English 394: Fall 2015

Instructor: Jim Mattson

Office: TWS 1226

Office Hours: Mon & Wed. 12:30-1:30pm or by appointment

Email:

Course Description: The purpose of this course is to prepare students for professional writing in a business environment. Students will learn to write clearly and concisely in various business forms (emails, reports, cover letters, etc.). Emphasis will be placed on context, purpose, and audience.

Course Objectives: By the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Analyze a variety of professional rhetorical situations and produce appropriate textsin response.
  • Understand the stages required to produce competent, professional writingthrough planning, drafting, revising, and editing.
  • Identify and implement the appropriate research methods for each writing task.
  • Practice the ethical use of sources and the conventions of citation appropriate toeach genre.
  • Write for the intended readers of a text, and design or adapt texts to audiences unfamiliar with the subject matter.
  • Demonstrate competence in written English, including syntax, clarity, concision, dynamism, and document design (including theuse of the visual) and be able to use this knowledge to revise texts.
  • Produce cogent arguments identifying arguable issues, reflect the degree of available evidence, and take account of counter arguments.

Required Text:No text is required. However, students must bring the following to class every day:

  • A pen/pencil
  • A notebook
  • A folder to keep assignments and handouts

Assignments and Course Requirements: All PWP classes require that students produce a minimum of 25 pages of original writing. This roughly amounts to 6,250 words. Original writing refers to polished final drafts. Re-writing is required. Rough drafts do not count as part of the 25 pages.

Here is the breakdown of assignments and their assigned point value:

Resume/Cover Letter / 50pts
Email Packet / 100pts
Topic Prospectus / 50pts
Recommendation Report / 150pts
Feasibility Report / 150pts
Proposal: Written and Oral / 400pts
Attendance/Participation/Homework/In-Class Activities and Writing / 100pts
TOTAL / 1000 PTS

**The topic prospectus, recommendation report, feasibility report, and proposal are all written on one topic.

**For any assignment critiqued in class (email packet, recommendation report, feasibility report), the critique sheet will account for 10% of the total points earned.

**All assignment sheets and handouts will be available on ELMS the day they are assigned in class.

Here is the breakdown of grades:

980-1000 points / A+
930-970 points / A
900-920 points / A-
870-890 points / B+
830-860 points / B
800-820 points / B-
770-790 points / C+
730-760 points / C
700-720 points / C-
600-690 points / D
Below 600 points / F

Attendance and Participation: To earn your attendance/participation points, you must attend every class session, be on time, and participate in class and small group discussion. The following page contains the policies on unexcused and excused absences, as well as tardiness. Please note: Missing more than two weeks’ worth of class for any reason may result in a zero for the attendance/participation grade. Also, you will not receive credit for in-class writings if you are not present. If you are absent, you must contact a classmate about any relevant work missed.

Unexcused Absences: You may have two no-questions-asked absences per semester. You are, however, still responsible for whatever material was covered in class. DO NOT TAKE THIS UNEXCUSED ABSENCE WHEN A MAJOR ASSIGNMENT IS DUE. I have a very strict policy on late assignments, and if you do not show up the day the assignment is due, your grade will suffer accordingly.

Excused Absences: The university excuses absences for your own illness or the illness of an immediate family member, for your participation in university activities at the request of university authorities, for religious observance, and for compelling circumstances beyond your control. Documentation is required for all excused absences. If you have an anticipated excused absence, you must let me know IN WRITING (email is fine) at least two weeks in advance.

Absence for one class due to your own illness: The university requires that you give me a self-signed note attesting to the date of your illness, with an acknowledgment that the information provided is true. Providing false information to university officials is prohibited and may result in disciplinary action. The Health Center has an online form:

Absence from more than one class because of the same illness: You must provide written documentation of the illness from the health care provider who made the diagnosis. No diagnostic information shall be given. The provider must verify dates of treatment and indicate the time frame during which you were unable to meet academic responsibilities.

Non-consecutive medically necessitated absences from more than a single class: Such absences may be excused provided you submit written documentation for each absence as described above, verifying the dates of treatment and time frame during which you were unable to meet your academic responsibilities. However, as also noted above, if you miss too many classes – even if excused – though you are technically eligible to make up the work, in practice students are rarely able to do so.

Participation: When evaluating your participation grade, I take into account the following questions:

  • Did you actively engage in small-group discussion, or did you sit passively and let other group members do the work?
  • Were you often distracted by mobile devices (i.e. your phone or tablet)? Except during specific activities, I don’t allow laptops in the classroom.
  • Did you consistently volunteer during large-group discussions?
  • Were your comments relevant and insightful, or were they clear ploys to ensure participation points?
  • Did you approach peer critiques with a genuine desire to assist, or did you rush through them and give minimal feedback?
  • Were you punctual?

