Section 003 meets MWF in Bate 2020 at 10 o'clock

Section 007 meets MWF in Bate 2018 at 1 o'clock

Tentative Syllabus for Fall Semester 2007

Hal Snyder's Tentative Daily Syllabus

Date	Topic	Reading	Remarks/Assignments
#1 Aug. 22-24	Introduction & Overview; Grades; Fact Sheet
#2 Aug. 27-29-31	Introduction Letter	EBC A & H & 1	Sentence Types; Style & Grammar; Parts of a Business Letter; Spongebob Squarepants;  Letter of Introduction (due 9/5)
#3 Sept. 3-5-7	Communicating; Planning Business Messages	EBC 2 & 4	No Class Sept. 3rd  (State Holiday) Analyze & revise document on p. 32 in class; company policy; "Dear John"
#4 Sept. 10-12-14	Writing, Completing, & Planning Business Messages; Routine Messages	EBC 5, 6 & 7	Review documents on pp. 165 and in class; readability; Review exercises 6.A (analysis/solution), 6.B (analysis/solution), 7.A, (analysis/solution) & 7.B (analysis/solution); revise routine letter (due 9/17)
#5 Sept. 17-19-21	Writing Bad-News & Persuasive Messages	EBC 8 & 9	Review exercises 8.A (analysis/solution), 9.A (analysis/solution) & 9.B (analysis/solution) in class; revise negative letter (due 9/21); the AIDA Plan; revise persuasive message (due 9/24)
#6 Sept. 24-26-28	Planning Business Reports	EBC 10	Justification Report (due 10/1);[info and guidelines]
#7 Oct. 1-3-5	Reports: The Formal Report Requirements	EBC 11	Tentative Work Plan (due 10/8) for Formal Report (due 11/28); Visit The Career Center (?) TWP Example
#8 Oct. 8-10-12	Proposal Reviews	TBA	TBA; Choosing Careers and Approaches
#9 Oct. 15-17-19	Writing Formal Business Reports	EBC 12	No Class Monday Oct. 15 (Fall Break Day); Documentation MLA Style; Doing Research; How Your Approach Helps Determine Interviews and Visuals
#10 Oct. 22-24-26	Completing Formal Business Reports	EBC 12 &  B	Joyner Library Visit; Interviews; When to Cite, Paraphrase, or Summarize; Works Cited
#11 Oct. 29-31-Nov. 2	Writing Formal Reports	None	(Early Registration for Spring Semester 2007 runs all week) Research, report covers & example of formal report; Sample 1st Paragraphs;
#12 Nov. 5-7-9	First Draft Reviews	None	(Early Registration for Spring Semester 2007 continues); First Draft Reviews to discuss progress (final draft due 11/28); USMC's 232nd Birthday Nov. 10th (Ooh Rah!)
#13 Nov. 12-14-16	Revision Reviews	None	Revision Reviews (due 11/28)
#14 Nov. 19-21-23	Final Revision Reviews	EBC 14	No Class Nov. 21 & 23 (Thanksgiving Break)
#15 Nov. 26-28-30	Final Draft Conferences	Employment Communication	Final Revision Reviews; Functional Resume (due 12/5); Review rough draft of resume at Resume Draft Conference on Monday
#16 Dec. 3-5	Resume Draft Conf.	None	Functional Resume due (12/5)
Dec. 7 (Friday) Dec. 7 (Friday)	Final Exam		0800-1030 (Section 003) 1100-1330 (Section 007)

Thill, John V. and Courtland L. Bovee. Excellence in Business Communication. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007.

Welcome to English 3880 Writing for Business and Industry. This course will prepare you well for communication responsibilities found in business and industry, as well as in government, academia, and the professional world. Since the emphasis in this course is on communication, you will read often, discuss what you've read, and apply what you've learned in frequent writing assignments.

This semester, my office hours are 1000-1200 Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays, but I'm also available 24/7 via e-mail (if you need to contact me on weekends, e-mail me in Newport).

Course Description

This course is designed to give students practical experience in developing the skills they will need to practice effective business communication. In doing this, students write various types of correspondence including letters, memorandums, and reports.

Policies

• Attendance Policy
• Cell Phone Policy
• Conferences
• Participation
• Plagiarism

Attendance Policy

Because this course is built on a building-block format, in which each assignment builds upon the one before and prepares students for the assignment to follow, attendance is essential.

