Advanced Composition
English 202D - Business Writing
Course Objectives
Sample Syllabus Materials
Sample Assignments
- Introduction Memo
- Proposal for Formal Analytical Report
- Job Application Packet
- Business Letter Packet
- Progress Report
- Formal Analytical Report
- Approved Texts
The purpose of this course is to help you to develop the writing strategies that you will need to write successfully on the job and to help you to understand why those strategies are appropriate and effective. You can expect to
- Discover and understand the discourse features that distinguish your business communities from others.
- Discover and specify the purpose(s) of your writing.
- Develop a range of writing processes appropriate to various writing tasks.
- Identify your readers and describe the characteristics of those readers in a way that forms a sound basis for deciding how to write to them.
- Invent the contents of your communications through research and reflection.
- Arrange material to raise and satisfy readers' expectations, using both conventional and rhetorical patterns of organization.
- Reveal the organization of your communications by using forecasting and transitional statements, headings, and effective page design.
- Observe appropriate generic conventions and formats for letters, resumes, memoranda, and a variety of informal and formal reports.
- Design and use tables, graphs, and business illustrations.
- Compose effective sentences.
- Evaluate your documents to be sure that the documents fulfill their purpose and to ensure that they can be revised if necessary.
- Collaborate effectively with your peers in a community of writers who provide feedback on each other's work.
- Write several specific kinds of documents that recur in business communities.
- Employ computer technology effectively in the solution of communication problems.
- Communicate in an ethically responsible manner.
Course Policies
Assignments: In this course, I will try to hold you to the professional standards that prevail in the working world. For example, of the requirements listed below, your employer will take some completely for granted, such as promptness, neat appearance, and correct mechanics.
Promptness. In this course, as in the working world, you must turn in your work on time. All projects are due at the beginning of class on the dates indicated on the syllabus. Assignments turned in late will normally be penalized one letter grade per day unless you have made other arrangements with me in advance.
Appearance. All work should be neatly typed, using standard margins and spacing. Whether it is a letter, a memorandum, or a report, your communication should exhibit appropriate format. In general, letters and memos should be single-spaced with a blank line between paragraphs and reports should be double-spaced. Rough drafts may be neatly handwritten; final drafts should be prepared on a word processor. You are responsible for separating pages and observing appropriate margins.
Grammar, Spelling, Proofreading. At work, even a single error in spelling, grammar, or proofreading can jeopardize the effectiveness of some communications--depending on the rhetorical situation. My grading will reflect the great seriousness with which these matters are often viewed in the working world. If you would like special assistance with any of these skills, I can recommend sources for extra help.
Back-up Copies. Always prepare two legible copies of each major assignment. I will grade one copy and hand it back; the other copy will be for your own safe keeping and permanent records. Sometimes I will request a "clean" copy of one of your papers so that I can use it as a sample, in packets such as this, to illustrate effective and problematic responses to assignments. I won't use your work without obtaining your permission.
Revisions. You will receive feedback on your writing from me and/or from your classmates at various stages of the writing process, from planning through the draft you hand in for a grade. You should try to apply the comments, not only to improve the particular paper you are working on at the time, but also to develop your strategies for writing in general. In some sense, no paper can ever be finished or perfected. However, if you think you can significantly improve a paper after it has been graded, you are welcome to do so if you consult with me during office hours about what you plan to do . If the grade for a revision is higher, it will replace the original grade. Note: cleaning up grammatical and stylistic problems does not constitute significant improvement. You must submit the original, graded paper with your revision.
Attendance and Preparation: I expect you to attend class everyday and to have your textbook and packet of supplementary materials with you . If you have unexcused absences, your class grade may be docked up to one full grade. Excused absences must be arranged in advance and all work missed must be made up. In an emergency, please call or e-mail me.
