English 3880:Writing for Business & Industry

Classes meets in Bate/GCB 2018 Mondays through Fridays at 8:00 a.m. and 9:40 a.m.

Thill, John V. and Courtland L. Bovee. Excellence in Business Communication. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998.

CoursePak English 3880: Writing for Business & Industry. Summer 2001.

• General Remarks
• Format Standards
• Late Assignments
• 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/labtable.html.

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.

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)--avoid onion skin or erasable paper.
• Maintain a 1-inch margin (top, bottom, left, and right margins).
• 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).

Late Assignments

Submitting Assignments

• 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.).

 

Table 2: Grades and What They Mean
Letter Grade	What the Grade Means
A (100 - 92)	Your boss would be impressed and remember you at promotion time.
B (91-83)	Your boss would be satisfied with the job but not over impressed.
C (82-70)	Your boss would be disappointed and ask you to revise before others saw it.
D	(That animal lives somewhere else.)
F (69-0)	Your boss would start looking for someone to replace you!

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
• Participation
• Plagiarism

Attendance

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.

As an incentive to help motivate students with their attendance, those who have perfect attendance will be rewarded by having one point added to their final grade average (additional points are not available to "give" to any students; students must get their grades the "old fashioned" way: they earn them!).
 

Participation

• 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 (my two sons haven't been out of college that long!).

Plagiarism

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.

Portfolio

On the last day of scheduled class, students are expected to submit the following

• all drafts (assuming their first two writing assignments were submitted after revising one or more drafts),
• all graded material (to ensure the instructor's grade book is correct), and
• any other material the syllabus requires to be submitted then.

Packets may be picked up anytime after the start of Fall Semester 2001; any packets not picked up by Labor Day will be disposed of in an ecologically safe manner #};=).

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.

• 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  Last Updated June 6, 2001