WRTG 3040 SPR 10
Writing on Business and Society—wrtg 3040
sUSAN McArthur
WRTG 3040, sectionS006 & 010
spring 2010
CONTACT INFORMATION
Office Hours before Spring Break:MWF 2:30 – 3:30
Office Hours after Spring BreakMWF 3:30 - 4:30
Susan.McArthur@Colorado,edu
Office location: ENVD 1B 50G--Enter thru northwest corner of ENVD; come downstairs, down hall to door on your left, “Program for Writing and Rhetoric,” cross lobby, enter door at rear-right, down hall to 2nd opening on your left, down to last cubicle on right (underneath the window), and announce your presence!
COURSE GOAL
That students be able to use the tools of logical argument for the analysis and creation of persuasive writing in the business context.
DESCRIPTION
The emphasis for this course is persuasive business writing in a competitive context. Students will analyze and practice classical argument as applied to standard business formats, expanding this framework to create recommendation memos, white papers, and PowerPoint presentations. Two research projects are completed based on each student’s focus within the business major; these papers must demonstrate a thorough understanding of audience and purpose. Much class time is conducted as workshops, with student-run critiques intended to result in substantive revision. Finished projects will adhere to modern business standards and avoid the most common barriers to readability and retention. Further, they will be rich in reasoning, empty of logical fallacies, and designed with the audience’s needs in mind.
COLORADO COMMISSION ON HIGHER EDUCATION
This course meets the criteria of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education for all “Communication General Education ‘Guaranteed Transfer Courses’” for universities in Colorado. These courses “teach writing in a specific discipline.” Successful completion of this course requires students to:
“extend rhetorical knowledge”
“extend experience in writing processes”
“extend mastery of writing conventions”
“demonstrate comprehension of content knowledge at the advanced level through effective communication strategies”
For more detailed objectives, please see unit headings on attached schedule, pp. 4 -7
REQUIRED TEXTS
1.Classmates' drafts
2.Class handouts
3.Competitive Communication by Barry Eckhouse
4."Using PowerPoint Effectively" from A Student's Guide to Presentationsby Chivers and Shoolbred — via CULearn
RECOMMENDED TEXT
A Writer’s Reference by Diana Hacker
CULearn
Download course materials from either or
EVALUATION
- Participation 10% - @ five opportunities, including random attendance checks
- Quizzes 15% - three quizzes, equally weighted
- PowerPointPresentation 15%
- Homework 25% - ten homework assignments, equally weighted
- Papers 35% - Recommendation memo 10 pts
Summary & Analysis 10 pts
White Paper 15 pts
PAPER & HOMEWORK FORMAT
- All papers and homework must be typed in no smaller than 10-point font.
- All papers and homework must be double-spaced.
- All papers and homework must be stapled if more than one page.
- All papers and homework must have section number on top right-hand corner of page.
- No late assignments—including 1st drafts—will be accepted.
- No final drafts without first draft –with instructor’ssignature—will be accepted.
ATTENDANCE
Attendance counts. More than three absences will result in the loss of one full letter grade. Three tardies will be counted as one absence. No makeup work will be assigned unless proper documentation is supplied;eg. doctor’s excuse, court summons, etc.
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
The college will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities. Students must notify the Office of Services to Disabled Students, Office of Learning Disabilities (OLD in Willard 322 [2-8671]) and their instructors of any special needs. Notification must occur within the first week of class.
RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES
The college will make every effort to accommodate all students who, because of religious obligations, have conflicts with scheduled exams, assignments, or other required attendance, provided the instructor is notified at least two weeks in advance of the scheduled conflict.
PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is the use of another person’s words or ideas as your own. Plagiarism, whether intentional or not, will result in automatic failure in the course and possible further disciplinary action by the Leeds School of Business. If in doubt as to how to cite a source, please see your instructor in advance of committing words to paper.
EVALUATION STANDARDS
An A paper is excellent in form, content, and style. It is original, substantive, persuasive, well organized, and written in a clear, error-free style. An A paper rewards its reader with genuine insight, gracefully expressed. Examples and comparisons are carefully chosen, and especially apt. Sentence structure is highly varied, with rhythm and emphasis that read well aloud. Word choices, especially verbs, are accurate and sensitive to connotation. Finally, the punctuation of an A paper is appropriate and helpful to the reader, as are the grammar and spelling.