Although "life's little problems" often come up at the darnednest times, students are expected to be in class on time, every time, for all the time allotted to this course because it is in the classroom that information essential for the successful completion of this course is presented. However, if circumstances require your presence elsewhere, you are still responsible for material presented in class. If you anticipate any absences, please see me before hand.

Students will be rewarded for their studentship, which includes appropriate attendance, meeting for conferences, and active participation.

Cell Phone Policy

Don’t bring your cell phone to class. If you forget and bring your cell phone to class, turn it off. If you bring it to class and forget to turn it off, and the damn thing rings, your cell phone will magically become my “new” cell phone. If you don’t like this policy, don’t bring your cell phone to class with you. The best way for you to not lose (i.e., keep) your cell phone is this: don’t bring your cell phone to class!

Conferences

For the formal report assignment, several conferences will be scheduled. You are expected to attend each scheduled conference and to be prepared for each conference. Missing conferences will be reflected in your studentship grade.

Participation

Class participation is an important element of the learning process, and students are expected to feel free to freely and openly discuss the subject at hand. Since participation demonstrates (at least in part) your preparedness for each class, you are expected to:

• Participate in class discussions and honor the Honor Code (read: Don't Plagiarize!).
• Develop and maintain a sense of professionalism and decorum at all times (by now, students should be serious about developing some degree of professionalism).
• Be honest--don't try to B. S. me.

Plagiarism

In the past, I have encouraged students to review their assignments as they prepare for future assignments. In order to do this, students necessarily have to have each assignment returned to them. Some students have allowed their friends (fellow members of clubs, fraternities, or sororities, not to mention those they are dating or their best bud) to make photocopies of their assignments (or worse yet) place their original, corrected copy in club/fraternity/sorority file).

Know this: such action violates the university's Honor Code and does a disservice to students who "copy the 'right' solution" from past assignments. Although former students have thought they'd help their friends, they have really harmed them (by robbing students of the opportunity to learn from their mistakes). The "real world" doesn't follow this unethical practice, and if I find that any of my students (either present or former) participate in this form of plagiarism (by either copying a completed assignment of a former students or by providing an assignment for you to copy) both students will be prosecuted to the fullest of my ability. This is not a warning; it's a promise.

Furthermore, the ECU Student Handbook defines plagiarism as "Copying the language, structure, ideas, and/or thoughts of another and adopting some as one's own original work." Be aware that the writing you do in this course must be your own work and, primarily, your own words. It is okay to incorporate the words of others from articles, essays, and interviews as evidence to support your ideas, but when you do this, you should be sure to cite your sources appropriately. We will talk about documentation and citations during this course. Penalties for plagiarism are severe--the can include failing this course, suspension, or even expulsion from the university, so be sure to see me about any doubts you may have before you turn in an assignment. You can access the student handbook at http://www.ecu.edu/studenthandbook/III.htm.

Academic integrity is a fundamental value of higher education and East Carolina University; therefore, I will not tolerate acts of cheating, plagiarism, falsification or attempts to cheat, plagiarize or falsify.  Should I determine that an academic integrity violation has taken place, I reserve the right either to assign a grade penalty or to refer the case to the Office of Student Conflict Resolution for an Academic Integrity Board hearing. The minimum grade penalty that I will assign is an F for the assignment/course. Should it come to my attention that you have had a prior academic integrity violation, or if there are other aggravating circumstances, I will refer the case directly to the Office of Student Conflict Resolution.  Should the Academic Integrity Board determine that you committed an academic integrity violation, you may be assigned a grade penalty and/or any other sanction allowed in the student Code of Conduct, up to and including suspension from the University.

Grades

"Excellence is not a sometime thing; it's an all-the-time thing.  You don't perform at that level once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time.  Excellence is a habit. Unfortunately, so is mediocrity." From the NPR "Scenes I Wish I Had Written."

Because this class seeks to prepare students for business writing in workplace, the following criteria apply to grades:

Table 1: Grades and What They Mean
Letter Grade	What the Grade Means
A (100 - 90)	Your boss would be impressed and remember you at promotion time.
B (89-80)	Your boss would be satisfied with the job but not over impressed.
C (79-70)	Your boss would be disappointed and ask you to revise it before others saw it.
D	(This grade is rarely given because your work is either acceptable or unacceptable.)
F (69-0)	Your boss would start looking for someone to replace you!

