8. Conclusion
Palmer (2013) argued that educators and scholars in professional communication need to design more research that explores the many facets of the globalized workplace including information spaces, documents, and genres. One strategy to achieve that goal is to conduct research on contemporary global events that generate multinational and multicultural documentation. Such research, however, should not be isolated in academic journals or conference conversations; it should be incorporated into the classroom, which provides students with multiple benefits in that they • Learn about current events and initiatives; • Learn about global communication practices; • Think critically about local and global implications of events for workplaces; • Learn more about their own culture while learning how other countries and cultures conduct business and communicate; • Practice writing in real online international contexts. Each of these learning objectives moves students toward understanding the global contexts in which they will write and the various factors (e.g., economic, political, social, historical) that affect audience expectations in these settings. The Bologna Process is just one global initiative that can be used in writing classes to introduce students to the diversity of the workplace. There are many other organizations with documents, policies, and conversations that students can learn from, such as organizations concerned with global organized crime, human rights violations, and environmental issues. Documents should not pulled out and used in isolation; rather, students should be shown how individual documents are part of a larger conversation and have worldwide impact. As students learn more about these world initiatives, they should also be shown how they, too, can contribute to ongoing conversations.
