ENGL 4530 Adv. Writing for Business and Industry

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Syllabus

Welcome to 4530 and 7710: Advanced Writing for Business and Industry.

Instructor: Donna Kain, PhD, Assistant Professor, Technical and Professional Discourse, Dept. of English

Contact information: Office Phone 252-737-1770 (but I'm not there much), e-mail kaind@ecu.edu, Skype* User Name: donna.kain

* Don't know Skype? Check it out at www.Skype.com. If you have Skype, you can call and talk to other Skype users for free from your computer to their computer. If you have a webcam, the person you call can see you. I have a webcam and Skype that we can use to have conferences about your work. If you would like to set up a time to "meet" with me, e-mai me and we can check our availability.

Online Office hours: Monday evenings, 7 - 9 pm EDT and by appointment. At these times, I'll be available on Blackboard and through Skype.

Link to Blackboard: https://blackboard.ecu.edu/

This page contains information about:

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Course Objectives

  1. To prepare you to communicate effectively, ethically, responsibly, and professionally in a business environment.
  2. To provide you with skills, strategies, and conceptual knowledge to help you address a variety of communication tasks.
  3. To help you understand the relationships among form and content, and audience and purpose.
  4. To improve your individual communication and management skills.

You'll find that the focus for the course is on whole texts, textual elements, and the production of documents. We will talk about and practice strategies for enhancing style and clarity, two aspects of writing that are incredibly important in making communications readable and comprehensible. We will talk about and practice aspects of good document design and effective use of graphics. We will NOT spend much time on issues such as grammar and punctuation, though I will point out problems to you in your individual papers. You need to take the initiative to find out how to correct those problems by looking up mistakes in the BWH, seeking help at the ECU Writing Center, and/or contacting me for assistance with problems that you really have a hard time correcting. We will concern ourselves with the following:

  • How do we create communication products for specific audiences and purposes?
  • How do we envision ways in which readers extract "information" and "meaning" from the conjunction of form and content?
  • How do readers come to understand the rationale we have used to construct our communication event?
  • How can we ensure that our communications are clear

You should feel free to contact me as needed about course readings, resources, and projects.  You must take the initiative.  If I do not hear from you, I assume that you are not having difficulties.

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Course Texts

Strategies for Business and Technical Writing, 6/E, 2008, author Kevin Harty, publisher Longman (referred to as "Harty" on the schedule and assignment sheets)
ISBN-10: 020556206X 
ISBN-13: 9780205562060  (available in paperback).
http://www.amazon.com/Strategies-Business-Technical-Writing-6th/dp/020556206X/ref=pd_rhf_p_img_2 (on Amazon site)

AND

The Business Writer's Handbook, Eighth Edition, 2006, Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, Walter E. Oliu; St. Martin's Press (referred to as BWH on the schedule and assignment sheets)
ISBN-10: 0312352689
ISBN-13: 978-0312352684
http://www.amazon.com/Business-Writers-Handbook-Eighth/dp/0312352689/ref=pd_sim_b_title_2 (on Amazon)

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Policies

Project Submission

All projects are due on the date and by the time indicated in the Class Schedule. If a project cannot be completed on time, contact the me via email before the due date to arrange an extension.

All projects must be submitted to complete the course.

Participation

You are expected to take an active role in all course activities. Participation will be evaluated based on your efforts in the class discussions and peer reviews.

Academic Honesty

Participation in an academic community is a privilege and a responsibility that requires personal and professional integrity. Academic integrity means having respect for the work and ideas of oneself and of others—no one in this community should hold out the ideas or words of another person as that of his or her own. In this course, any instance of deliberate plagiarism and any other form of academic dishonesty (for example, falsifying research data) can lead to failure of the course and the possibility of other sanctions according to the East Carolina University Code of Conduct. Because this is a graduate level course, I assume that you are familiar with appropriate uses and acknowledgement of sources and copyrighted materials. Sometimes, however, the rules for adequately citing sources and/or the procedures for acquiring permissions are not entirely clear cut. We should discuss any issues as they arise, particularly in terms of the ways in which these areas are related to publication practices. Please let me know if you have any questions about how to document or cite any sources, data, or other materials.

East Carolina University and the Americans with Disabilities Act

East Carolina University seeks to fully comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  Students requesting accommodations based on a covered disability must go to the Department for Disability Support Services, Brewster A-114, to verify the disability before any accommodations can occur. The telephone number 252-328-6799.

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Procedures

Formatting Projects

The formatting of your documents should be appropriate for the individual projects.

