ENGL 304: Advanced Composition: Business Writing

Course Overview

Welcome to English 304! This course is designed to teach you the skills of effective business communication.

Have you ever:

• read a set of directions that didn't make sense?
• received an e-mail message from a co-worker that had an off-putting tone?
• come across a memo with embarrassing grammar and surface errors?
• perused a flyer about volunteering that did not include contact information?
• looked at an ad with a busy or unattractive design?

The differences between good and bad business communication can sometimes be small but still have profound effects. Fortunately, every instance of ineffective business communication can be recognized and fixed—all you need is a little knowledge. This course will give you that knowledge, along with the necessary skills to excel as a business writer in a multitude of situations.

To help you learn these skills, we have divided the course into three units:

• Unit 1 introduces the fundamentals of business writing and focuses on writing strategies common to all effective business writing.
• Unit 2 requires you to apply the skills you acquired in the first unit to create specific types of business documents.
• Unit 3 guides you through the entire process of creating a substantial business project.

We will be using Internet resources and other technologies to supplement the primary textbook. The Web site for the textbook will serve as a starting point for many of our Web investigations into better business communication. The interactive format of this course will provide you with access to “real world” business documents and will supplement your learning with Internet activities, quizzes, and additional resources.

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Course Goals

The goal of this course is to improve your written business communication skills. To achieve this goal, we will concentrate on specific strategies that successful business writers use to communicate effectively.

This course stresses basic principles of sound business communication that can be applied to a wide range of contexts. The exercises encourage you to view each writing assignment as a unique situation by reinforcing techniques used to analyze problems and audiences. Although Unit 2 explores the standard techniques used in a variety of different business documents, please remember that there is no ready-made formula for business correspondence. You are expected to analyze each assignment and adapt your acquired skills to respond to the situation at hand.

The course emphasizes the following qualities for direct and effective business communication:

Clarity
Express yourself clearly, avoiding unnecessary jargon, long-winded word choice, or convoluted syntax. Say what you mean directly and precisely.

Completeness
Analyze each writing situation thoroughly, respond to all its facets, and anticipate all the information your audience will need. Know what you should leave out of a document.

Accuracy
Develop an eye for details. Your information must be accurate, and you must also present it accurately.

Organization
Present convincing, logical arguments. Think through the logic of your arguments and consider your options for developing coherent, persuasive presentations.

Tone
Regularly foster goodwill in your correspondence. Analyze your audience and adapt the tone of your correspondence to the readers and the situation.

Style
Use sound writing techniques. Develop a confident, courteous, and natural writing style grounded in an understanding of advanced grammatical structures.

Appearance
Present your information so that it impresses your audience. Consider the visual impact of your work. Neatness and layout count in every assignment.

Flexibility
Have a firm grasp of the basic principles of communication so that you can adapt your knowledge and skillfully respond to complex writing situations.

We will focus on these elements of successful business writing throughout the course. They represent our main objectives as you work toward mastering sound business-writing techniques.

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Required Textbooks

The textbooks can be purchased from the Higher Grounds bookstore at the Friday Center either online or by printing out a book order form.

• Our primary textbook will be Business and Administrative Communication, 7th edition (2006) by Kitty O. Locker.

• Also required is the American Heritage Dictionary or any good college-level dictionary that includes synonymies (short paragraphs that discriminate between words that are close in meaning).

You will be required to access the Web site for your textbook, Business and Administrative Communication. Access is free. There is a link to the textbook Web site in the gray navigation bar at the top of each lesson page in this course. The site is an excellent resource for supplemental Web pages; links related to business writing, quizzes, checklists; and sample business documents. Throughout the course, you will also be asked to find and analyze Web pages on your own.

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Optional Materials

DVDs

Your textbook includes a DVD that is optional for the course but highly recommended. The package for the DVD specifies the system requirements needed to run the programs. You may need to install some of the provided software to read the DVD's contents. The Student Toolbox features supplemental quizzes (and the answers to them), tips for job interviews, résumé formatting templates, and other useful tools.

