Course Bibliography

This bibliography is the collection of references that the course designer considers to be crucial for understanding the topics in the course outline and for building up communication skills in areas that are highly relevant to work in international business.

Recommended Resources

Overview

Alaina Brandt on LinkedIn
GitHub website
GitHub Pages documentation
Markdown format as explained by GitHub
Software is Changing (Again) - Andrej Karpathy’s 2025 Y Combinator talk
github.com/alainamb/uic_tr35-business-english-II - Course repository
Translation, Localization and Interpreting program - Universidad Intercontinental, Mexico City

Unit 1: Business Communication & Ethics

Week 1: Business Communication Styles

Examples and advice related to corresponding via email

Week 2: Presentation Skills in Business Contexts

How to Give a Killer Presentation by Chris Anderson via Harvard Business Review
How to Create Slides That Suit Your Superiors: 11 Tips by Nancy Duarte via MIT Sloan Management Review
18 Best Types of Charts and Graphs for Data Visualization [+ Guide] via HubSpot
Meet Illustrator Mona Chalabi, the Data Sleuth Making Poignant Visualizations About the Full Impact of Racism by Naomi Rea via artnet
How to Create More Inclusive Visual Communications: Ensuring Diverse Representation and Accessibility by Disha Arora via American India Foundation
Inclusive Design for Accessible Presentations by Allison Ravenhall via Smashing Magazine
5 Ways to Project Confidence in Front of an Audience by Carmine Gallo via HBR
5 Ways to Improve Your Body Language During a Speech via Columbia School of Professional Studies
How to Make Stress Your Friend by Kelly McGonigal via TEDGlobal 2013

Week 3: Ethics and Integrity in Business

Is Business Bluffing Ethical by Albert Z. Carr via Harvard Business Review
Ethics Defined glossary via the McCombs School of Business

Unit 2: Legal & Financial Frameworks

Week 4: Legal Language in Business

Natural Reader AI text to speech application
Herod Clause segment from “A Way with Words” radio show
Red Flags in Localization Contracts by Alaina Brandt
How the So-Called Translation Industry Turned “Confidentiality Agreements” into Declarations of Acceptance of Servitude by patenttranslator
ICA adapted from the American Translators Association (ATA) model contract
Purchase Order example developed by Alaina Brandt
Unraveling Translation Service Contracts by Paula Arturo
Risky Business: The Five Biggest IP Mistakes Startups Make - WIPO Magazine
Visualizing the Length of the Fine Print, for 14 Popular Apps - Visual Capitalist infographic
I Read All the Small Print on the Internet and It Made Me Want to Die - The Guardian
Terms and Conditions, The Graphic Novel - Mozilla

Week 5: Financial Terminology & Reporting

How to Read Financial Statements: A Beginner’s Guide by Tim Stobierski, Harvard Business School Online
How to Read & Understand a Balance Sheet by Tim Stobierski, Harvard Business School
How to Read and Understand a Balance Sheet - Business: Explained
How to Read & Understand an Income Statement by Tim Stobierski, Harvard Business School
NASDAQ listings
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission CIK Lookup
“MercadoLibre misses profit estimates as Brazil free-shipping boost hurts margins” via Reuters
MercadoLibre, Inc., Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ending June 30, 2025, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Week 6: Business Regulations & Compliance

The History of the NAFTA Agreement
USMCA Agreement Text - U.S. Trade Representative
Textos Finales del T-MEC - Gobierno de México
Data on Mexico and U.S. trade via the Observatory of Economic Complexity
Gobierno de México - Main government portal
Secretaría de Economía - Mexico’s economic affairs and trade
COFEPRIS - Health regulation (pharmaceuticals, food) in Mexico
SEMARNAT - Mexican environmental regulation
USA.gov - Business regulation portal
Department of Commerce - U.S. trade and business development
FDA - Food, drug, and medical device regulation in the U.S.
EPA - U.S. environmental protection
Data Protection Laws and Regulations Mexico 2025 by ICLG
Data Protection in Mexico: Federal Law for the Protection of Personal Data Held by Private Parties (FLPPDHPP) by the European Commission
Ley Federal de Protección de Datos Personales en Posesión de los Particulares by Mexico’s Federal Government
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) via the State of California’s Department of Justice
What is the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)? via IBM

