E312. Written Communications in Business
Spring 2004
Brief syllabus: for details on course policies, grading, and assignments, please see below
Deborah C. Andrews
MEM 135
Phone: 302.831.8788
Email: dandrews@udel.edu
Web: www.english.udel.edu/dandrews
Office hours: Wednesday 9-10:30; Thursday 8-9; and by appointment
E-mail questions and comments are always welcome
Course Description
This course will help you develop effective strategies for communicating as a professional within an organization and with various external audiences, including clients and customers, the public, government agencies, and shareholders.
Learning Goals
1. Understand the apply the principles of effective communication in an increasingly global, technologically mediated, and complex business environment
2. Create effective, accessible, and well designed communication products that respond to the needs of specific situations, media, and audiences
3. Become familiar with the genres and conventions of professional communication and know how and when to adjust them for changing circumstances and technologies
4. Manage the development and presentation of communication products both individually and on a team
Texts
Management
Communication: A Guide. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.(MC)
Employment
Communications: A Supplement (EC)
Schedule
(Readings in the texts are in italics; written and oral assignments are bolded. Assignments are due at class time on the dates indicated. Other preliminary assignments are discussed on the Website. You must complete all assignments to pass the course.)
W 11 Feb The management communication process. Course goals and logistics.
W 18 Feb Memo: communication situation. MC chs 1,2, and pages ix-xii, 117-120, 122-126, 201-202. E-mail and memos. EC pp. 1-37. Employment communication.
W 25 Feb Memo: job search Websites. Draft resume. (3 copies). MC ch 3 and pages 120-122, 202-205; Letters. Audiences.
W 3 Mar Draft cover letter (with job description) (3 copies). E-mail on logistics for investigation report. Scenario briefings chs 1,2,3. MC ch 4 and pages 91-101. Interpersonal communication. Media and timing. EC pages 37-47.
W 10 Mar Employment interviews (in class). Final resume and cover letter. Scenario briefings ch 4,5. MC ch 5. Designing.
W 17 Mar Employment interviews (in class). First short genre example. MC ch 6 and pages 129-30, 206; EC pages 47-58. Creating visuals and text. Follow up communication. Performance evaluations. Reports. Documenting sources.
W 24 Mar Spring break
W 31 Mar Employment interviews (in class). Investigation report: Communication at work. MC chs 9,10 and pages 127-129. Verifying. Proposals. Group communication. Forming teams for client projects.
W 7 Apr Pre-proposal for client project. MC ch 11, Appendix A. Style. Virtual teamwork.
W 14 Apr Team proposal. Scenario briefings ch 7, 9. MC
pages 101-114. Presentations.
W 21 Apr Second short genre example. Scenario briefings ch 6,8. More on presentations and reports.
W 28 Apr Team oral reports (in class). Workshop on drafts of written reports
W 5 May Team oral reports (in class). Wrap up on oral reports. Workshop on drafts of written reports.
--by Monday 10
May. Client project final report------
W 12 May Scenario briefings ch 10,11. Crisis communication briefing. MC Appendix C. Wrap up on reports. Dealing with the public. Corporate reputation. Crisis Communication.
W 19 May Crisis
communication briefing. Memo of self assessment and
course reflection. Course portfolio.
Course Policies
Your obligations as a student
--This
course prepares you for your role as a professional, and professionals meet
obligations. So plan to attend every class. In addition, most classes will be
conducted as workshops, and that work will be hard to make up if you’re not
there. If you must miss a class, send me an e-mail in advance explaining why
and proposing a strategy for covering the work. If you’re convincing, I’ll
accept your approach. More than two absences will result in a reduction in your
grade.
--You
must complete all assignments by their due dates to pass the course. Brief
guidelines for each assignment are provided on the Website. The assignments
will also be the subject of extensive discussion in class. If you have any
questions about the assignments, ask them in class or in an e-mail to me or to
the class (ENGL312-020-04S@udel.edu ). I will respond
promptly to e-mails. In addition, in advance of the due date you are welcome to
confer with me online or in person about outlines or drafts of your proposed
work. When you hand in an assignment, it is assumed that you understood what
the assignment entailed and are submitting your best possible response.