Web Site

Bcomm Skill Booster, a fun, interactive program that reinforces core principles of business communication, is accessible from the textbook Web site. To register for the program, you will need to enter the book code found on your passcard, which is shrink-wrapped with your textbook. Just follow the directions on the Web site to reap the benefits of this optional program.

Texts

Though not required, according to your interests, you may also want to purchase or refer to any of the following texts for supplemental information:

• Faigley, Lester. The Longman Guide to the Web (2000)

This fairly inexpensive, slim guide was written with the student in mind. It explains how to create Web pages and do research on the Web. It also emphasizes elements of good Web design and introduces students to documentation styles and important Web resources from across the disciplines.

• Hacker, Diana. A Writer's Reference, 4th edition (1999)

This is an easy-to-use, extremely popular writing and grammar reference.

• Shultz, Heidi. The Elements of Electronic Communication (2000)

This is a comprehensive guide to writing style in electronic media. This text also provides a glossary of specialized terms for electronic communication and includes important discussions on viruses and privacy issues.

The optional textbooks can be purchased from the Higher Grounds bookstore at the Friday Center either online or by printing out a book order form.

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About the Instructor

Kelly Ross, MA
Department of English
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

A link to my e-mail address is located in the gray navigation bar at the top of every lesson page.

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How to Approach Your Assignments

Study Suggestions

Read through the contents of this online course manual so that you have a general idea of how this course will build your writing skills. Click on lessons and read through the final project assignment in Lesson 10 briefly. You may want to begin thinking about the topic you will choose for this final report so that you can begin collecting data or arranging interviews. If you are geographically isolated or for other reasons think that you might have difficulty obtaining materials to prepare your final project, contact me now and explain your situation.

Put yourself on a regular schedule and stick to it. If you encounter a difficult problem, take a break from it and return when you have a better perspective.

As you wait for me to return one assignment, begin working on your next lesson. Give yourself about a week to complete an assignment. When an assignment is returned, correct it immediately before it gets cold. Log your errors and then check over your current assignment for these same mistakes. Then put the current assignment aside for two days. After two days, reread the assignment with a fresh perspective. When the assignment looks good after this distancing period, send it to me.

Feel free to contact me for suggestions about the assignments. You may return your corrected problems with questions attached if you encounter difficulties in understanding the corrections or suggestions.

The time required to complete each assignment may vary, especially at first, but should average about eight hours (except for the final project, which will require more). Each assignment is equivalent to about four days of work in a course taken on campus.

In preparing your assignments, follow these steps for each lesson:

1. Read the “Reading Strategies” section on the lesson pages for the early assignments. These techniques will help you process the information in the assigned reading.

2. Read the texts carefully. Underline important points and take notes as you feel necessary.

3. Read the “Discussion” section for each lesson.

4. Do the “For Practice” exercises and check your answers to see if you are on the right track. These exercises will help you master the skills required for the graded assignments and will solidify your understanding of the reading.

5. Analyze your assignment before you start writing and make sure that you do not overlook any of its components. Think carefully about both the content of your message and your audience. Use the prewriting strategies (brainstorming, clustering, and free-writing) discussed in Unit 1 to formulate what you are going to say.

6. Try to work without continually referring to your texts. Do refer to your dictionary to hone your word choices and extend your vocabulary. Don't use a thesaurus—"ballpark" synonyms impede the clarity and effectiveness of your writing.

7. Make a rough draft of your assignment.

8. Make necessary revisions and subsequent drafts. Aim for clarity, completeness, accuracy, positive attitude, organization, and succinctness. Check for mistakes that you made on previous assignments.

9. Create a final copy. If you have used any sources other than the texts and prescribed Web sources, you should note them in a postscript. Your work should always be correctly formatted and neatly presented.You should save your work as a Microsoft Word file.

10. Proofread. Do not underrate this step. Poor proofreading indicates an attitude of negligence.

E-mail me at any stage of this process if you have questions.

