Tentative Syllabus for 1st Summer Semester 2005
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| #1 May 17-18-19-20 | Introduction | EBC 13 + A & B; EBC 1 & 2 | Letter of Introduction (due 5/19); Sentence Types; Spongebob; Students Intros; Style & Grammar; Analyze & revise document on p. 22; |
| #2 May 23-24-25-26-27 | Planning, Writing & Completing Business Messages; Routine | EBC 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8 | Review documents on pp. 96 & 129; docs 6.A& B & 7.A&B; Assignment #2 (due 5/31) |
| #3 May 30-31-June 1-2-3
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Writing Bad News & Persuasive Messages; Planning & Writing Business Reports; Justification Report | EBC 8, 9, 10, 11 | No Class May 30th (Memorial Day); Review docs 6.A & 6.B and 7.A & 7.B in class; Review exercise 8.A in class; Negative Letter (6/1); Review exercises 9.A &B Persuasive Message (due 6/2); Review EBC example p. 314; Justification report [info and guidelines] (due 6/6); |
| #4 June 6-7-8-9-10 | Completing Business Reports ; Formal Report Requirements; | EBC 12 | Review EBC example p. 324; Tentative Work Plan (due at Proposal Conference on 6/8) for Formal Report (due 6/20) Doing Research, Works Cited & When to Cite, Paraphrase, or Summarize |
| #5 June 13-14-15-16-17 | Conferences; Employment Communication | EBC 14 | Research, report covers & example of formal report; Sample 1st Paragraphs; Formal Report (final draft due 6/20) |
| #6 June20-21 | Employment Communication | TBA | Resume ; Functional Resume (due 6/21) |
| June 22 | Final Exam |
| Required Textbooks |
Thill, John V. and Courtland L. Bovee. Excellence in Business Communication. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2005.
| 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/itcs/austinlab/alllabs.cfm.
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.
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).
- 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).
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).
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 for the grade awarded.Submitting Assignments
Assignments are submitted in either of two 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.).
Table 1: Summary of Assignments & Percentage of Final Grade | |
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30% |
| Letter of Introduction |
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| Positive Message |
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| Negative Message |
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| Persuasive Message |
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50% |
| Justification Report |
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| Tentative Work Plan |
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| Formal Report |
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10% |
| Resume |
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| Studentship |
10% |
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100% |
Table 2: Grades and What They Mean | |
Letter Grade |
What the Grade Means |
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Your boss would be impressed and remember you at promotion time. |
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Your boss would be satisfied with the job but not over impressed. |
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Your boss would be disappointed and ask you to revise before others saw it. |
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(This grade is rarely awarded; usually, your work is acceptable or it is not) |
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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
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.
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 (my two sons haven't been out of college that long!).
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.
| 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.
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Created May 1, 1998 Updated June 2, 2005 |