It is particularly important for you to attend and be prepared to participate in in-class workshops on drafts of your paper . The more you have written before a peer review session, the more you will benefit from the session. You are responsible both for making high quality comments on your classmates' papers and for considering classmates' comments in revising your own work. Your draft should be complete enough for you to be in a position to ask someone to help you with it. If you must miss a workshop, hand in your draft early and arrange to comment on another classmate's paper. Under no circumstances will I accept a "final" paper unless I've seen your rough draft .
Conferences: I strongly encourage you to see me when you have questions about an assignment, when you would like to try out some ideas before a paper is due, or when you have questions about a comment on a draft. You should also see me for help with particular writing problems, to resolve differences about grades, or to suggest ways to improve the course.
Grades: When grading each of your assignments, I will ask one overriding question: "Does it work?" That is, would your communication have the intended effect on the reader you are addressing in the world outside the classroom. I will, of course, recognize the difference between a competent performance (a "C") and good and excellent performances ("B" and "A"). A competent performance is one that stands a reasonable chance of succeeding; an excellent performance is one that seems assured not only of success but also of winning praise.
Your grade in Business Writing will be determined by the grades you receive on written assignments, according to the following weighting:
#1 Introduction Memo 10%
#2 Proposal for Formal Report 15%
#3 Job Application Packet 15%
#4 Business Letter Packet 15%
#5 Progress Report 10%
#6 Formal Analytical Report 25%
Homework and Participation 10%
Portfolio: The portfolio is a record of your semester's formal work. It should contain the paper trail for 6 major papers, including drafts with comments, peer review forms, and optional revisions.
Plagiarism (Cheating) Talking over your ideas and getting comments on your writing from friends are NOT examples of plagiarism. Taking someone else's published or unpublished words and calling them your own IS plagiarism. Plagiarism has dire consequences, as spelled out in the English Department regulations included in this packet.
Nota Bene The Pennsylvania State University encourages qualified people with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities and is committed to the policy that all people shall have equal access to programs, facilities, and admissions without regard to personal characteristics not related to ability, performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy or by state or federal authorities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation in this course or have questions about physical access, please tell me as soon as possible
Texts. Bovee, Thill, Schatzman. Business Communication Today. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.
Supplementary Packet available at Gnomon Copy.
Assignment #1: Introduction Memo
General Instructions
For your first assignment, I would like you to write a memo where you introduce yourself to me-especially as a beginning or experienced professional in a particular field. That means you must tell me about yourself, your professional background and training, and what professional prospects exist for a person like you.
You see, I need information about you and your field. I'm quite expert about language and its uses (that's my area of expertise), and I even know quite a bit about how language is used in business, industry, and government (that's why I'm teaching the course). But I certainly don't know you. And I'd like to know more about the career paths that people follow in business and how people prepare for those career paths. So please inform me about those matters.
- What career(s) you're preparing for, and how you've been doing that preparation?
- What kinds of organizations might employ you?
- What will your job responsibilities be? What exactly will you be doing?
- What skills will be required of you?
- What is unique about the "culture" of your field?
- How might your responsibilities change as your career develops (i.e. what might you be doing in five years? ten years?)
- What advancement and other opportunities are before you?
- What kind of salary will you be likely to earn?
- What kinds of things are you doing right now to prepare for the kind of professional future that you anticipate? In what ways are you being "enculturated" into a new community?
Can you answer those questions for me? Or at least most of them? It might not be easy. You'll probably have to do some footwork to find the answers to the questions I've raised. Talk to your professors or colleagues. See what you can find in a local career center. Call up your knowledgeable relatives and family friends. Speak to your boss from your summer job or current position. Head to the library. Check the Web. Incidentally, you'll be gathering information that may be useful when you do undertake a job search.
As I say, I consider this your professional introduction to me. Let me know what kind of beginning professional you are.
Requirements for Memo
Your job in this memo is twofold: to teach me something about you and your professional prospects, and to show me an early sample of the writing abilities you will bring to English 202D. When evaluating your memo, I will use the general criteria described in the course syllabus and the following specific requirements outlined below.