A B paper is significantly more than competent. It has most of the qualities of an A paper, but has a weakness in at least one part of its structure. For example, one paragraph may not be as successfully developed as the others. Examples and comparisons may be slightly “thin” or forced or exaggerated. The sentences of a B paper are varied and accurate, but often tend to be pedestrian and occasionally awkward or wordy. The B writer is less aware of the rhetorical power of parallelism, word choice, connotation, etc., and may commit punctuation errors, although his/her grammar and spelling will be error-free.
A C paper is generally competent; it fulfills the assignment, has few mechanical errors and is reasonably well organized. Often the ideas in a C paper are expressed in generalities, without specific examples or support. The sentences may have little or no structural variety and reflect no sense of rhetorical choice. The C writer will have poor punctuation, and his/her poor proofreading will be blatant.
A D paper gives the impression of haste, carelessness, or simple inability to craft readable sentences. The organization is neither clear nor effective. Sentences are frequently ambiguous and marred by serious grammatical errors. The D writer possesses only a rudimentary vocabulary, misuses idioms, and commits mechanical errors that seriously impede readability.
- An F paper is just too painful to read, and doesn’t occur in Susan’s classes.
SCHEDULE of Specific Objectives and Assignments
Classical Argument Unit
Completion of this unit requires the student be able to:
1.Evaluate the soundness of arguments that face her or him at every turn in the business arena and those that they themselves devise as the basis for persuasion.
2.Demonstrate an understanding of what the medieval trivium of logic, grammar, and rhetoric has to offer a 21st century audience.
3.Reduce a passage from business applications – drawn from mass media, business texts, and occasionally industry– to its fundamentals.
4.Analyze such passages as described above as to their communication strategies plus those aspects of logos (e.g.circularity) that contribute to muddled communication.
Week 1
Mon01/11Course overview
Wed01/13Introduction to argument
Fri01/15Homework 1 DUE: Syllogisms
Rhetoric and Competitive Advantage Unit
Completion of this unit requires the student be able to:
1.Demonstrate an understanding of how the competing aspects of reduced time and increased information transmission increase reader resistance.
2.Use rhetorical strategies which depend on classical argument to overcome the above-mentioned resistance, to create competitive communication, specifically those that – as supported by human factors research – minimize reader cost.
3.Differentiate his or her writing to increase persuasiveness via dispositio or principled organization and thus maximize reader understanding and retention.
4.Demonstrate how Aristotelian ethos and its trinity of intelligence, character, and goodwill can arise from the communicator's use of language, applying and adjusting those characteristics depending on audience.
- Critique others' and own work recursively, defining fundamental rhetorical approaches to situation, audience, and argument structure in multiple drafts of assignments.
Week 2
Mon01/18No Classes. MLK Jr. Holiday
Wed01/20Reading DUE: Eckhouse Chpt.2 “Organization and the Competitive Message”
Fri01/22Reading DUE: Eckhouse Chpt. 3 “Argument and Modern Business”
Week 3
Mon01/25Reading Quiz Chpts 2 & 3
Wed01/27Homework 2 DUE: Argument for Recommendation memo expressed
as an enthymeme (one copy of enthymeme typed at top of otherwise
blank 8 ½ by 11 page or ½ page)
Fri01/29Homework 3 DUE: 1stDraft Recommendation memo DUE: (Seven
copies)
Week 4
Mon02/01Rhetorical analysis of business documents based ondispositio,
Wed02/03logos & ethos
Fri 02/05
Week 5
Mon 02/08Final Draft Recommendation memo DUE(one copy stapled to front of
1st draftwith instructor’s signaturestapled to front of enthymeme with classmates’ comments)
Wed02/10Oral Preview DUE: Summary & Analysis paper
Fri02/12Homework 4 DUE: 1st Draft Summary & Analysis paper DUE: (Seven
copies)
Week 6
Mon02/15Rhetorical analysis of business documents based on dispositio
Wed02/17logos & ethos
Fri02/19
Managing Ethos Unit
Completion of this unit requires the student be able to:
1.Avoid the most common cost barriers to business communication.
2.Demonstrate how intelligence, character, and goodwill can be projected via language use.
3.Employ sentence-level elements to increase competitiveness of a message.
4.Manage ethos in sentences.