Demos:

Creating and Applying Styles in MS Word

Headers and Footers in Document Sections in MS Word

In general, format your documents exactly as you would for printing. Unless you have a good design reason for doing otherwise, use 1-inch margins all around, single line spacing with additional space between paragraphs, page numbers, and a legible, 11 or 12 point serifed typeface, such as Times New Roman. Headers and footers serve useful functions as do
headings and subheadings in documents. If you need assistance in creating styles, headers and footers, refer to the brief demos listed to the right.

Be aware of what specific formatting is required each assigned document as these may vary by project. For example, follow guidelines for formatting spacing, indention, leading, headings and other visual cues, described in individual assignments.

Saving and Naming Projects

Save all files as Word document (.doc) files. (If you are using a word processing program other than Word, please save files in rich text format (.rtf). Use the Save As function in your word processor and save your file as an RTF (Rich Text Format) file. If you have questions, see Course Resources in the main menu, above, to access a Tutorial on saving documents.)

Name files with your last name, underscore, and the number of the project. For example, if your last name is "smith," your submission for Project 1 should be named "smith_1.doc."  Be sure to check the description of individual projects for any exceptions to this naming practice.

  • If you submit multiple files, make sure to name them accordingly. (For example, "smith_1_report.doc" and "smith_1_analysis.doc.") 

Transmitting Projects

Place your files in the Digital Dropbox in Blackboard (preferred method). This procedure is especially convenient because it doesn't use up your (or my) e-mail account space. Some of your files may be large, particularly if they contain graphics. When I return files, I will place them in the Digital Drop box and send you a notification that the files are available for you.

Send files as e-mail attachments to my campus address (kaind@ecu.edu) with the message "4530 Project # Submission" in the subject line if for any reason you cannot access Blackboard. Include your name at the bottom of your message as I don't always recognize e-mail addresses, especially if you send from an account other than your ECU mail. Always Place "4530" in subject line as well as the essence of your communication. Inappropriately named or formatted files will NOT be accepted. Describe submission in the email. For Project 1, for example, you might say: "The original article occupies the first three pages and is presented as text-only; the remaining pages are my rewrite."

Attach files to a Blackboard discussion thread if the assignment requires you to do so (for example, for peer review).

IMPORTANT:  If I let you know that a file you have submitted is unreadable, it is your responsibility to assess your file and resubmit it as soon as possible. While I do NOT assess late penalties for transmission difficulties, I do place these papers later in the evaluation process.

You should be aware that it typically takes me a week to evaluate a set of projects.

Resubmitting Projects

Review, revision, and editing are part of the process you undertake in submitting projects the first time and therefore I do not accept resubmissions of projects. However, in the event that you have significant problems with an assignment, I may return your paper with comments and a grade of "R" with the suggestion that you revise. If you choose to revise, revisions are due within two weeks. If you choose not to revise, the "R" converts to a "D" or "F" after two weeks.

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Project Summaries

This section contains information on projects and their values and evaluations.

You will complete four required projects and participate in discussion.

Project

Value

1. Self-Assess and Create a Development Plan

Part A

Part B

 

10%

10%

2. Writing for Audiences: Getting rid of "Gobbeldygook"

20%

3. Write a Report about a Communication Practice

20%

4. Prepare a Proposal

20%

5. Discuss/Participate

20%

TOTAL

100%

Your total numeric evaluation will result in the following final course grade:

Value

Grade

90% +

A

80 -89%

B

70-79%

C

60-69%

D

59% or less

F

For projects, evaluations will reflect how well you have met a project's requirements (content and organization), your use of business style and tone, and your correct use of English.

Papers that contain serious grammatical errors (sentence fragments, run-on sentences, comma splices, etc.) cannot receive a grade higher than "C". If you have problems with writing standard English, refer often to BWH. Typical writing problems and solutions are listed in alphabetical order.

Below are listings for more resources that will help you identify and correct typical errors in writing for work documents:

  •  http://core.ecu.edu/engl/southards/tips/htips.htm... scroll down to "Writing" .. all links are helpful but prepared especially for 4530 is the link titled "Some Guidelines" [rtf file containing suggestions for improving "this kind of writing"]
  • The East Carolina University Writing Center especially can be helpful should you have difficulties with grammatical errors in your writing.  Talk with me about this resource so I can refer you.  For additional details, check out their web site ("University Writing Center") which can be accessed from http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/writing/writingcenter/index.cfm

Other evaluation criteria are summarized in the table below.

Grade

Meets Assignment Criteria

Maintains Professional Style & Tone

Evidence of Revision & Editing

Errors

A

outstanding

yes

thoughtful consideration

few & minor

B

satisfactory

yes

evident

some usage

C

satisfactory

uneven

some evidence of

usage errors; some serious

D

not met

not maintained or lacking

little evidence of

serious usage errors or many minor errors

F

not met

lacks any evidence of style or tone considerations

no evidence of

many serious usage errors

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