Syllabus

Business Writing

Spring 2008

 

Dr. Steve Hicks/Raub 402                                                        Phone: 2211/ H:387-9306

email: shicks@lhup.edu             Office hours: M 4-5; TuTh 930-11; TuTh 1-2

 

Required Textbook:

Oliu, Walter E. et. al. Writing that Works: Communicating Effectively on the Job. 9th ed.

           

Grade Determination:                                              

Letters & Memos:                    20%                            

Formal Report:             20%

Short/Informal Report               10%                            

Proposal:                                  10%                            

Resume & Cover:                     7.5%

Group project:                          12.5% 

Participation:                             20%    

Extra credit (web based):          10%    

 

Participation:   You can earn two points per class period, based on your contributions (via answers) in class (at my discretion).  Not being there means no points, which will affect this part of your grade.                                                                          

 

Readings/Assignments (Brief version):

Note: This is a tentative list of reading and writing assignments. All changes will be announced online.

 

Jan 14:             Introduction

Jan 28:             Job Search: Chapters 1& 16. 

Feb. 4:             Business Correspondence: Chapters 2, 3, & 9.  Resume & Cover letter due

Feb. 11:           Business Correspondence: Chapters 4, & 9 cont’d.  Letters due

Feb. 18:           Chapter 5.  Letters due

Feb. 25:           Chapter 6

Mar. 3:             Chapters 7 & 10.

Mar. 17:           Chapter 14. Short report due

Mar. 25:           Chapter 5

Mar. 31:           Group work

Apr. 7:             Chapter 13.  Group work due.

Apr. 14:           Proposal

Apr. 21:           Chapter 11

Apr. 28:           Chapter 11 cont’d

May 5:             Formal report due        

 

Plagiarism: See pages 178-9.  If caught plagiarizing, you will receive an E for the course.

Assignments

Cover letter and Resume
One-page cover letter and a resume (one page is always good if possible, but if you have enough experience to warrant a longer one, do so) based on principles in Ch. 15

First, you need to find an advertisement for a job to respond to – generating an address for the header and someone to address.  You might use a newspaper ad, or an ad found on-line, such as at The Lock Haven Express

Letters and Memos Assignment
Two letters from you based on the Ch. 9 guidelines: the first week, the letters should either ask for information or convey good news; the second week the two letters should provide a negative message.  Look at the exercises on 338-340 and choose two that work for you (don’t do numbers 1 or 10).   Address them as indicated in the exercise.

Proposal
Using Chapter 13 as a guide, write a proposal that asks for money. You might see #1 on 473 on "research projects" for an idea; you might as see http://www.epa.gov/grtlakes/fund/modelsubmis.html as examples of what one government agency looks for in proposals. You can begin your big project here; this can be a proposal to raise seed money to research that project. Expectation is for 3 to 5 pages, including whatever financial statements are necessary.

Short Report

Based on Chapter 10, a short, informal report (the book shows two ss’d pages).  This may be a follow up of proposal topic, as well as a preview of the formal report.  Topics in exercises may provide inspiration; avoid the web assignments, as they are used in group project.

 

Group Assignment

Look at page 369-70, #2 under “Web projects.” Number 2 implies there is a “report” written – write the report as outlined in the assignment. You might discuss what “expanding its Web site for international markets” means – does that mean multi-language sites? does it mean you are going to try to incorporate ALL cultures into the site (the distinction from Europe, across the Middle East, into to south Asia, and then China/Korea/Japan seems worth making). So, ponder narrowing the multi-continent approach. Consider.

 

Formal Report Assignment
The final project is to be a formal report, as discussed in Ch. 11 of the book. This means front matter, body, and back matter -- whatever is necessary. The model is an SBA business plan. This is an "I'm going to start a business and this is why and where and..." document. Banks like to see them. Funding agencies do, too. Investors do. Chambers of Commerce do. Think about audience. The usual business to do, generically, is a restaurant. It's a nice combination of local knowledge, but universal research (how to make burgers is universal -- whether to put one on the menu with feta cheese is local). Think of that as a suggested way to go. Obviously, you can use the ideas in the book, or ideas of your own, and/or ideas coming from the proposal or even the group work. I expect them to be in the 10 page range, with front, back and body. Don't overwhelm me with size...go only as big as necessary to be convincing.