SYLLABUS
ENGL394—Business Writing
FALL 2015
Section 0602, 0701, 0802
Instructor: Ellen Blumner
E-mail: .
Please use this email address to contact me, rather than Canvas email.
Office hours: Tawes 1208
Monday and Wednesday
1:00-2:00 pm; by appointment
Phone: PWP officer number: 301-405-3762
/ Teaching Assistants: Scott Rosenbaum; Audrey Kono; / /
Description of Course:
The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with formats and structures of business communication and provide practice in writing clear and concise professional documents (reports, memos, letters, resumes, and emails). In doing so, the course will focus on working collaboratively in a group. Much emphasis will be placed on writing for a specific audience and purpose.
This is primarily a workshop class. As such, formal lectures are short and infrequent. Instead, experiential exercises based on readings in the textbook and on Canvas make up the basis of our classroom time. Online assignments are structured so that you practice the material that has been presented. Frequent reviews of your work by your peers are built into the course. Individual meetings with me and the teaching assistants, as well as comments on your papers, provide feedback on your work. My primary role is to facilitate your learning. How much you learn and how well you perform is up to YOU.
Course Objectives:
As a result of this course, students will:
v Become familiar with the various types of professional documents (letters, memos resumes, reports, emails) and produce well-written samples of these documents.
v Construct effective paragraphs and easily accessible sentences.
v Use clarity and brevity for effective writing.
v Gain a better understanding of the overall writing process from draft to revision.
v Construct valid and persuasive arguments appropriate to the audience and purpose of the document.
v Gather research information in libraries, on the Internet, and through other print or media sources.
v Incorporate feedback from instructor, teaching assistants, and peers.
v Collaborate with peers in group work (peer review, class exercises, consulting project, correspondence project, and oral presentations).
Course Policies:
Attendance and Lateness: Coming into class late is disruptive and unprofessional and should be avoided except in cases of true emergency. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class. Changes will be made to assignments at the beginning of class. In the rare event that you must enter class late, please make sure to get information from a classmate about any directions that have been given or changes that have been discussed.
Regular attendance in class is essential. Excessive absences, even if they are excused, may lower the Professionalism portion of your grade. We will be doing a lot of experiential work in class that cannot be recovered, and your presence in class will be important to the other class members. In extreme cases, excessive absenteeism may result in your receiving a failing grade in the course.
Please contact me by email ( )if you know you are going to miss a class. If you miss a class, please contact another student to find out what happened in class. When you contact someone for information about class work, that student has the responsibility to return your call or email. You likewise have this responsibility if the need arises for anyone else in the class. If this process is not working, please inform me of the problem.
For every medically necessary absence from class, please notify me before the class that you will not be there. If you are absent more than once due to illness, I require documentation signed by a health care professional.
Please inform me of any intended absences for religious observance well in advance.
Since all assignments in this class are to be submitted electronically, I expect all due dates to be honored. In the case of prolonged absence due to sickness, please contact me by email to negotiate a new due date.
Below is the link to the University’s policy regarding absence:
http://www.umd.edu/catalog/index.cfm/show/content.section/c/27/ss/1584/s/1540
Assignments, changes, and due dates will always be noted on the Canvas space, but if you want additional information about what is required for a specific class, please use the procedure outlined above.
Late papers: All assignments and due dates are listed on the Canvas site. Assignments are due at 11:59 pm on the due date. Assignments handed in after that time will be accepted, but the grade will be reduced by 10% for each day the assignment is late. An assignment submitted at 12:01 am is a day late. Please do not wait until 11:58 pm to begin submitting assignments, as Canvas may have problems and may cause your assignment to be late.
If an assignment is not submitted one week (7 days) after its due date, the grade for that assignment will be 0.
Please note: Because this class uses Canvas for submission of assignments, some assignments will be due on non-class dates. It is important to check your email frequently, even on weekends.
Also note: In order to receive a passing grade in the course, students must submit all assignments, even ungraded assignments.
SNOW/HURRICANE/EARTQUAKE/INCLEMENT WEATHER POLICY: The assignments for this class will continue even if the University closes for inclement weather. Due dates will remain firm, and we will continue to interact with each other via email and on the Canvas site. In the event of loss of power due to inclement weather, we will negotiate a new due date.
Plagiarism: Any student guilty of plagiarism will be dealt with severely. Dismissal from the course with a grade of F is the minimum penalty for plagiarism. A student can be dismissed from the University for charges of plagiarism. Abuses of the honor system will be referred to the Honor Council. Of course, borrowing information from published sources is appropriate, but you must identify the source and document it sufficiently. Internet information needs citing as well.
Policy for students with special needs: If you have a special need, you must present within the first two weeks of class documentation supporting your request for accommodations due to that need. On a case-by-case basis, we will discuss and write a plan as to how your accommodation will be implemented in class procedures.
Classroom conduct policy: Everyone in the classroom is to be treated with respect and courtesy, as befitting professional colleagues. Some specific behaviors include the following:
· coming to class prepared to engage in meaningful discussion, with graded and non-graded assignments completed, including assigned reading
· coming to class on a regular basis; emailing professor in advance when unable to attend class
· paying attention in class
· participating in in-class exercises, whether graded or not
· not holding side conversations
· exhibiting respectful behavior to each other, the TA’s, and the professor
· not emailing, text messaging, reading newspapers, surfing the Web, etc.
· not eating or drinking anything but water in the lab
· not using the computer for doing class work other than the work of ENGL394.
Doing otherwise will result in a substantial decline in the Professionalism portion of your grade. Please note these guidelines throughout the semester to avoid questions about your Professionalism grade at the end of the semester.