Content
You must provide information on the questions I've raised above, and you should also indicate in some way the source of your information. Be aggressive and ambitious! Teach me! And use specific details, examples, and quotations (direct or indirect) to explain and support your points.
Organization
Write your report in the form of a memo (double-space this one, please) addressed to me, as your instructor. The introduction should include a clear purpose statement--what kind of report this is, why you're writing it, what it will be about. The report should be organized as a report, not as a narrative--that is, organize in some way around the information you have to give, not according to the process you went through to gather information and not according to your life's chronology.
Length
The memo should be about 1200-1500 words long. In any case, I will not read more than 1800 words.
While you should explore each topic that I've listed above, you may well find that one topic deserves special emphasis. You may focus--almost entirely--on that topic in your report, as long as you briefly address the others. Consider keeping an eye and ear out for the skills, abilities, and experiences that seem most important for people starting off in your field. If, like many students, you don't have a definite position in mind right now, take this assignment as an opportunity to explore some possibilities.
Assignment #2: Proposal for Formal Analytical Report
General Instructions
For this assignment you are to write a formal proposal letter seeking my approval for the project for the final assignment-your formal analytical report. The proposal is the first document in a sequence leading up to that final assignment. This sequence includes the proposal (Assignment #2), the progress report (Assignment #5), and the formal analytical report (Assignment #6). When writing the proposal, think of me as someone who wants to be sure that you choose a project from which you can learn a great deal and on which you can do a good job. I need to be convinced that this project is important and that you have the ability to complete it.
While I am willing to consider a wide range of topics for your report, you must persuade me that you have chosen a worthwhile issue that you are capable of handling well. In reading your proposal letter, I will be looking for answers to the following questions:
- What problem will your report address? Have you clearly defined a conflict between a desired situation and the current situation?
- Whose problem is it? Who will read the report? What is your position relative to your readers?
- Why is this problem significant for these readers? What's at stake?
- Do you have a possible solution to the problem? Have you established what a good solution would require? Have you thought about alternative plausible solutions?
- What makes you qualified to carry out the project? How is the topic related to your major? Your career plans? I prefer projects that give you practice writing the kind of document that you may have to prepare on the job.
- What will it take to gather the necessary information and complete your analyses? Can you complete your report in the time left in this semester, using resources readily available to you?
- Do you have a work plan for your project , a plan that shows specifically when certain activities must be completed this semester if you are to finish the project on time?
Proposal Format
The format of this assignment should be that of a formal business letter. Select your information and organize it in such a way that it is persuasive and accessible. Include
- An introduction that tells me why you are writing.
- A section on the problem , including an explicit well-developed problem statement. Convince me that your audience is facing a tough and important problem.
- A section describing your plans for researching the problem and developing a solution. Convince me that you know what kind of information you'll need and where to find it. Include an analysis of your readers and what information they'll need in order to adopt your solution.
- A discussion of your credentials . Convince me that you have the background and resources necessary to conduct your research.
- A schedule . Convince me that you know what activities your research will require and that you can get them done on time.
- A conclusion that formally requests permission to proceed.
Your proposal should persuade me that a significant problem exists in a real organization and that you should be permitted to solve it. You do not have to have the solution to the problem at this time; rather you are suggesting that the organization must invest its faith in you to research a solution.
You should probably begin your letter by convincing me that a significant need exists that calls for the work you propose. In short, how will your project benefit the organization and the audience for your formal report? Sometimes convincing the reader will be relatively easy, but other times it will be difficult to get your reader to acknowledge that a significant problem exists.
After you have convinced your reader of a need for your work, include a detailed description of your work plan. Will you go to the library and research the latest techniques in your field? Will you write a computer program? Will you investigate the cost of new equipment? Will you talk to people who have solved the problem for other organizations? Some combination of these? Convince me that this plan for research is the right path leading to a solution and that the time exists in this semester to do the work well. This work plan must also be plotted with time; you must indicate what work you will be doing during each of the weeks left in the semester. You should also have sections of your proposal detailing the resources you have to solve this problem and your qualifications to do this work.
