English 205 – Business Writing INSTRUCTOR Mark Grass Classroom: Office Hours: Phone: Fax: Mailbox: E-mail: Online By appointment / phone 414-630-9624 (Cell) 414-229-2643 Fourth floor of Curtin mjgrass@gmail.com MATERIALS The following textbook is required for this class: Oliu, Brusaw, and Alred – Writing that Works: Communicating Effectively on the Job, 11th Edition. You can rent this from Amazon or buy online from a variety of vendors found here: http://bit.ly/13YVZAR ISBN: 978-1-4576-1113-1 The following textbook is optional, but it is highly recommended that you purchase it: Alred, Brusaw, and Oliu - The Business Writer’s Handbook, 10th edition (any edition is acceptable). You can order it from Amazon: http://amzn.to/11DQl5X ISBN: 978-0-31267943-9 COURSE OBJECTIVES Analyze a variety of business contexts (audience, purpose), and produce documents that fulfill goals of those contexts Use language that has appropriate form, tone, and style coupled with grammatical and mechanical correctness Employ writing as process, including research, drafting, testing, revising, and editing Develop rhetorical strategies for effective visual and document design through exercises based on real world applications. Become familiar with current issues specific to corporate and organizational communication Exhibit mastery of the most common genres of written and oral business communication Learn effective collaboration strategies Learn proficiency in computer-mediated communications 1 University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee English 205 (Online) – Spring 2016 PREREQUISITES You need the following to be in ENG 205: score 4 or higher in the English Proficiency Test or a grade of “C” or better in English 102 (or equivalent college-level course), sophomore standing. The English Department reserves the right to administratively drop students who have not attended the first week of class. COURSE POLICIES Actively Participate! This course is entirely online, so in order to do well in this class you will need to regularly participate. Some helpful hints and guidelines are: o Your participation grade is based on your participation in the D2L discussion sections. I will post new content on D2L on each Saturday. To receive full participation credit for each week, you will need to do the following: Wednesdays before midnight: Contribute at least one original post discussing the current week’s topic Sundays before midnight: Reply to at least two students’ posts o Check D2L each day. All important announcements and updates will be available on D2L. There will also be an open forum section in D2L in which you can ask questions. o Inform the instructor if you are having problems keeping up with the course work. I am willing to grant extensions should you find yourself overwhelmed or experience unforeseen circumstances that prevent you from meeting a deadline. It happens to the best of us! However, I must be informed of your intentions at least one day before the assignment is due. You must provide a firm date on which you intend to turn in the work you missed. If the new date is not met or this guideline is not followed, the assignment will be lowered by one third of a grade for each day it is late. Writing Assignment Guidelines. We will have a number of smaller assignments (10-20) points) and a few larger ones (75 - 300 points). One revision per project worth 75 points or more is permitted! Note that you will receive the higher of your revised or original grade…there is no penalty for submitting revised assignments. Special Note: I spend a lot of time providing in-depth feedback, but you are absolutely expected to read and follow the directions in a given assignment sheet! If you do not follow instructions, you will still be able to revise, but you will not receive initial feedback. 2 University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee English 205 (Online) – Spring 2016 o You are required to complete all written assignments to pass this course. o Do not plagiarize. This is a serious offense that will result in a failing grade for the assignment, and it may lead directly to failing the course. Be sure to cite your sources when you use ideas, information, and material from those sources. Please review the English Department website on “Academic Dishonesty and Grievances” located here: http://www4.uwm.edu/dos/conduct/academic-misconduct.cfm Tips on avoiding plagiarism can be found here: owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/ University Policies. Please see http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/SyllabusLinks.pdf for university policies on religious observances, military duty, etc. COURSE STRUCTURE Desire 2 Learn (D2L) will be the central hub for class-related information. It is recommended that you check D2L frequently for: Content – All course content will be located in the course’s D2L site. Content for the following week’s class will be available no later than Saturday at 5:00 PM. A link to the course syllabus, policy sheets, and weekly assignments will all be available in the Content section of D2L. Discussions – This will be the primary location for