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The CourseENG 260 Business And Professional WritingMedaille College - Fall 2011 |
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catalog description
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special requirements | evaluation
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Section 03 CRN 10091 Tuesday and Thursday 12:45 pm - 02:10 pm room Main 310
Number of Credits 3
Prerequisite ENG 200
Instructor Douglas Anderson
Office 85 Humboldt, second floor at the end of
the hall
Hours before, between and
after classes as well as
Monday and Wednesday 2:45 - 3:45 and Tuesday and Thursday 2:15 - 3:45
email anytime at eng260f11 at gmail.com
This course examines the different types of business and professional writing, both traditional and electronic, as well as oral communications. Students shall learn how to most effectively use basic grammar skills in a variety of business and professional applications. They shall also learn the proper use of graphs, visuals, and presentation materials as they relate to written and oral communication. This course investigates the necessary relationships between audiences, pertinent styles of writing, and ethical considerations pertinent to business and professional communications. Students shall produce a portfolio of print, visual, and web-based media that can include a resume, memoranda, reports, instructions, and brochures.
After completing this course, you will be better able to control the content, structure, language, and mechanics of the research, writing, and presenting that professionals do on computer networks. You will be better able to:
Identify
and employ the basic types of professional and business writing with an understanding of
the major similarities and differences among them
Access
and use the research
tools, especially online, in various fields of professional and business writing
Describe and explain the structure and operation of the Internet, especially visual media and social media applications.
Solve
problems in specific
writing situations using rhetorical, critical thinking, and problem
solving strategies
Analyze
audience, purpose, and
style to produce professional-quality documents
Use
power point and web-based
media to produce and print web-based publications and confident oral
presentations
Work
effectively and
professionally to delegate responsibility and meet deadlines for
production of professional-quality documents
Apply
multiple and diverse
perspectives, and the concerns of different kinds of audiences, to
produce professional writing assignments
I try to engage each of you in an ongoing discussion of your learning. If you aren't getting enough feedback from me, ask for more. As you'll see, I'm big on formative feedback and Socratic questioning.
I expect you to participate in our physical classrooms and our digital classroom. At a minimum, you should:
come
to class
complete
all the deliverables on
time
follow
all the links on the syllabus
You will have a dozen or so assignments. Some won't be graded, but on the table below, you'll see the ones that will count toward your final course grade.
Note: I'm assuming that you will do all of the project's deliverables as specified on the case page. If you don't do them all, you can't pass the course. If you don't do them on time (gateways), your grade will be lower than it would otherwise.
Your course grade will be based on the following tasks. At the end of the course, you will make an oral presentation of your portfolio.
The
portfolio will be on the web server
(username: mba600 pwd: geek13) at http://toLearn.net/eng260/f11/. It
will have a welcome page that has links to a .pdf file of your report
as well as your graphics assignments and the slides that accompany your final presentation. You will
get full credit if the information is legible and the links work.
Written report. You
will write and package a professional report to help a specific
audience solve a problem or make a decision. See below for criteria.
Graphics. While the
reports will contain many images, tables, and charts, you will complete
five graphics tasks as separate assignments: image, table,
chart, animation, screenshot. As long as you do them and they are on
your portfolio web, you will get full credit.
Gateways. You will go through two gateways to help assure the timely completion of
your portfolio. You will get less than full credit if your assignments are not completed.
Tests. You will take two tests, one on the structure and functioning of the Internet and the other on social media.
Oral reports. You will
make two presentations, one about a a social media application and the other about
your report. See below for criteria.
Attendance. While attending class is always a good idea, the final week of classes in December when you will be making your final oral reports are especially important. You will get at best a B+ in this course if you miss any of those final classes.
Timely completion. 1 or 2 assignments late (L), no change. 3 or more late, subtract one point from final grade for each late assignment and one more for each late week.
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graded assignments |
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portfolio page on course web (.html) |
5 | 5 |
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4 versions of report (.txt, .doc/.pdf, .ppt, .wmv) |
30 | 35 |
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5 graphics |
5 | 5 |
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2 gateways (timely portfolio) |
10 | 5 |
2 tests |
30 | 40 |
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2 oral reports |
10 | 5 |
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attendance final week of class |
5 | 5 |
It comes down to this:
If I were your boss, I would want to see documents that are attractive and accessible. Having your work available when the boss needs it affects the quality component of the boss's assessment. The quality of your writing can be important at raise and promotion time.
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These reports are going to be publicly examined in class and some will be available online, so I expect the exposure and your personal pride will motivate you as much as any threat of low grades. I also recognize that there are multiple "correct" ways to complete these assignments.
These are ambiguous and subjective words: attractive and accessible. Such holistic characterizations come from observations colored by assumptions and prejudices. However, there are some generally agreed upon professional standards. We will discuss them in class in great detail.
If the assignment is complete and on time, it will get an A-. I will reserve the very occasional A for an assignment completed with extraordinary flair and enthusiasm. If you haven't done part of the assignment or it is late, you will get proportionally less than an A-.
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The gateways will also move you along. If you have not completed the assignments due at the three gateways, you and I will have a discussion about your progress, and I will probably in any case submit an official academic warning.
Course grades
The numerical values above give you a sense of what I consider the rough proportioning of your energy during this course. Your personal experience will differ.
If you are sufficiently engaged, you come to all the classes, and you do all the assignments on time, you will get an A- for the course. If you do all that with flair and enthusiasm, you may get an A, although that's rare. If you are sufficiently engaged but you miss several classes and don't do one or more assignments on time or at all, you will get a B or lower. If you aren't sufficiently engaged, even if you do everything else, you can't get an A or probably even a B.
In order to prosper in business, you must be able to do many things other than write. These five also apply to meeting the course objectives listed above.
It's called a PC or Personal Computer partly because you can personalize it. How you manage your files on the computer is probably as personal and inscrutable to others as how you manage them in your physical office. During this course you will generate hundreds of files that you need to manage on two USB drives.
There's so much information and computer programs are so bloated with features. You have to be able to learn on your own and just keep clicking.
You'll never have only and exactly the information you need. You'll never have enough time. You'll rarely find that one path to the future is clearly correct and all the others are wrong. You will have wicked problems and compromises that are guaranteed not to please everyone.
Transcend your and your organization's concrete situation into an intelligent awareness of broader, often abstract, contexts. A good test would be the ease with which you can draw valid inferences from articles in the news. For example, do you understand why the Department of Justice is so upset with Microsoft for bundling the Internet Explorer browser? Do you understand how the DOJ's pursuit of Microsoft affects your ability to send email to your boss? Your big thinking helps me distinguish an A project from an A- or B project. In organizations, it helps the boss distinguish who gets promoted.
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