Grading
In grading this proposal, I will be evaluating it on its persuasiveness and organization; I will be looking to see that you are taking on an actual project related to your professional and academic expertise and that you can complete the project by the end of the semester. Make your proposal convincing; demonstrate that you have singled out a worthwhile problem to solve and that you are the researcher to solve it.
Assignment #3: Job Application Packet
Most people obtain positions through a multistage process. First you research the types of positions you are qualified for and the types of employers you would like to work for. Then you try to convince specific employers to consider you for a job. These days, most employers have too many applications per job to interview each applicant personally. These employers sort through résumés and cover letters to decide which applicants to consider further. Your first communication with your future employer is likely to be in writing and must persuade him or her to continue the conversation!
For this assignment you will write
- Two résumés and two cover letters addressed to different prospective employers for two separate positions. The documents should highlight different aspects of your experience relevant to each position.
- A cover memo addressed to me that gives an overview of the two positions, reviews what you know about these particular employers, and describes how you have adapted your letter and résumé to each situation. I expect to see this information reflected in the issues you present in your résumés and cover letters to the employers. The purpose of this memo is to make it easy for me to understand the decisions about audience and purpose that you have made in your résumé/cover letter packet.
Additional Information about the Résumés
Purpose
The résumé should describe your qualifications for a specific type of position. You will create two different résumés for this assignment, each addressing a specific position. The résumés may overlap in content somewhat, but should differ in the order of presentation, content, and emphasis.
Content
Your résumé should include contact information and relevant details about your education, professional training, special accomplishments, and skills. A résumé is not a life history, but rather an argument that you are qualified for a particular position and that you would be a capable, responsible employee who communicates effectively.
Format
Your format may be traditional or innovative, as long as the information is highly accessible and highlights the most important items from the employer's perspective. Limit the length to one or, at the most, two pages.
Style
Your style should be fairly formal. You need not use complete sentences, but you should use active voice and pay particular attention to parallel structure.
Additional Information about the Cover Letters
Purpose
While your résumé is addressed to any employer with a certain type of job opening, the cover letter is most effective when it is tailored to a particular employer. The purpose of the cover letter is to persuade that employer to grant you an interview. Tailor your choice of details and explanations to the employer's values and interests.
Content and Organization
The opening of your letter should establish who your are, what position you are applying for, how you learned of the position, and why you would like to work for that particular company. Your goal is to show the reader both that you know what the specific company needs and that you have the qualifications.
Preview the body of the letter by stating your major qualifications for the position. Make sure that this qualification statement is specific and unique. Everyone will likely have the education and experience to make him or her an appropriate candidate; what do you, individually, have to offer? The body of the letter develops each qualification with specific, illustrative evidence. You may organize this section in various ways: around your training and experience or around what the position or the company requires. The letter should close by inviting a response and making it easy to arrange an interview.
Format
Use conventional business letter format. Try to keep the length of your letter to one page. Employers impose a strict standard of correctness on application letters and résumés. I will do the same.
Style
While cover letters should be polite and fairly formal, you also want them to sound individualized and reflect your personality. Otherwise, how will your application stand out from the others? Why should you be chosen over everyone else? The best policy is to talk to your reader as directly and naturally as possible, avoiding bombastic, hyper-elevated vocabulary.
Additional Information about the Memo
Write a brief memo, no more than three pages, addressed to me. Describe each position you are applying for and analyze the two audiences that you have chosen. Include a rhetorical analysis highlighting how you specifically adapted your résumés and cover letters to the different positions. Since writing the memo will help you in designing the résumés and cover letters, you may want to work on it first. But you should review it carefully after you have completed the other documents to be certain that it reflects your rhetorical decisions.