Cell phone and laptop policy: All phones must be turned off upon entering the classroom or as class is about to start. Usually, we will be using lab computers for our work in the class; there will be some times when personal laptops can be used instead.
Work make-up policy: Group exercises, quizzes, and most in-class writing assignments missed due to absence cannot be made up.
If you are experiencing difficulties in keeping up with the academic demands of this course, contact the Learning Assistance Service, 2202 Shoemaker Building, 301-314-7693. Their educational counselors can help with time management, reading, math learning skills, note-taking and exam preparation skills. All their services are free to UM students.
Required texts:
Business Communication Essentials, A Skills-Based Approach Courtland Bovee and John Thill, seventh edition
ISBN number: 978-0-13-389678-7.
The required textbook is also available in an online edition.
Older editions of the book may be used, but students are responsible for coordinating assigned chapters and exercises.
Assignments and course requirements:
All PWP classes require a minimum of six graded assignments comprising a minimum of 25 pages of original writing (at least 6250 words).
The main assignments for the class are as follows. You will note that most of the written assignments support one of the three main projects in this class: Strategic Career Plan; Consulting Project; and Correspondence Packet.
Diagnostic Memo / 1% / IndividualReflective memos (three) / 5% / Individual
Strategic Career Plan/ Short Report—Peer Review / 15% / Individual
Consulting Project
Individual Topic Proposal Memo / 5% / Individual
Proposal memo/ client (audience) analysis / 5% / Group
Annotated bibliography/Research / 5% / Individual
Recommendation report and deliverables / 20% / Group
Oral presentation / 5% / Group
Peer review #1 of final project / 1% / Individual
Peer review #2 of final project / 1% / Individual
Letter Packet / 15% / Group
Discussion board participation / 9% / Individual
Professionalism (quizzes: 1; attendance: 1; in-class activities and writing: 2; general professional businesslike behavior: 4) / 8% / Individual
Final Writing Assignment—Persuasive Memo / 5% / Individual
Other Rules:
v Papers must be original; they cannot be recycled from another class.
Discussion Board:
Each week, several threads will be posted on the Discussion Board in Canvas. Each one should be answered substantively (150 words) by Wednesday night (11:59 pm) of each week. By Sunday night of that same week (11:59 pm), you must respond to one or two of your classmates’ posts per thread. Each thread will indicate how many posts are required. Although your response postings need not be lengthy, they should be more than “I agree” and should show some further understanding of the topic being discussed.
This is a very important part of our work together. Discussion board participation extends class participation and is a forum to practice your writing on the topics we are discussing each week.
Discussion board grades will be posted three times during the semester. Each week, your responses will be tabulated on a spreadsheet maintained by the TA for your class.
Grading Standards:
Four broad evaluative criteria determine the grade students receive on their papers. The criteria include the following:
- Purpose and Audience—the degree to which the writer conveys the paper’s purpose; the degree to which the writer uses appropriate tone, style, and content for a clearly intended audience;
- Content—the use of effective evidence to support the main points of the paper.
- Format—the overall structure of the paper, including the appropriate format for the specific assignment.
- Mechanics/Readability—skills such as style, mechanics, sentence and paragraph coherence; the degree of ease with which the reader can understand the document.
Every paper handed in will be evaluated on the above four criteria.
The following grading structure is based on these four criteria:
The A Paper
v This paper very clearly fulfills its purpose and accommodates itself well to the intended audience.
v This paper uses persuasive, detailed evidence. The reasoning is thoughtful and exhibits insight. Citations are used appropriately and frequently when factual information is presented.
v The paper flows well. Paragraphs are well developed and logically follow those preceding them. The conclusion makes sense. Headings are used appropriately throughout the document. The paper is formatted in an appropriate manner.
v The writing is clear and structurally sound. It contains few or no mechanical errors. The reader can easily understand and follow the writer’s points.
The B Paper
v The assignment has been followed and fulfilled, but in a somewhat predictable way. A sense of clear audience and purpose may be lacking throughout the paper.
v The reasoning is thoughtful but not complex. The paper may not contain enough details to support its main point. Factual material may be cited sometimes but not all the time.
v The introduction and conclusion are clear. Although some of the paragraphs are well developed, some may need more work. The format is basically sound, but may contain some errors or omissions. The paper contains some headings, but not enough to help the reader navigate through the document.
v The sentence structure is basically correct. Serious sentence errors are minimal, though some may exist. The reader can fairly easily comprehend the writing but may have to struggle at some points in the document.
The C Paper
v The assignment has been minimally followed, but purpose and/or audience may be unclear.
v The supporting evidence is weak; the paper may lack some important factual information. Citations may be lacking or used inappropriately.
v Some organizational pattern may be present, but it may not be clear. Business format may be lacking, including use of appropriate headings throughout.
v Sentence structure may be adequate at times, but it could be improved with effective use of subordination, sentence variety, and modifiers. Some comma splices and fragments may be present. The paper contains errors in spelling, mechanics, and/or grammar. Sentences and paragraphs may be long and convoluted. The reader has to struggle to get meaning from this paper.
The D Paper
v The paper’s sense of purpose and audience is limited or non-existent.
v Necessary evidence may be missing or out of order. Citations are not used or are used inappropriately.
v The organization is difficult to identify. The introduction and conclusion may be unclear or missing. Paragraphs may not be well developed; transitions may be missing. Correct business format is not apparent. Headings are missing throughout the document.
v Numerous errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation may occur. Sentences and paragraphs are long and cumbersome. The reader cannot grasp the meaning of this paper easily or at all.
The F Paper
v This paper is not on assignment.
v This paper contains little or no evidence or plagiarized evidence.
v This paper exhibits little or no logical organization. Business formatting, including headings, is non-existent.