3880 Spring 1998

English 3880:Writing for Business & Industry

*Assignments*	*Course Description*	*Course Objectives*	*Grades*
*Policies*	*Portfolio*	*Syllabus*	*Textbooks*

This class meets in GCB 2018 Monday through Friday

Tentative Syllabus for First Summer Semester 1999

Date	Topic	Reading	Remarks/Assignments
#1 May 18-21	Introduction; Foundations of Business Communication; The Writing Process	Appendixes A & B & Ch 1-2, 5-7 in EBC; G (ii + 2-6)	Letter of Introduction due 5/20;Analyze & revise document on pp. 37-38; Review exercises 6.B & 7.A & 7.B in class
#2 May 24-28	Letters, Memos & Other Brief Messages	Ch 8-11 in EBC; G (9-19)	Review exercises in class; revise routine letter, doc 9.B (due 5/28); Review exercises in class; revise negative letter, doc 10.C and sales letter, doc 11.B (both due 5/31)
#3 May 31 + June 1-4	Reports & Proposals; Planning Long Reports	Ch 12-14 & Appendix C in EBC; G (21-33)	Justification report (due 6/1); Tentative Work Plan (due at Proposal Conference on 6/3);
#4 June 7-11	Conferences	Review Ch 14 in EBC	Formal Report Conferences to discuss progress (final draft due 6/14)
#5 June 14-18	Employment Communication	Ch 18 & 19 in BAC; CP 37-56	Resume & Cover Letter (due 6/21)
#6 June 21-22	Review	Review ECC & G	Final Exam scheduled for Tuesday

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Textbooks

Required

Thill, John V. and Courtland L. Bovee. Excellence in Business Communication. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.

CoursePak English 3880: Writing for Business & Industry. Spring 1999.

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Assignments

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).

If you should discover one or two typing errors (typos), neatly correct the mistake(s) by crossing out the error(s)d 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 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
Letter Series (4)	30%
Letter of Introduction	05%
Positive Message	05%
Negative Message	10%
Persuasive Message	10%
Reports (3)	55%
Justification Report	15%
Tentative Work Plan	05%
Formal Report	35%
Employment Correspondence (2)	15%
Letter of Application	05%
Resume	10%
Total	100%
Note: Add one point to your final grade for perfect attendance; deduct 10 points for no portfolio

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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!

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Course Description

This course is designed to help students develop skills and techniques for editing material that is technical in nature, especially material that has been written by another author. In order to achieve this, this course stresses copymarking, copyediting, and proofreading. Of course, the mechanics (spelling, abbreviations, and capitalization), grammar and usage, and punctuation are properly emphasized.

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Policies

Attendance
Participation
Plagiarism

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.

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

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.

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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.

To help keep your material from getting mixed up with the work of other students, please place all graded material (as well as drafts, but not an assignments that may be due on the last day of class) inside a 10" x 13" envelope, and secure it by opening its clasps (please don't lick the glue and seal your envelope; the glue tastes ucky, and glued envelopes are darn hard to open). Envelopes are available at most bookstores for about 20 cents. In the upper left-hand corner of the envelope, label as follows: Name
ENGL 3880-001
1st Summer 1999 Students who fail to submit their portfolio of work will lose 10 points when their final grades are computed.

Packets may be picked up anytime after the start of Fall Semester 199; any packets not picked up by Labor Day will be disposed of in an ecologically safe manner #};=).

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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 intergrate graphics into a formal report.
Recognize proper business writing and develop an effective writing style.

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THE P'RFESS'R'S PAGE

Created May 1, 1998
Last Updated April 28, 1999

English 3880:Writing for Business & Industry

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Format Standards

Late Assignments

Submitting Assignments

Table 1: Summary of Assignments & Percentage of Final Grade

Table 2: Grades and What They Mean

Letter Grade

What the Grade Means

Attendance

Participation

Plagiarism

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Textbooks