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Many employees neither trained as “career writers” nor defining themselves as writers spend a major part of their time writing because, undeniably, writing is a central activity in organisations. To produce the high quality required to create and maintain credibility, organisations need to have professionals who can efficiently produce documents with substance, structure and style. This paper discusses issues relating to the management of corporate writing and editing, and presents practices and processes that managers can implement in their organisations to produce flawless documents, thereby avoiding the credibility crises that occur when writing is not taken seriously.

Collaborative writing is pervasive in the contemporary corporate workplace. North American research reports that nine out of ten business professionals produce some of their documents as part of a team. As workplace writers seek to meet the business goals of their employers, and further their own careers, they require sophisticated skills in joining with other writers to collaboratively produce documents. Taking advantage of the benefits, and meeting the challenges of this demand, requires corporate and academic communities to collaborate: to address gaps in the knowledge about collaborative writing and to train and develop competent collaborative writers.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on plain language in Australia, the UK and the USA since the movement began to accelerate in the early 1960s; to review the progress of plain‐language initiatives in those countries in the years since then; to provide guidance on generating plain‐language documents for writers in the corporate arena; and to present suggestions for further research.

The paper discusses historical and contemporary initiatives and issues relating to plain language, presents guidelines for writing in plain language, and discusses the desirability of ongoing research.

The paper concludes with suggestions for further research in the corporate sector, where issues such as plain‐language “standards” are contestable, and compliance with plain‐language guidelines is under‐researched.

Although the plain‐language movement has gained great momentum worldwide in recent years, this paper is limited to the countries in which it was pioneered.

The desirability of adopting plain language is undeniable, with many professions and businesses recognising the social and economic benefits of presenting information to their customers in plain language: efficiency, effectiveness, cost‐savings, equity, enhanced consumer satisfaction, among others.

The paper provides a valuable overview of the progress of plain‐language initiatives in Australia, the UK and the USA since the 1960s and highlights the necessity for further research in a movement that has become an important consideration for corporations in an economy in which writing and information design are central.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the future of corporate communication professionals and researchers; to present the findings of the Corporate Communication International (CCI) Corporate Communication Practices and Trends Study 2009; and to introduce the issues presented in the papers from the CCI Conference on Corporate Communication 2009 published in this special issue.

The paper presents a discussion of the future of the corporate communication and the findings of the CCI Corporate Communication Practices and Trends Study 2009.

The paper implies strategic knowledge of business processes and practice for effective corporate communication.

The paper implies several areas for further research.

The paper articulates complex challenges facing corporate communicators.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the challenges facing corporate communication professionals and researchers, and to introduce the issues presented in the papers from the CCI Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 published in this special issue.

This paper presents a discussion of the issues raised in the special issue papers.

Discussion of the future of the corporate communication profession in the wake of the global fiscal crisis.

This paper implies several areas for further research.

This paper implies strategic knowledge of business processes and practice for effective corporate communication.

This paper articulates complex challenges facing corporate communicators.