Job Description
You may base your job descriptions on listings that you find in professional or trade journals, in newspapers, on the Internet, or at the Career Development and Placement Services (CDPS) office in Boucke Building. The positions should be different enough that you will have to emphasize different parts of your experience to qualify for the positions. You should specify any particular qualities or experience that the company may be looking for in candidates for the position. For example, a small company may be looking for an accountant who can work on a variety of projects, while another may be looking specifically for someone with experience in tax accounting. If you use language such as the mission statement of an organization in your description, make sure you cite it properly!
If you are not graduating at the end of this semester, with my permission you may develop one résumé/cover letter for an internship or scholarship. You may also, with my permission, develop one résumé/cover letter for graduate school or law school. At least one of your audiences, however, must be within a business or public corporation or organization.
Audience Analysis
Investigate the particular companies to which you are applying. Information on many companies is available from the library, the Internet, and CDPS. You may also contact the personnel office of the company directly. Describe the company and its values: when was the company founded, where is it located, what does the organization do, how many employees does it have, what character traits does it look for in its workers.
This is also the place to describe anything you know about the particular person you are writing to. Is it someone who already knows you, or knows Penn State? Is it someone without much knowledge of you or your educational background and work experience? I expect you to make extensive use of this information in the organization and choice of details in your résumé and cover letter.
Rhetorical Analysis
Describe how you have adapted each résumé and cover letter for the particular position, company, and reader. Think about the various changes you made in content, arrangement, and style. Normally, your reasons will be closely related to the information in the job description and audience analysis.
Assignment #4: Business Letter Packet
General Instructions
Writing letters is an important part of most professional positions. For this assignment you will demonstrate your ability to apply a variety of writing strategies to specific situations by writing four business letters and a memo to me explaining your rhetorical choices in each letter.
To accomplish this assignment, you need to craft rhetorical situations on which to base your reasons for writing the letters.
The packet should include
- An interview follow-up letter;
- A sales or donation request letter;
- A "bad-news" letter;
- Another letter selected from the other types of letters covered in your text;
- A memo to me analyzing the rhetorical strategies for each of the four letters.
If you want to, you may create one large scenario that will allow you to write the entire letter series.
Memo
For the memo to me, describe the situation for which each letter was written, or the single, overarching situation if you used one large scenario for the entire series. In addition to describing the situation(s), provide a brief analysis of your rhetorical considerations for crafting each letter. Think about your selection of details, style, format, and organization.
Letter Format
Please use standard block or modified block format. Single-space all documents, create letterheads where appropriate, and be creative. Have some fun here, while maintaining an appropriate and professional demeanor.
Assignment #5: Progress Report
General Instructions
For your fifth assignment, you are to write a letter apprising me of the progress that you are making on your final project and asking me for any help you might need. You can do this by
- Reminding me briefly what your project is: Tell me about your audience, and the problem you are solving or helping to solve for this audience, and how you propose to solve it.
- Summarizing what you have done so far in enough detail and with enough specificity to convince me that you are making substantial and appropriate progress toward being able to write a report at the end of the semester. What resources have you used? What experts have you interviewed? What kinds of lab work, computer work, and library research have you done?
- Stating what remains to be done.
- Describing what problems you've had or foresee that you will have in finishing this project by the end of this term. Remember, I am here to help you; communicate your problems and maybe I can suggest an alternative research path or put you in contact with a local expert.
- Explaining any changes in your work schedule that have emerged since you wrote your proposal.
You must also use appropriate business letter format, but double-space this letter so that I can review it more easily. Organize your letter into a beginning that includes your purpose, a middle that carries out your purpose, and an ending.
In addition to your letter, include a tentative outline of Assignment #6, your formal analytical report, as an appendix.
Assignment #6: Formal Analytical Report
General Instructions
Write the formal analytical report that you described in Assignment #2, your proposal letter. The report must
- define a problem
- analyze the criteria for a satisfactory solution
- propose one or more alternative solutions, and
- argue for the solution that satisfies the criteria best.