Statement on plagiarism
Simply stated, “plagiarism” is presenting as
your own original work something that is not. Any work that you submit must be
your own. If you borrow any words, ideas, or information from other people and
include those under your name, you must properly document the borrowed
material. This requirement applies to visuals as well as text. Demonstrating
the highest levels of ethical behavior concerning the use of sources is a
significant element in both the content of this course and your behavior in it.
The University of Delaware protects the rights of all students by insisting
that individual students act with integrity. Accordingly, the University
severely penalizes plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty. If you
have any questions about why and how to document sources, please talk with me.
Criteria for the grade on each
assignment
A-Outstanding
The document more than meets the specifications for the
assignment.
The document demonstrates sensitivity to the context.
The document addresses the right
audience and meets that
audience's needs.
The content is worthwhile, rich,
accurate, and complete.
The organization emphasizes
what's important, makes information
easily accessible, motivates the
right audience response, sorts
the familiar from the new and
begins with the familiar.
The style is readable, fluid,
appropriate, and correct in grammar
and mechanics.
The format and design are
engaging and enhance content.
B-Good
The document meets the specifications for the assignment but
requires minor improvements in
content or organization or style or
design.
C-Satisfactory
The document meets the specifications for the assignment--but
only
minimally. It needs a new
organizational plan to make its
information accessible. It covers the topic only
superficially.
The text is hard to read and
demonstrates serious errors in
mechanics or grammar.
D-Just passing
The document meets only some of the specifications, its content
is
barely adequate, and it
demonstrates major errors in mechanics and
format.
F-Failure
The document doesn't meet the specifications of the assignment,
is
weak in content, and contains major and excessive errors.
Assignments
The
assignments in this course will help you understand the management
communication process and practice the genres that make that process work in
organizations worldwide. Think of this class as emphasizing the communication
dimension of everything you are learning in classes in your major, and take
advantage of the assignments to build your skills at writing and speaking in
your field. The following brief guidelines suggest features of each assignment
that will be subject to more commentary in class and in conferences and online
discussions outside of class.
Deadlines
for each graded assignment are given in the syllabus. These deadlines are firm
(see course policies). As in a professional setting, develop the habit of
asking questions and negotiating approaches in advance of deadlines for any
communication task. The weight of assignments in the final grade is:
Employment
package 15
percent
Communication
at work package 35
percent
Communication
needs assessment package 35
percent
Other
assignments, scenario briefings, class participation 15 percent
The
opening assignment provides a baseline for your understanding of the context of
organizational communication and the final assignment asks you to reflect on
where you’ve come from that baseline through your work in the course. That work
consists of three formal assignment packages: an employment package, an
investigation report on communication at work and two original examples of
workplace genres, and a team recommendation report based on a communication
needs assessment. In preparing these assignments you’ll be using e-mail and
discussions in class to set things up, exchange drafts, and otherwise shape your
work in ways that simulate such communication tasks on the job. In addition,
you’ll brief the class about the scenarios in the text and about crisis
communication. Because an important dimension of writing at work is writing in
teams and serving as commentators on others’ writing, you will be expected to
provide such commentary in peer review groups that will meet throughout the
semester, both in person and online. In class, we’ll discuss assigned exercises
and readings from the text and then work through the various phases of the
formal assignment packages and scenario briefings. Tutorials on selected topics
and individual as well as team conferences will round out our study of the
situations, genres, and styles of communication in management and business.
Save
all your assignments both electronically and as print documents. Compile the
graded print documents as a portfolio of your work. Place them in chronological
order in a manila folder with your name and e-mail address written on the tab,
and hand in that folder on the last day of class.
Description
of a communication situation. Apply the framework you
read about in chapters 1 and 2 of the text to describe a specific
organizational communication problem you faced and how you responded to that
problem. The setting might have been an office, a hospital, a restaurant, or
some other site where you work or recreate. Then describe, in a few paragraphs,
how you responded to that problem. Here are some questions to consider as you
prepare to write, but weave your responses into a coherent discussion, not just
a series of answers to implied questions. What caused the problem—why did you
need to communicate? What did you want to achieve in your communication
product? Who was your audience and what expectations did they have about your
message? How did you try to appeal to them? Did you have to make your message
very explicit or could you rely on a lot of shared understanding with the
audience? What medium of communication did you select, and why? What was the timing
for your message, and why did you send it when you did? Did your message work,
and how do you know? Did you need a few iterations of your message (including
responses from the audience to which you then responded, and so on) before it
worked?
