Most business communication textbooks treat "unfavorable" communications as written documents--denials of credit, collection requests, rejections for employment, inability to meet deadlines, etc. These written "unfavorable" documents are no longer actually written by most employees. In fact, many of these communications are computer generated and written by corporate communications and public relations specialists (sometimes with the assistance of legal counsel and compliance officers). Students are unlikely to compose these types of "bad news" messages intended for external customers or readers. But students will very probably have to deliver negative messages--in face-to-face meetings, on the telephone, during presentations, or even in casual conversation. Managers must be equipped with the knowledge of how to communicate bad news in these venues. But where is the research concerning these forms of "unfavorable" communication? The author asserts that a plethora of research--primarily qualitative studies--exists, and the articles in this issue's theme section offer an excellent sampling of that work. The articles are of value to business communication professionals partially because they offer summaries of a vast corpus of research concerning the delivery of bad news. However, they also point to new directions for practice and research. These studies indicate that future emphasis on the rhetorical challenges posed by negative situations within the workplace--situations for which the conventional solutions of "indirect" or "direct" presentation are inappropriate--is a much-needed focus of future research.