Week 7
Mon02/22Final draft Summary and Analysis paper DUE (one copy stapled to front of 1st
draft with instructor’s signature)
Wed02/24Reading DUE: Chpt. 8 “Managing Ethos: Conciseness”
Fri02/26Homework 5 DUE: Chpt 8 exercises
Week 8
Mon03/01Reading DUE: Chpt 9 “Managing Ethos: Word Choice”
Wed03/03Reading Quiz: Chpts 8 & 9
Fri03/05Homework 6 DUE:White Paper Topic expressed as an enthymeme
(one copy of typed enthymeme at top of otherwise blank page or ½ page )
Library Seminar – meet in business library (basement)
Week 9
Mon03/08Oral Preview: White Paper – audience & venue
Wed03/10Reading DUE: “Using Power PowerPoint Effectively”- CULearn
Fri03/125-minute Presentations, peer evaluated. At time of presentation,
Homework 7 DUE: one handout of presentation
Visual Literacy Unit
Completion of this unit requires the student be able to:
- Interpret, create, and select images to convey a range of meaning.
2.Examine syntax of images within the business context and discuss that impact in relationship to audience and purpose.
3.Judge the accuracy, soundness, worth, and appropriateness of images within the business context.
Week10
Mon 03/155-minute Presentations
Wed03/175-minute Presentations Peer evaluated
Fri03/195-minute Presentations
Week 11
SPRING BREAK, NO CLASSES
Strategic Disposition Unit
Completion of this unit requires the student be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of how contemporary studies of argument apply to business communication.
2.Examine argument as a form of inquiry as well as persuasion.
3.Apply the classical concept of refutatio to increase persuasiveness of business proposals.
- Demonstrate the advantages of considering multiple points of view that are usually present in the analysis of business issues as well as the opposition that will always exist to a given line of reasoning.
- Apply Stephen Toulmin's argument model, diagramming multiple points of view, rebuttal, and refutation.
Week 12
Mon03/29Reading DUE: Eckhouse Chpt. 4 "Refutation: Argument as Inquiry"
Wed03/31Reading DUE: Eckhouse Chpt. 5 "Strategic Disposition: Presenting
the Case"
Fri04/02Chpts 4 & 5 as applied to White Paper
Week 13
Mon04/05Homework 8 DUE: Proofline (one typed copy stapled to front of enthymeme with
Instructor’s signature)
Wed04/07Reading Quiz: Chpts 4 & 5
Fri04/09Homework 9 DUE: 1st draft White Paper DUE (Seven copies)
Cumulative Unit: all of the above
Completion of this unit requires the student be able to:
Synthesize the content of all previous units into final project, the White Paper
Week 14
Mon 04/12
Wed04/14Rhetorical analysis of business presentations based on
Fri04/16dispositio, logos & ethos, including visual syntax.
Mon04/19 Week 15
Wed04/21FCQ’s
Fri04/23Homework 10 DUE: 2nd draft White Paper DUE (Seven copies + one
for instructor attached to front of first draft with instructor’s signature attached to proofline with instructor’s signature stapled to enthymeme with instructor’s signature)
Week 16
Mon04/26
Wed 04/28Rhetorical analysis of business presentations based on
Fri04/30dispositio, logos & ethos, including visual syntax.
Final draft of White Paper DUE by 4 pm on day scheduled for final exam (in lieu of final exam)
K e y to C o m m o n C o r r e c t i o n s — spring 2010
ABBREVIATIONMEANINGSECTION in HACKER
3rd EDITION5th EDITION
AMBIGAmbiguousW4W
ANTE/PRO AGRAntecedent/Pronoun agreementG3G3
APOSTApostropheP5P5
ARTArticleT1T1
AWKAwkwardE6S6
CAPSCapitalizationS3S3
CHG x > yChange one part of speech to another,B1B1
For ex: CHG N>Adj means change noun into adjectiveB
CITECite sourceR2, M, AR, APA, CMS, MLA
ClClause (See also: Ph)B3B3