The problem may involve a specific institutional, technical, or public policy issue that you are working on or have worked on in your other courses; or it may be something related to an organization which you belong to; or it may be related to a job that you've held or now hold; or it may be a new area that you are interested in. The solution to the problem may involve coming up with an original design, choosing between available alternatives, or providing needed information. See this report as a kind of "final exam" for our course-a place to demonstrate everything that you've learned about writing in this course.
The Rhetorical Situation
For the purposes of this report, you should find a situation in which you are writing the report to a primary reader who has "commissioned" it (as a result of Assignment #2) and who has the authority to reject or use your work. So the primary goal of your report is to convince this reader to adopt your solution. The report may also have secondary audiences, as well-for example, it may serve as a plan for the technical staff that will implement the solution and as an historical record of the decision-making process for future readers.
The problem situation should be real. A real situation is one that you have actually encountered: it might involve a current or former employer, the university, your major department, or a service group to which you belong. You should make sure that some employer or sponsor has authorized you to use your specialized training to analyze some problem or question and find a solution.
Requirements of the Report
Audience and Style
Your report should be written directly to a person within your real situation who has the authority to decide whether to accept your recommendations. Your tone should be appropriate to the situation-in most cases, it will be fairly formal.
Body of Report
All reports should introduce a problem, analyze criteria for a solution, evaluate at least one solution against the criteria and recommend the best solution.
Front and End Matter
Your report should include
- a cover page,
- a letter or memo of transmittal,
- title page,
- executive summary,
- table of contents,
- at least two visual aids,
- references, and
- appendices.
Mechanics
The report should be flawless to show a serious and professional endeavor.
Length
Excluding front and end matter, your report needs to be as long as it needs to be, BUT, there is no way it could be less than eight pages (2000 words). I would prefer that you keep it under 20 pages (5000 word.s)
A. Rhetorics
Bovee, Courtland L. and John V. Thill, Business Communication Today . 7th ed. Prentice Hall. 0-13-092858-5
Flower, Linda and John Ackerman, Writers at Work: Strategies for Communicating in Business and Professional Settings. Harcourt Brace. 1994. ISBN: 0155000071.
Guffey, Mary Ellen. Essential of Business Communication. 5th ed. South-Western College Publishing Company. 2001. ISBN: 0-324-01362-0.
Inkster, Robert P. and Judith Kilborn, The Writing of Business. Allyn and Bacon. 1999. ISBN: 0-205-27628.
Kolin, Philip C. Successful Writing at Work. 7th Ed. Houghton Mifflin. 2004. ISBN: 0-618-29842-8
Lehman and Himstreet, Business Communication. 11th ed. Southwestern Publishing Co. 1995. ISBN: 0538847786.
Ober, Scot. Fundamentals of Contemporary Business Communication. Houghton Mifflin. 2004. ISBN: 0-618-07372-8
O'Hair, Friedrich, Dixon. Strategic Communication in Business and the Professions. 4th Ed. Houghton Mifflin. 2002. ISBN: 0-618-12200-1
O'Hair, O'Rourke, O'Hair. Business Communication: A Framework for Success. South-Western College Publishing. 2001. ISBN: 0-324-01415-5.
Oliu, Walter E., et al., Writing That Works. 6th ed. St. Martin's Press. 1998. ISBN: 0312153902.
Thill, John V. and Courtland L. Bovee, Excellence in Business Communication. 5th ed. Prentice Hall. 1999. ISBN: 0-13-0947-5.
B. Style Handbooks
Style manual or guidelines used in the student's discipline.
Alfred, Gerald J., et al., The Business Writer's Handbook. 6th ed. Bedford/ St. Martins. 2000. ISBN: 0-312-19805-1.
Lanham, Richard. Revising Prose. 3rd ed. Prentice Hall. 1991. ISBN: 0023674458. (see also the latest edition of Lanham's Revising Business Prose )
Williams, Joseph, Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. Addison-Wesley. 1993. ISBN: 0673465934.
(Note: According to Department policy, instructors may use other textbooks with the permission of the Composition Programs director.)