weekly discussions. I will open a new discussion section each week, and each section will be available from Monday to Sunday only. Once a discussion section closes for the week, you won’t be able to submit new posts or reply to other students’ posts. This will result in a lower participation grade for the week. There is no way to make up missing participation grades for the missed weeks! Links – I will add links throughout the course that I believe you may find helpful or informative. Please share suggestions for links if you find content you think is relevant or will be helpful. If you find and post a link, I will count this as one of your required participation responses for the week. 3 English 205 (Online) – Spring 2016 University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee GRADES AND GRADING STANDARDS You may check your grade at any time, and grades will be updated whenever there is a new grade available. o You can determine where you stand fairly easily by dividing the total number of points you received by the total number of points possible to that point in the course. o Multiply the result by 100 o Compare with the following chart: A AB+ B BC+ 93+ 90-93 87-89 83-86 80-82 77-79 C CD+ D DF 73-76 70-72 67-69 63-66 60-62 59 and under Because the work in this class is intended to simulate the workplace, the following criteria will apply to grades. I play the role of manager in this scenario (courtesy of Jerry Alred): Grades Workplace Standards A Manager would be impressed and remember the work when considering a promotion for you. B Manger would be satisfied with the job, but not impressed. C Manager would be disappointed and ask you to revise or rewrite sections before allowing clients and others to see the work. D Manager would be troubled by the poor quality of the work. F Manager would start looking for someone to replace you. 4 English 205 (Online) – Spring 2016 University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Assignments and Values Shorter Assignments (no revisions allowed) Proofreading Exercise #1 Proofreading Exercise #2 Proofreading Exercise #3 Table of Contents Bibliography / Works Cited 10 10 10 50 45 Writing Assignments (eligible for revision) Informational Memo Refusal Letter Complaint Letter Individual Project Unsolicited Recommendation Other Participation Total 75 75 75 200 300 150 1000 TENTATIVE SYLLABUS – Fall 2015 DATE TOPICS DUE Week One 01/25 – 01/30 Syllabus, D2L content available. Class introductions. Week Two 02/01 – 02/07 Assessing Audience, Purpose, and Medium Week Three 02/08 – 02/14 Revising the Draft Week Four 02/15 – 02/21 Understanding the Principles of Business Correspondence – Memos, Email, and IM Protocols and Strategies Writing Business Correspondence – Inquiries, Refusals, Complaints, Sales - Introduce yourself in the Week One discussion forum. Please include your year in school and your major along with anything else you may want to share. - Read Oliu, Ch. 1 - Proofreading Exercise #1 due in D2L by midnight on 02/07 - Read Oliu, Ch. 4 - Proofreading exercise #2 due in D2L by midnight on 02/14 <3 - Read Oliu, Ch. 8 - Information memo due in D2L by midnight on 02/21 - Read Oliu, Ch. 9 Week Five 02/22 – 02/28 5 University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee English 205 (Online) – Spring 2016 Week Six 02/29 – 03/06 Designing Documents and Visuals Writing Instructions - Read Oliu, Ch. 7 - Read Oliu, Ch. 12 - Table of contents exercise due in D2L by midnight on 03/06 - Final revision of information memo due in D2L by midnight on 03/06 Week Seven 03/07 – 03/13 Ethics in Business Communication Finding the Right Job Week Eight 03/14 – 03/20 *** Spring Break!!! *** - Read Oliu, Ch. 16 - Individual projects due in D2L by midnight on 03/13 - No class or discussions this week! Week Nine 03/21 – 03/27 Flex Day Week Ten 03/28 – 04/03 Writing Informal Reports Writing Formal Reports Week Eleven 04/04 – 04/10 Writing Proposals Week Twelve 04/11 – 04/17 Collaborative Writing Week Thirteen 04/18 – 04/24 Giving Presentations Week Fourteen 04/25 – 05/01 Researching Your Subject Week Fifteen 05/02 – 05/08 Writing for the web and e-communications Exam Week ***No discussions this week*** - There is no reading assignment for this week, but I will still post topics for discussion - Complaint letter due in D2L by midnight on 03/27 - Read Oliu, Ch. 10 - Read Oliu, Ch. 11 - Proofreading Exercise # 3 due in D2L by midnight on 04/03 - Read Oliu, Ch. 13 - Refusal letter due in D2L by midnight on 11/08 - Final revision of individual projects due in D2L by midnight on 04/10 - Read Oliu, Ch. 5 - Unsolicited recommendation proposal due in D2L by midnight on 04/17 - Final revision of complaint letter due in D2L by midnight on 04/17 - Read Oliu, Ch. 14 - Bibliography / works cited assignment due on Sunday, 04/24 by midnight - Final revisions of refusal letter due on Sunday, 04/24 by midnight - Read Oliu, Ch. 6 - Unsolicited recommendation due in D2L by midnight on 05/01 - Read Oliu, Ch. 15 All discussion postings are due on or before midnight on Thursday, December 11th - Final revisions of the unsolicited recommendations due in D2L by midnight on 05/20 6