CLICHEOverused word or phraseW2W5e
COLLOQColloquialism: spoken, informal EnglishW3W4c,d
CONNOTConnotation: word choiceW3
CSComma splice or “fused” sentenceG6G6
COMMA afterComma after introductory elementP1bP1b
INTRO
COMMA @PARENCommas around non-restrictive,P1eP1e,f
parenthetical elementsP1eP1e,f
COMMA @NON-REST ClCommas around non-restrictive clausesP1eP1e,f
COMMA B4 APPOSComma before appositive
COMMA B4 CONJComma before conjunctionB1g, P1P1a
COMMA B4 –ing Clof resultComma before –ing clause of resultP1bP1b
COMMA in “if…then” ClComma after “then”P1bP1b
COMPARComparative/SuperlativeG4c
CONJConjunctionB1B1g
CONJ ADVConjunctive AdverbB1gB1g
CONNOTConnotationW4W5
DASHDash (See also: HYPHEN)P7dP7d
DANG MODDangling Modifier/Misplaced ModifierE3eS3, G5
DEM PRODemonstrative pronounB1bB1b
DOCUMLA documentation styleMM
D.O.Direct objectB2B2
-ed END-ed ending on adjectives, verbsG2dG2d
EMBED ClEmbedded Clause or Excess SubordinationE6dS6e
FRAGFragment, also called “incomplete clause”G5G5
FUSED SENTFused sentenceG6G6
HOMHomonym, also called “homophone”S1b, W1S1b, W1
HYPERHyperbole, ExaggerationSee Susan
HYPHENHyphen (See also: DASH)S2S2
HYPOSTHypostatization (concrete words)W4bW5b
IDIOMIdiomatic expression (standard v. non)W4eW5d
ILLEGALJust plain ungrammaticalE5E5
ILLOGICJust plain illogical (See also: NON-SEQ)See Susan
IMPERimperative voice, command G2g
INDEF PROIndefinite pronounG3bG3b
INTRANS VIntransitive VB2b
MMissing (for ex: see below)
MVMissing verbG2e, T2eG2e, T2e
MWMissing wordC4cC3c
MISREPMisrepresentation or unfair assumptionRe-read assignment
MISPLACED MODMisplaced modifierS3
MIX METMixed metaphorW4gW5f
NNounBB
NO COMMAUnnecessary or downright wrong commaP2P2
NO COMMA btwn SUBJ & VNo comma between subject & verbP2P2b
NO COMMA w/ REST CLNo commas with restrictive clauseP2P2e
NON-SEQDoes not follow; non sequiturSee Susan
ABBREVIATIONMEANINGSECTION in HACKER
3rd EDITION5th EDITION
OBJObjectBB
PARALLELParallelismE1S1
PASS > ACTChange passive voice to activeW4cW3
PAST PARTPast participleG2aG2a
PAST PROGPast progressive tenseG2-fG2-f
PHPhrase (See also: Cl)B3B3
PLPlural
PLAGPlagiarismR2, M, AR, APA, CMS, MLA
POSSPossessiveP5
PREP PHPrepositional phraseB3B3a
PREPPrepositionB, T2d, T3fB, T2d, T4b
PREP CHAINWordinessS5c, W2c
PREP + PRO COMBO SUBJWordinessT3b, B
PRES PERFPresent perfect tenseG2-fG2-f
PRO CASEPronoun caseG3G3
PT of VIEWShift in point of viewE4E4
PUNCPunctuationPP
PUNC QUOTEPunctuation of a quoteP6P6
REDUNRedundancyW2W2
REFReference unclearG3b
REL ClRelative clause, Adjective clauseB3
REL PRORelative PronounB1B1
REPRepetitiveW2W2
REST ClRestrictive clauseP1eP1e,f
RUFF TRANSRough transition
SENT COMBOCombine sentencesE6S6
SG/PLIs noun singular or plural?
SHIFTPoint of viewE4S4
SPSpellingSM1
SP#Spelling out numbersS5M5
SP 1>2Two words illegally combinedSM2a
SP 2>1One compound word illegally separatedSM2a
STETLeave as is (ignore my correction)
Strength of CLAIM Use qualifiersS3a
SUBJ/V AGRSubject/Verb agreementG1G1
SUBJUNC Subjunctive moodGG2g
TENSE SHIFTTense ShiftE4E4
TITLE PUNCPunctuation in title (of book, play, etc.)P6d, S6P6d, S6
TRANS VTransitive verbB2b
UNECUnnecessary element
UNGRAMMJust plain ungrammaticalE5E5
V CONJVerb conjugationG1G1
V TENSE/MODE/VOICEVerb tense, mood or voiceG2G2
V TENSE (SUBJUNC)Verb mood: use subjunctive tenseT2b, G2gT2b, G2g
WOWord orderE3E3
WWrong (for example: see below)
W PREPWrong preposition (see also IDIOM)B, T2d, T3fW5d, T2d
W REL PROWrong relative pronoun /Adjective clauseG3, B3eB3e, G3
WWWrong word (see also IDIOM)WW
& THRU OUTFind and fix this error throughout your entire paper
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