Unless otherwise indicated, grades for this class will use the 10 point system (90-100=A, 80-89=B, 70-79=C, and 69 or below = F).

For most assignments, your grade is determined by how well your document reflects the guidelines for the assignment.

Because all students can expect to be treated equally, there are two other things:

• There is NO extra credit (this concept is unknown to the business world).
• There's NO crying (this puts some of the fairer sex at a great advantage than whiney men).

• General Remarks
• East Carolina University and the Americans with Disabilities Act
• Format Standards
• Late Assignments
• Online Matters
• Submitting Assignments
• Summary of Assignments

General Remarks

Please notice that your fees for this semester include a Computer & Technology Fee, which entitles you to any empty seat at most of the computer labs located around campus. Although some labs are restricted (the BVTE Lab is reserved for BVTE students, the Writing Lab is reserved for freshman composition students, etc.), most students use the lab in Austin. For an up-to-date list of lab locations, visit http://www.ecu.edu/itc/lab/.

Also, it's a pretty good idea to keep a backup copy of everything you write. You'll need a 3.5" DS/DD (720 KB) or DS/HD (1.44 MB) "floppy," and these are available at the bookstores.

East Carolina University and the Americans with Disabilities Act

East Carolina University seeks to comply fully with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Students requesting accommodations based on a covered disability must go to the Department for Disability Support Services, located in Slay 138, to verify the disability before any accommodations can occur. The telephone number is 252-328-6799.

Format Standards

A professional appearance establishes any writer's credibility and improves reader understanding; thus, all written work submitted for evaluation should follow the criteria below:

• Use 20 lb., white, bond paper (or whatever paper is available for printers in the various campus writing labs).
• Maintain a 1-inch margin (top, bottom, left, and right margins).
• Assignments should use either an Arial or Times New Roman fonts.
• Printed text should be dark and clear but without smears and smudges (if a dot matrix printer is used, make sure to print in the letter-quality mode).

If you should discover one or two typing errors (typos), neatly correct the mistake(s) by crossing out the error(s) and writing the correction(s) above (three or more errors require both correction and reprinting).

Late Assignments

There aren't any, but if an assignment is submitted after a deadline has passed, 10 points per class meeting will be deducted from the grade awarded.

Online Matters

Students should visit http://personal.ecu.edu/snyderh/Messages/studinfo.html often, especially during inclement weather.

Because material for this course often lends itself to being accomplished online, some of this course will involve the Distance Learning Model.

From time to time, some students encounter a printer problem. If you have a paper due and you develop a printer problem, e-mail yourself and attach the paper to your message. Go to the Writing Lab (Bate 2005), check your e-mail, open your attachment, and print it out on their printer.

Should you have occasion to contact me via e-mail, please identify yourself and the course section in the subject line (e.g., Assignment #1 Question John Doe 3880-001).

Submitting Assignments

Assignments may be submitted in one of the following ways:

• Turning it in at the end of the class when it is due, or
• Delivering to the instructor (or his office) by the end of the day the assignment is due; actually if it's in the box by my door by the beginning of the next class day, that'll be okay, too (but remember that I get here around 7:00 a.m.). or
• Electronically (when told to do so)--note the subject line admonition immediately above the Submitting Assignments heading for this section.

Some students may encounter a "printer" problem just before an assignment is due. If this should happen to you, send yourself an e-mail and attach the assignment. Go to the Writing Lab (Bate 2005), check your e-mail, open your attachment, and print it out on their printer--then you can submit your assignment(s) on a timely basis.

Do NOT e-mail me an assignment, unless you are instructed to.

Under NO circumstances will an assignment be accepted after it has been critiqued in class.

Course Objectives

During this course, students will have the opportunity to:

• Compose a letter of introduction and write various business letters and reports and a resume.
• Plan, propose, research, analyze, draft, revise, and report on a topic that is technical (as opposed to literary) in nature.
• Master grammar, rhetoric, and usage of the American English language.

In order to do this, students are expected to acquire the ability to:

• Organize their correspondence in an appropriate manner.
• Analyze each writing situation for its purpose, audience, and goodwill implications.
• Properly integrate graphics into a formal report.
• Recognize proper business writing and develop an effective writing style.

---

Created May 1, 2000  Updated Nov. 2, 2007