Unit 3: Production & Quality Processes

Unit 4: People & Relationships

Week 10: Teamwork & Intercultural Competency

Why Diverse Teams are Smarter - Interview of Katherine Phillips via Columbia Business School
My Advice For Working In Teams by Alaina Brandt
Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter - By Rock and Grant via HBR
The Trouble with Homogenous Teams - Evan Apfelbaum and Martha E. Mangelsdorf, MIT Sloan Management Review
Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor - Book by Layla F. Saad
Babble Bias and Homogenous Leadership by Alaina Brandt via Medium
Using the Stages of Team Development by Judith Stein via MIT Human Resources
Learning in the Thick of It by Darling, Parry and Moore, HBR
Collaborating with the Enemy: How to Work with People You Don’t Agree with or Like or Trust - Book by Adam Kahane
Collaborating with the Enemy workflow image by by Harold Jarche
Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself - Book by Nedra Glover Tawwab
Radical candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss without Losing Your Humanity - Book by Kim Scott
Our Approach by Radical Candor
The Feedback Fallacy - HBR, Buckingham and Goodall
Time to ditch ‘toxic positivity,’ experts say: ‘It’s okay not to be okay’ by Chiu via The Washington Post
Go Ahead and Complain. It Might Be Good for You. By Marini Higgs via The New York Times
Darla Deardorff’s Process Model of Intercultural Competence (2006)
The Silent Language - Book by Edward Hall
Intercultural communication competence from 2000 to 2024: A systematic review by Hussain, Nshom and Lin
Intercultural Competences: Conceptual and Operational Framework via UNESCO
Advancing Intercultural Competence for Global Learners online course on Open Library
Intersectional as defined on Wikipedia
Work culture: What it is + why it’s important via Zoom
Lean In book by Sheryl Sandberg
Crybaby Trump image by Steve Sack via The Minneapolis Star Tribune adapted to include a phrase from an internet meme
Dogs Playing Poker image from 1894 by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge

Week 11: Internal Corporate Communications

Managing Organizational Communication - Society for Human Resource Management
Examining the Effects of Internal Communication and Emotional Culture by Men, Yue & Ferguson
Rethinking Internal Communication: A Stakeholder Approach by Welch & Jackson, 2007
DEI Lighthouse Programme by via World Economic Forum
Layoffs Are Painful But You Can Communicate Them Compassionately via HBR
Communicating in a Crisis: What, When, and How via the Center for Creative Leadership
12 Important Steps in Crisis Communication via Change Management Insight
Why Some Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Crisis Responses Fail + What to Do Instead via InHerSight

Week 12: Leadership & Performance Management

10 most spoken languages in the world in 2025 via ICLS
World Population Clock via the Census Bureau
9 Mistakes to Avoid as a First-Time Manager via Harvard Business School Online
The Manager’s Guide to Inclusive Leadership — Small Habits That Make a Big Impact via First Round
New To Management: 20 Tips for New Managers via Indeed
10 tips for effective one-on-one meetings via INTHEBLACK
Barriers to Effective Communication via GeeksforGeeks
How to Have Difficult Conversations - Managing Conflict in the Workplace via Berkeley Executive Education
How to Create an Employee Development Plan (With Examples) via D2L
13 Types of employee personalities & how to motivate them via SurfOffice
Employee review template: How to structure performance conversations that drive growth via CultureMonkey
Performance Reviews - Employee Guide via the Rochester Institute of Technology
What Is a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) and How Do You Create One? via the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
How to Fire An Employee Without Burning Bridges & Legally via Genius
6 Tips for Productive 1:1 Meetings with Your Manager - Video by Jeff Su
ONE-ON-ONE MEETINGS WITH EMPLOYEES - Video by Makeda Andrews
SMART system definition via Wikipedia
JAN Role-Play Training Series: Performance Management - Video by JANinformation

