the ancient world considered epistolographic instruction vulgar, suited only for the superficially educated.

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