business writing

Dr. Lori E. Amy
Department of Writing and Linguistics
Georgia Southern University

P.O. Box 8026
Statesboro, GA 30460
(912) 681-0625/fax (912) 681-0739

Writing 3230 C
MW 6:30- 7:45 Newton 1106

Course Description

We are taking a real-world approach to this Business Writing Course. This course will serve the practical purpose of helping you begin your job search, research job prospects in your field, write a quality resume and cover letter, and give you real-world practice interviewing business professionals. In this sense, the writing we are doing is immediate and intended to serve real purposes for you.

In order to give you practice with the kinds of writing you may be doing in your jobs, we will also be writing a number of formal business documents. The writing for the course is as follows:

Minutes from your field interview
Trip Report from your field interview
Resume
Cover letter
Feasability Report with all report components, including a table of contents, abstract, executive summary, and recommendations, and bibliography
Memo (final exam) that describes your activities in the class

What I Expect From You:
This course requires a great deal of group work and in-class workshop participation. We will be doing everything from staging mock interviews for the class to peer-reviewing each other's work, and you MUST be in class for these activities. In-class activities count towards your grade; if you consistently miss class, you cannot pass. So, please, begin this semester by assessing your purpose for taking the class, the commitment it will require, your responsibilities in and out of class, and your willingness and ability to commit to the work of the class. Consider this class your job and the writing we do for it your job responsibility. The grade breakdown is as follows:

10% -- In-class group work and workshops
10% -- Oral presentations
10% -- Final Exam Memo
70% -- Formal Writing Assignments

All formal writing assignments will be revised several times before final grading. Throughout the semester, I will evaluate your work, you and your peers will participate in revision groups, and we will conduct workshops that target specific writing issues. You will be revising all of your work thoughout the semester, and, as you are revising, you need to keep a writing log that defines the kinds of writing problems you are addressing and the progress you are making with your specific writing issues.

At the end of the semester, you will turn all of your work, with all pre-writing and draft work, in to me in your Revision Notebook. Your revision notebook must contain your ongoing writing log. With the help of your writing log, you should find that, towards the middle of the semester, you are making fewer of the errors that you were making at the beginning of the term.

Readings/Texts

The Business Writer's Handbook by Alred, Brusaw, and Oliu
The Blair Handbook; a good portion of our work will use the support web site for this handbook at http://cw.prenhall.com/bookbind/public_html/pubbooks/fulwiler/-
You will need a college level dictionary; I also have handbooks and dictionaries available online at http://www2.gasou.edu:80/facstaff/lamy/tools.html.

Syllabus


wk 1	8.21-- Review syllabus, distribute course packets Assign Interview-- p/u merchants' guide from Chamber of commerce 8.23-- Brainstorm Interview questions Handbook 78-80; Questionairre 535-541 In-Class Review: Interview Strategies pp. 327-329
wk 2	8.28-- Join Discussion List Workshop: Minutes of Interview meeting: Review Handbook 393; Trip Report 643-644 8.30-- Have drafts of Minutes and Trip Report in class WorkshopLanguage issues: 12, 15, 16, 32, 228, 131. Draft work and writing center help
wk 3	9.4-- Labor Day 9.6-- Minutes and Trip Report due-- must include draft work and peer review Job Search: Refer to Handbook 346; Resume 561-576 Online Resume workshop: review resume tutorials; online job search for job advertisement; use to begin resume
wk 4	9.11-- Introduce Final Project: Feasability Report-- Handbook pp. 234-239, 250-256, Occupational Job Outlook http://stats.bls.gov/ocohome.htm; Begin Research work pp. 556-558 & Internet sites 9.13-- Writing Workshop: Review hoc and loc from Trip Report and Minutes; peer review for Resume (Have resume in class)
wk 5	9.18-- Resume due Workshop Cover Letter (bring job advertisement and resume)-- Handbook 59, 159 9.20-- Group work 107-110; workshop 116-125; 45-50; 579; 228
wk 6	9.25-- Cover letter due Resume formatting workshop: Charlie; Shea; 9-27--Group Work on Final Project; Handbook 556-558 Research -- Internet Search Engines 584-587; See Virginia Montecino's Guide to Searching on the Internet
wk 7	10.2--Documenting Sources Handbook 188-200; Bibliography 76-77 -- annotated bibliography guidelines Trade Journals 10.4--Draft Workshop 679-680 --------------------------10/3-- Drop deadline w/out penalty
wk 8	We've done enough research and drafting to step back and put this together with an imagined audience in mind-- now we write the Proposals 508-531 10.9-- Proposal Workshop: Sample 1, Sample 2, Sample 3 10.11-- Language issues: transitions 640-643; passive voice 662-664 ------------------ 10-13-- Homecoming
wk 9	10.16 Organizational Models for formal business writing (business plans, feasability reports, project development): The Chess Concept; Student models/feasability studies & critiques; Business Plans & Executive summary student model 10.18-- Proposals due Workshop issues: Agreement 36-45; Tense 625-632; Sentence construction 592-609; Subordination 616-620, 650-662 ---- On going appointments to see project drafts-- must see them all before draft due-date, 11-1
wk 10	10.23 &10.25--Workshops & Draft work: Copywrite 142-144; Organization 438-432; Table of Contents 621-622
wk11	10.30-- Abstracts Handbook 10; 11.1-- Executive Summaries 229-230 Conference Drafts this week and next!!! Abstract and Executive summary models
wk 12	11.6-- Revision 576-577; Appendix 58 11.8-- Assign job interview prep; Handbook pp. 329-335-- group work & read Handbook 329 & 478-491-- pairs w/one Interviewer and one interviewee; develop questionairre
wk 13	11.13 & 11.15-- Job Interviews- oral demos w/pairs in-class
wk 14	11.20-- Finish Job Interview demos 11.22-- Thanksgiving break
wk 15	11.27-- final project revisions-- audience/tone/style 145-161; clarity & conciseness 102-104, 134-137; capitalization 90-95 11.29-- conclusions 137-139
wk 16	12.4 & 12.6-- web page work 666-672

portfolios due by 12-7---
Graduation 12-17

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