Duquesne University's Department of Communication & Rhetorical Studies offers a course in business and professional communication to students in the School of Business. To develop that partnership, professors had to persuade the business school of the centrality of rhetoric/persuasion in business and professional communication. In short, this course moved the business school's understanding of business and professional communication from a basic information model based on objectivity and "pure" description to the recognition that every component of business and professional communication has a persuasive foundation and requires attention to a particular audience or, in the terms of the course, internal and external communicative partners. The professors encountered a theory-versus-application challenge, in which they stressed the importance of theory, understanding the "why" behind practices of business communication, in order to guide practice. In this article, the authors examine the partnership between Duquesne University's Department of Communication & Rhetorical Studies and the School of Business and explain how the two faculties were able to agree on assignments that emphasize persuasion and focus on five vital communication aspects.