Format:
memo to me (1 to 2 pages).
The
first module in the class focuses on the communication products of the job
search. Your work on these products should enhance your career preparation as
you also learn about the management communication process and the concept of a
genre system. As one part of the process, you’ll look into sites on the Web
that can provide assistance in locating a job or preparing job search materials
and write a brief memo, addressed to fellow students in your major, about one
or two such sites. You will also submit a draft resume and cover letter for
review by an editing group and then, based on the group’s comments, revise the
drafts and submit a final version. In addition, you will participate in a
(mock) employment interview in class, as either an interviewer or interviewee.
Deliverables for
grading:
Memo on job search Website(s) (1 to 2 pages)
Resume (1 page) and cover letter (1
page)
Communication
at work: Investigation report and short genre examples
Professionals
live by their words (and numbers and visuals).To help you understand the role
of written and oral communication in your chosen discipline, you’ll interview a
professional in that field and write two examples of the genres typical in that
setting. In preparation for this research, you’ll e-mail me about the person you will interview and the genres
you’d like to write (we will also talk about this). After we have clarified
your approach, you’ll then write the report and the two examples.
The
report will compile information from your interview. To arrange the interview,
send an e-mail to your potential informant (you may have to send more than one)
noting your request, briefly summarizing the purpose of the interview, perhaps
attaching the questionnaire, and arranging
logistics. As the situation requires, follow-up with other, more detailed
e-mails before the interview and certainly send a thank-you e-mail afterwards.
Copy me on all these e-mails.
A
phone interview is possible, but you’ll enrich your information if you can
conduct the interview in the person’s office and thus get a sense of the
environment within which she or he communicates. The interview should last
about one-half hour to an hour. Ask at least those questions in the
questionnaire; ask others as they suggest themselves and might help you
elucidate what makes for good communication in this context. You can learn much
from collecting samples of what the informant writes, but be prepared to
withdraw your request if you’re told that documents are proprietary or
confidential.
After
reviewing your notes from the interview, compose a highlight statement (one
sentence) that summarizes the informant’s responses. Then write a report that
supports that summary with evidence drawn from your conversation. Note findings
that are particularly interesting or unexpected. The audience for your report
is other students in your major who would like to understand the communication
tasks they’ll encounter on the job. It would be one of several such interview
reports posted on your department’s Web site under the category “Communication
in the [fill in the name of your discipline] workplace.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Communication at Work
Report Format
Informant’s
name and title
Date
of the interview and location
Background [Briefly describe the
organization in which the informant works, his/her role in that organization,
and his/her formal and informal preparation for communicating in that
situation]
Highlight [Provide a one-sentence
summary of the main point to be derived from your interview]
Discussion [Weave together the
information from your interview in support of that highlight statement. Include
information about the audiences, both inside and outside the organization, to
whom the informant writes and with whom he/s speaks, both formally and
informally; the purposes for writing or speaking; the genres the informant
uses; and the percentage of time on the job spent in communication.]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To
give you experience in writing the kinds of short documents typical of your
future workplace, we’ll develop two situations for writing to which you’ll
respond. You’ll need to assess the purpose (and intended outcome), audience,
form, medium, style, and timing of the message and then write something that
will work in that situation. For example, you might write a letter, memo, or
e-mail message that complains about a product or service---or responds to such
a complaint; proposes a new procedure or outlines a set of instructions;
announces a meeting, with agenda; summarizes the status of a project; or
details a plan for the care of a patient. Your interview, along with our
discussions, should help you recognize the genres of communication you need to
practice in this course and then help you set up the two short responses that
you will write.
Deliverables for grading
Investigation report (2 to 3 pages)
Two genre examples (about 1 page
each)
Recommendation
report: Communication needs assessment
On
a team of three, you will apply your growing understanding of the management
communication process to assist a client in testing some communication product
currently in use in his or her organization or to be created for the
organization. You will write a report to the client that contains your research
findings as well as recommended actions the client might take to improve the
product so that it meets its objective, that is, its desired outcome for the
audience. You’ll also include a prototype of the product. In addition to
looking at similar communication products from other contexts, you will talk
with the client and, especially, with the client’s target audience as the major
focus of your research.
