Papers by the corecipients of ABC's Kitty O. Locker Outstanding Researcher Award: presented at...

At the plenary session for the 71st annual convention of the Association for Business Communication (ABC) in San Antonio, Texas, the organization gathered to hear addresses by the corecipients of its inaugural 2005 Kitty O. Locker Outstanding Researcher Award, Dr. Mirjaliisa Charles and Dr. Gail

Fann Thomas. For several years, ABC has welcomed the recipients of its highest research award to address the membership at the beginning of its annual international meeting. This year, they heard Dr. Charles's paper, "International Communication: What English Do We Use, and When?" and Dr. Thomas's paper, "What's New? Grounding Research in Current and Future Managerial Communication Dilemmas." They were also joined onstage by the recipient of the 2005 Meada Gibbs Outstanding Teacher Award, Dr. Debby Andrews, who delivered a paper, "How Do We Know We've Won?" These three papers presented at the convention's plenary session all made provocative contributions to the convention's theme, "Going Global: Network Connections Through Effective Business Communication."

Based on their convention presentations, Dr. Charles and Dr. Thomas prepared papers for the Journal of Business Communication to be printed in this forum. These articles, which offer expanded and more detailed explorations of the topics addressed in their plenary session addresses, appear here with new titles. As readers will discover after considering the two articles that follow, these researchers are deeply engaged with important issues defining the field of business communication today. It was clear when they delivered their papers in the plenary session that their ideas resonate with other researchers from around the world. The audience gathered in San Antonio asked questions throughout the available time in that session and then continued to talk about ideas in these addresses throughout the remainder of the convention. After reading the two articles that follow, you are encouraged to join this conversation that started in San Antonio.

Mark Zachry is an associate professor of technical communication at University of Washington. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Mark Zachry, University of Washington, 14 Loew Hall, Box 352195, Seattle, WA 98195; email: zachry@u.washington.edu.