Unit 5: Global Business & Technology

Week 13: International Business Documentation

GSA eLibrary - Language Services Contractors database of U.S government contracts
Writing a Request for Proposal (RFP): How-tos, Templates, and Tips by Canva
Guidebook: Crafting a Driven Request for Proposals (RFP) via Harvard’s Government Performance Lab

Week 14: Digital Business Tools & Technology

ISO 27001 on Information Security - Annex A Security Controls Reference
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) via California’s Attorney General
Acceso a la Información y Protección de Datos Personales - Mexico’s INAI (Instituto Nacional de Transparencia)
Vendor Management: An Insider’s Strategies to Win and Create Long Lasting Change - Book by Agostino Carrideo
Top 10 Tech Security Basics Every Person Should Follow by Melanie Pinola via Lifehacker
Why You Should Change the Default Password on a Wi-Fi Router by Bradley Mitchell via Lifewire
How To Change Your Router SSID & Why You Should by Elsie Otachi via Help Desk Geek
Boxcryptor quote: “There is no cloud. It’s just someone else’s computer.”
ISO 24495 on Plain Language
Time Tracking with TopTracker (Work Instruction)
Time Tracking with TopTracker (Blog post)
Agile Project Management Manifesto

Week 15: Business Innovation & Adaptation to Change

Why Sentence-by-Sentence Translation Won’t Deliver Hyper-Personalization by Alaina Brandt
The Environmental Impacts of Cobalt Mining in Congo by Earth.Org
How ‘modern-day slavery’ in the Congo powers the rechargeable battery economy - NPR interview with Siddharth Kara
The Exploited Labor Behind Artificial Intelligence by NOEMA
The Artificial Intelligence illusion: How invisible workers fuel the “automated” economy by the International Labour Organization
The Silicon Chain: How AI’s Architecture Became a Tool of Extraction via AYLGORITH
ISO’s ESG Implementation Principles
ISO IWA 48:2024 - ESG Implementation Principles
Building a sustainable path to ESG reporting via ISO
All 17 of the UN’s SDGs
Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR)’s “Imagining Possible Futures” event
DAIR Institute blog
DAIR Possible Futures Zine Issue 1
Imagination Battle by Adrienne Maree Brown
Emerging Business Trends Zine - ISSUE 1 by the fall 2025 class of TR35 at UIC
Zine definition via Purdue

Final Projects

Show & Tell Methodology

How to Contribute to Our Bibliography

As we work through the course, you may discover excellent resources that would benefit others exploring business communication and translation/localization topics.

Quality Criteria for Suggestions

Relevant: Directly connects to business communication, translation, localization, or related professional topics
Credible: From reputable sources (academic journals, established business publications, recognized institutions)
Current: Published within the last 5 years (unless a foundational/classic resource)
Accessible: Available online or through university resources
Practical: Provides actionable insights or clear explanations

How to Suggest Additions

For Students Taking a Class: Contact your instructor through the course communication platforms. Include the full citation, a brief description of relevance, and which unit it supports.

For Independent Students/Study Groups/Instructors: You can suggest additions by forking this repository and submitting a pull request with your proposed changes to the bibliography file. Alternatively, you can reach out to me on LinkedIn.

Example submission format

Citation: Carr, Albert Z. (1968). "Is Business Bluffing Ethical?" Harvard Business Review.

Relevance: Presents borderline cases in which behaviors that would be considered immoral 
in personal contexts (lying, hiding information) are considered acceptable 
within the business realm, encouraging nuanced thinking about ethical behavior in business.

Accessible: Available through HBR online - 2 free articles can be viewed per month.

Last updated: 2025-12-18

📥 Download this Content

Find this file on our repo and download it.

🤖 GAI Study Prompts

Copy the downloaded content and try it with these prompts:

“Help me find credible business resources for [specific unit topic]”
“What databases should I prioritize for business English research?”
“How can I evaluate if a business article is credible and current?”
“Create a research strategy for finding resources about [specific business topic]”

Next: Learn about the Course Designer: Alaina Brandt