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Business English, 14th Edition

Mary Ellen Guffey

  • Copyright 2026
  • {{checkPublicationMessage('Published', '2025-05-08T00:00:00+0000')}}
Starting At $59.95 See pricing and ISBN options
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Business English 14th Edition by Mary Ellen Guffey
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Overview

Help students strengthen their language skills with the proven grammar instruction and extensive in-text and online resources found in Guffey’s “Business English” 14th Edition. As the market-leader in grammar and mechanics since its first publication, this text uses a three-level approach to divide topics into manageable units, providing ultimate teaching flexibility. Updated with contemporary examples and insights from over 60 years of classroom experience, this edition offers even more digital resources to ensure students master key skills and unparalleled support, for you, through an Instructor’s Resource Website loaded with answer keys, teaching tips, a digital instructor’s manual, test banks, practice resources and PowerPoint® slides for both traditional and online environments.

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Meet the Authors

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Mary Ellen Guffey

As a dedicated professional, Mary Ellen Guffey has taught business communication and business English topics for more than 40 years. She received a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from Bowling Green State University, a master’s degree from the University of Illinois and a doctorate in business and economic education from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She has taught at the University of Illinois, Santa Monica College and Los Angeles Pierce College. Now recognized as the world’s leading business communication textbook author, Dr. Guffey is the founding author of three award-winning textbooks: BUSINESS COMMUNICATION: PROCESS AND PRODUCT, ESSENTIALS OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION and BUSINESS ENGLISH. Each rigorously updated book continues to lead its market and, together, these books have helped hundreds of thousands of students around the world develop language skills. Dr. Guffey serves on the review boards of Business and Professional Communication Quarterly and the International Journal of Business Communication, publications of the Association for Business Communication. She participates in national meetings, sponsors business communication awards and is committed to promoting excellence in business communication pedagogy and the development of student writing as well as speaking skills.

What's New

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  • The new Business Vocabulary Building feature helps students learn vocabulary words that are associated with different business functional areas likes sales, marketing and IT.
  • The text objectively introduces students to the current trends in business writing like the use of the nonbinary "they" and capitalization of the word Black, explaining the rationale and importance of these changes.

Features

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  • The new AI in Action margin note feature demonstrates to students how artificial intelligence (AI) is affecting communication at all levels in the workplace.
  • The Instructor’s Resource Website is filled with answer keys, teaching tips and ideas, a digital instructor’s manual, test banks, practice resources and PowerPoint® slides.
  • MindTap digital course offers a robust learning path, including auto-graded assignments that provide students with comprehensive feedback without adding to your workload. You will also find an eBook and supporting course materials in one place for easy access for you and your students. With a completely flexible design, MindTap makes it easy to personalize your course by rearranging existing content or integrating outside content such as videos and handouts.
  • The book’s unique and thorough approach to grammar begins with the basics that every student needs. The authors move, step-by-step, through language building skills that students must rely upon to communicate effectively in business careers. This proven three-level approach separates learning into manageable segments.
  • Learning tools throughout the text and on the instructor resources website provide interest and further challenge students at each level. These tools include pretests, Business Vocabulary Building, FAQs About Business English, Spot the Blooper, Reinforcement Exercises, Chat About It, Real World Editing, posttests, unit tests and Writer’s Workshops.

Table of Contents

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Unit I: LAYING A FOUNDATION.
1. Parts of Speech.
2. Sentences: Elements, Varieties, Patterns, Types, Faults.
Unit II: KNOWING THE NAMERS.
3. Nouns: Plurals and Possessives.
4. Pronouns.
Unit III: SHOWING THE ACTION.
5. Verbs.
6. Subject–Verb Agreement.
Unit IV: MODIFYING AND CONNECTING WORDS.
7. Adjectives and Adverbs.
8. Prepositions.
9. Conjunctions and Interjections.
Unit V: PUNCTUATING SENTENCES.
10. Commas.
11. Semicolons and Colons.
12. Other Punctuation.
Unit VI: WRITING WITH STYLE.
13. Capitalization.
14. Numbers.
Appendix A: Document Format Guide.
Appendix B: Developing Spelling Skills.
Appendix C: Developing Vocabulary Skills.
Appendix D: Proofreading Marks.

Compare Buying Options

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MindTap Options

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MindTap
Each MindTap product offers the full, mobile-ready textbook combined with superior and proven learning tools at one affordable price. Students who purchase digital access can add a print option at any time when a print option is available for their course.

This Cengage solution can be seamlessly integrated into most Learning Management Systems (Blackboard, Brightspace by D2L, Canvas, Moodle, and more) but does require a different ISBN for access codes. Please work with your Cengage Learning Consultant to ensure the proper course set up and ordering information. For additional information, please visit the LMS Integration site.

Standalone Digital Access — Ultimate Value

Recommended and most popular

  • ISBN-10: 0357929098
  • ISBN-13: 9780357929094
  • RETAIL $124.95
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Students: Buy now

Textbook Only Options

Traditional eBook and Print Options

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  • ISBN-10: 0357929179
  • ISBN-13: 9780357929179
  • RETAIL $59.95

  • ISBN-10: 0357929071
  • ISBN-13: 9780357929070
  • RETAIL $520.00
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Students: Buy now

Supplements

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Cengage provides a range of supplements that are updated in coordination with the main title selection. For more information about these supplements, contact your Learning Consultant.

FOR STUDENTS

MindTap for Guffey's Business English, 1 term Instant Access

ISBN: 9780357929094
MindTap for Guffey’s “Business English” 14th Edition, is the digital learning solution that powers students from memorization to mastery. It gives you complete control of your course to provide engaging content, challenge every individual and build their confidence. Empower students to accelerate their progress with MindTap. MindTap: Powered by You. This new edition includes a course-level grammar pre- and post-test, a streamlined learning path with auto-graded assignments like chapter reflection activities to help students connect chapter topics to their own lives and Real World Editing assignments that help students apply skills to professional documents. Additionally, it features Chapter Quizzes, Practice Quizzes and Unit Quizzes to reinforce learning and ensure comprehension. MindTap gives you complete ownership of your content and learning experience. Customize the interactive syllabi, emphasize the most important topics and add your own material or notes in the eBook. With MindTap, you can tailor the course to meet the unique needs of your students, providing a personalized and effective learning journey.