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Submitting and Receiving Assignments

You will submit each assignment as a Word document attached to an e-mail message that you will send to both me and to Student Services. Use the “Submit Your Assignment” button provided in the “Assignments” section of each lesson—it will automatically provide these two addresses for you and enter the correct subject line. You should only submit one e-mail message for each assignment. Also, please include all parts of the assignment in a single Word document (unless the assignment requires you to format part of your exercise in a way that requires separate documents).

IMPORTANT! Add your name to the end of the pre-entered subject line.

Include in the message body of your e-mail:

• your name
• student number
• lesson number
• special comments for me.

Although you may work on the next assignment while you are waiting for me to return your previous assignment, it is best to wait for my feedback before submitting the next assignment. This allows you to revise your current assignment and avoid repeating mistakes that lower your grade. If you want to submit more than one assignment at a time, you must have my permission.

As each assignment is returned, write out the comments and corrections on a separate sheet of paper for your own study and review. Make note of your common mistakes in the error log provided and work to resolve these problems. Be sure to keep your corrected assignments on file for easy reference.

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Grading

Your work will be graded on your ability to

• grasp the featured techniques for analyzing or responding to the assigned situations
• critically analyze the assigned problem
• adapt standard writing strategies to unique situations
• anticipate the needs and reactions of the audience
• be resourceful and use tact in handling any situation
• adjust your tone both to the circumstances and content of your communication
• organize and develop your communication logically
• write clear and concise sentences
• achieve stylistic competence by using parallel structures, transitions, key words, sentence variation, and so on
• make thoughtful and accurate word choices
• master grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Carelessness in any of these activities lowers your effectiveness as a communicator. Wordiness, vagueness, or monotonous sentences will automatically place an assignment in the C class or lower. Illogical, incomplete, or hopelessly vague statements merit failure for an assignment. Misspelling, grammar errors, and careless punctuation will also lower your grade.

Your final grade will not be a mere average of your assignments, but also an indication of your development as a business writer. As the course progresses, I will expect improvement in your ability to generate effective communication. To improve, you must work diligently on the areas I indicate when correcting your assignments. I will keep a log of your progress and will monitor your improvement.

Grading Distribution

There are ten graded assignments for this course. While I have the discretion to adjust your grade to reflect your progress throughout the course, generally, your grade will be calculated as follows:

The grading distribution for components of a particular lesson assignment can be found in the “Assignments” section of that lesson.

Grading Scale

Final Exam

This course has no final exam. Instead, the final report required for Assignment 10 serves as a culminating work that requires you to demonstrate the skills learned in the course.

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Honor Code

The University of North Carolina Code of Student Conduct:

It shall be the responsibility of every student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to obey and support the enforcement of the Honor Code, which prohibits lying, cheating, or stealing when these actions involve academic processes or University, student or academic personnel acting in an official capacity.
--from the University of North Carolina at Chapel HIll's Honor System Web site.

Self-paced Courses Online Honor System Policy:

If you enroll in a Self-paced Course, you are responsible for obeying and supporting an honor system that prohibits lying, cheating, or stealing in relation to the academic practices of constituent institutions of The University of North Carolina. The honor system also requires you to refrain from conduct that significantly impairs the welfare or the educational opportunities of others in the University community. You are expected to do your own work in all aspects of your course. Your enrollment in a course certifies that you agree to adhere to this honor system.
--from the Self-paced Courses Online system Web site.

As it is clear from the policies on academic honesty quoted above, you must generate all the writing for this course on your own. Peers and co-workers can be especially helpful in critiquing your writing for clarity and precision, and you may discuss your assignments with them. However, they should not write one word of your assignment. To adhere to the Honor Code, you must solicit only oral feedback from these reviewers.

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Online Library Resources

Students enrolled in Self-paced Study Online can access online library resources from the UNC Library System by linking to Library Services for Distance Education Students. This site includes information on using general online reference works. If you are using an off-campus computer, you will need to consult that Web site for instructions on how to access the resources.

The UNC library staff is available to assist any students who have difficulties accessing online library resources. If you encounter difficulties, please report your problem by visiting the Web page for reporting a problem and sending an e-mail to the Proxy Server Team.

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Lessons

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Unit 1