The first step in undertaking this research is to form a research team. We’ll do that during a class session in which we also discuss a parallel step: finding the right client, both an organization and a specific person within that organization. You may already have someone in mind, perhaps the manager of an organization where you work or the head of a department in which you are a major. Student groups have developed special maps and brochures for disabled users of an art museum, analyzed and made recommendations concerning a prototype of the “UD and me” portal, and developed a set of Web pages for the Career Services Center on careers in a particular major, among other projects. A good source for potential clients is the listing of service learning opportunities maintained by the Career Center. As a model, we’ll discuss in class the possibility for assessing the University’s Town/Gown Committee Website (www.udel.edu/towngown/people.html).
Next,
your team will prepare a proposal that sets out the purpose/outcome, scope,
research method, and logistics of your work. Most important will be gaining
information from the target audience through, for example, surveys, focus
groups, and/or interviews. To complete the project, you’ll submit a final
written report to the client and present an oral report to the class. The
specific format, length, and approach of the written report will be the subject
of e-mails and conversations among your team, the client, and me during the
project. Early in the project, you will send me an e-mail naming your client,
describing the communication product you’ll be working with, and suggesting
your method for conducting research; additional e-mails and conversations during
the project will help you compose the final deliverables for grading.
Deliverables for grading
Project proposal to the client (2 pages)
Oral presentation to the class (10
minutes, with slides)
Final report to the client (5 or 6 pages)
Self assessment and
course reflection
In
a memo to me (no more than 2 pages), assess what you have learned in the
course. Use the opening assignment as a baseline. By the time you write this
assignment you should be able to analyze a communication situation in even
greater detail, with enhanced understanding. Your writing style should also
have improved. Review the stages of the management communication process and
discuss your proficiency at each stage. Note, too, the major genres in your
field as you have learned about them and judge your proficiency at both
producing and understanding each. In addition, since this is, after all, an
English course, comment on where you think you stand in establishing your own
voice in what you write, in being able to help an audience understand
something, in persuading an audience to see things your way, and in writing
both efficiently and effectively about complex subject matter. .
Communication
at Work: Interview Questionnaire
(based
on a questionnaire developed at the Department of English, North Carolina State
University)
Informant data
Name:
Job
title:
Approximate
number of employees in the company_____; at this location_____
Educational
background: School__________________________
Field/degree____________________;
year (not required)________
Did
you take a college course in technical, business, or scientific writing
that
was designed to prepare you for writing on the job? Y. N.
If
yes, was the course required? Yes _______ No _______
Writing and Speaking on
the Job
Are oral and written communication a part of
your performance appraisal? Yes
_______ No _______
How important is the quality of your writing
for the performance of your job?
Essential ______
Very important ______
Not very ______
Unimportant ______
Irrelevant ______
How important is the quality of your writing
to your career advancement?
Essential ______
Very important ______
Not very ______
Unimportant ______
Irrelevant ______
What percentage of your writing is produced
in response to someone else's
request (i.e., not on your own initiative)?
_________%
What percentage of your time is spent
working with others to plan and write
documents? _______%
What percentage of your time is spent
writing the following:
Memos ______% E-mail ______% Letters ______%
Formal printed documents ______%
Websites ______%
What percentage of your writing is sent to:
Vendors or suppliers ______% Regulators
_____% Clients or customers _____%
General public _____%
Managers (internal) ______% Subordinates
(internal) _____% Peers (internal)
_____%
What percentage of what you read at work is
written by:
Vendors or suppliers ______% Regulators
_____% Clients or customers _____%
General public _____%
Managers (internal) ______% Subordinates
(internal) _____% Peers (internal)
_____%
What percentage of your time is spent orally
communicating in the following
ways:
One-on-one: In person _____% Phone _____%
Group Meetings: In person _____% Teleconference
_____%
What percentage of your oral communication
is with the following:
Vendors or suppliers ______% Regulators
_____% Clients or customers _____%
General public _____%
Managers (internal) ______% Subordinates
(internal) _____% Peers (internal)
_____%
Global/International Communication
What percentage of your time communicating
on the job is with people from
other countries? _____%
What percentage of your international
communication is with the following:
Vendors or suppliers ______% Regulators
_____% Clients or customers _____%
General public _____%
Managers (internal) ______% Subordinates
(internal) _____% Peers (internal)
_____%