Late Paper Policy: Papers are to be turned in during class on the day they are due. I only accept hard copy. Do not email me papers unless I specifically request you to. Because I evaluate both content and format, I want to ensure that the document you give me looks like the document you wanted to turn in. Sometimes software and hardware are incompatible, and what I download on my computer is not what you wanted me to see.

Unless otherwise noted, all papers except the proposal must be stapled. If you must be absent on the day a paper is due, please arrange for someone else to bring your paper to class. If I do not receive your paper on the due date by the end of class, you will receive a zero for the assignment. I do this not to be especially cruel, but to prepare you for a harsh and intolerant world of corporate impatience. If you cannot meet a deadline in the corporate world, forgiveness is usually not an option.

Exception: Sometimes, for reasons out of our control (death in the family, serious illness), we simply cannot meet a deadline. Should such an unfortunate event occur, I may accept a late assignment. However, I would need specific documentation PLUS a formal request for an assignment extension. Keep in mind, the formal request, should you need to write it, ispart of the overall grade for the assignment. Therefore, if the formal request is less professional than the actual assignment, your grade will suffer.

Snow/Inclement Weather Policy: The assignments for this class will continue even if the university closes for inclement weather. Should a class be canceled on the day an assignment is due, the assignment’s due date will be shifted to the next time we meet.

Plagiarism: Any student guilty of plagiarism will be dealt with severely. Abuses of the honor system will be referred to the Honor Council. Of course, borrowing information from published sources is appropriate, but you must identify all sources and document them sufficiently and appropriately for the field in which you are working. Cutting and pasting from sources without appropriate citation/attribution constitutes plagiarism.

Policy for students with special needs: If you have a special need, you must present documentation supporting your request for accommodations within the first two weeks of class. We will discuss a plan as to how we will implement your accommodation in class procedures.

Technology in the classroom: Unless I specify otherwise, no laptops are allowed. All cell phones and Blackberries should be turned off during class. Any texting or internet usage during class will affect your participation grade. I give specific directions for assignments in class, so if you’re busy with social media, you will most likely miss out on key instructions.

Course Evaluation: Towards the end of the semester, you will be reminded to complete CourseEvalUM. Please take time to fill it out. In addition, PWP has its own paper evaluation. It is administered during one of the final weeks of the semester.

Grading Evaluation:

I grade papers based on five criteria:

Assignment Fulfillment: The paper must fulfill the specific assignment given. For example, if a student writes an informational report instead of an analytical report for Assignment #5, she hasn’t followed directions and will be marked down accordingly. This is the most basic evaluative standard.

Content: You must have evidentiary support for each and every claim presented. In order to convince an audience to do or buy or change something, persuasive facts must be presented. Your content must also be relevant, clearly organized, specific, logical, and non-contradictory.

Tone: In business writing, tone is of utmost importance. Miscommunications involving tone can be drastic and cause tremendous losses, both personally and economically. In order to convey the correct tone, you must consider the audienceat all times.

Language: Business language is precise and to the point, and good writing, in general, is dynamic and clean. I expect students to transfer the writing techniques we discuss in class to each of their assignments. I also recommend that students visit the writing center often to get help with their language. The writing center is located in TWS 1205.

Peer Critique: Before most major assignments are due, we will conduct an in-class workshop. You will exchange papers and fill out a critique form. On the day the final paper is due, you must return the critique sheet written for you to the critiquer. They will then add it to their own assignment before handing it in. Peer critiques count for 10% of the assignment grade.

Class Outline

This class is divided into three main parts:

  1. Concise Language Skills Overview
  2. Business Correspondence
  3. Business Reports

With the exception of the last week, this is a writing intensive studio course, so come prepared to write a lot. The only way to get better at writing is to do it over and over and over, so that’s what we’re going to do: we’re going to write, then re-write, then receive critique, then re-write again. By the end of the semester, you will hopefully have gained a significant amount of insight into the craft of writing, and will be prepared to confidently go into a job setting with the knowledge of what writing skills are expected of you.

Attached is a schedule. Please note that this can and will change at my discretion. I will notify you of any changes in advance.

Finally, the reason writing scares many students is because they see it as a black-or-white endeavor: they think they’re either good at it or they’re not. This thinking is flawed. Writing is a process:everyone with a rudimentary grasp of language can master its technical aspects. Understand that your first draft will be terrible. Everyone’s is. From there, understand that each successive draft will be better. So the amount of time you spend re-writing is directly proportionate to your overall success as a writer.

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