Comp 3121: Advanced Writing Business and Organizations
Section 1 Spring 2005
8:00-8:50 MWF Mont Hall 206
Instructor: Susan Perala-Dewey Class Alias: comp3121-1-s2005
Office: Hum 419 Phone: 726-6726
Mailbox: Hum 420 Email: speralad@d.umn.edu
Office Hours: M, W 9:00-11:00 or by appointment
Description/Goals: COMP 3121 focuses on professional writing in business and organizations, especially for audiences who must make decisions based on your writing. We will work on planning, composing, revising, and editing several types of writing. Assignments and activities will address the principles of effective writing and your ability to apply them to specific writing tasks. Because the primary course objective is to prepare you to work in a professional setting, professional standards will be set. Our primary goals will be toward building awareness of the importance of professional communication and to that end, becoming more competent and confident writers.
Prerequisites: COMP 1120 or equivalent; 60 semester credits. You should also be familiar with the library’s research facilities and equipment; if you are not, please seek instruction from a reference librarian.
Required Materials:
Thill and Bovée, Excellence in Business Communications, 6th edition
Riley, Campbell, Manning, and Parker, Revising Professional Writing
Two file folders; some photocopying expenses
Special Needs: If you have a disability that may affect your performance in this class, please inform me at the start of the semester. Methods, materials, or testing will be adapted as required for equitable participation.
Course policies:
1) Out of class writing assignments must be word processed in 12-point type and laser printed.
2) Late assignments will be docked 10% (one letter grade) of their possible value per day they are late.
3) This course relies heavily on discussion of sample texts, student drafts, and in-class exercises, so your attendance, participation, and attitude are part of your grade. Missing class will lower your grade. If you must miss class, please let me know, but plan to get notes, handouts and the assignment from a classmate. Make arrangements for this with another student during the first week of class.
4) Plagiarism (presenting another person’s ideas or words as your own) will be grounds for failing this course; further disciplinary action may be taken by individual colleges. When we use workshops to generate suggestions for revision, you may incorporate these into your writing. However, your final product should be written in your own words and reflect your own work. Likewise, passages from sample texts should not be copied verbatim; they are meant only to suggest approaches to particular assignments.
5) At the end of the semester, you are required to submit all graded assignments, including drafts (in a portfolio) to your instructor. Do not throw away work returned to you.
Grading standards: In general, your work will be graded on the effectiveness of its development, organization, style and format, as well as mechanical correctness. Consideration will also be given to improvement of writing throughout the semester. Conferencing throughout the semester, as well as the attention given revision and to your writing portfolio will also be regarded in determining your grade. To receive and “A” in this course, your work – whether it is a paper, daily exercises, class participation, group participation, peer review, quizzes, or tests – must be consistently excellent throughout the semester. In-class writing is graded on content and effort. Formal papers will be graded according to a set of criteria you will receive in advance, but the guidelines below give you an idea of the grading standards.
“A” writing is superior in both form and content.
“B” writing is superior in either form or content and at least competent in other areas.
“C” writing is competent but unremarkable in both form and content.
“D” writing is deficient in either form or content but competent in other areas.
“F” writing is deficient in both form and content.
Grades will be determined as follows:
Assignment Maximum Points
Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Group Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Progress Report I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Report (50) Preliminary Outline (30)
Annotated Bibliography (20)
Progress Report II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Report (30) Detailed Outline (50)
Works Cited (20)
Analysis & Recommendation Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Front Matter (25) Executive Summary (25)
Report Text (200) Oral Presentation (50)
*Daily Work (participation, peer review, attitude) . . . . 100
Weekly Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
RPW Work/Quizzes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
**Final Exam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
*Daily Work totals will be 10% of your grade.
**The final exam will take place as scheduled during final exam week.
Final grade scale: Although your grade is at the instructor’s discretion, it will be based on the percentage of total points earned, according to the scale below:
93-100% = A 87-89% = B+ 77-79% = C+ 67-69% = D+
90-92% = A- 83-86% = B 73-77% = C 60-66% = D
80-82% = B- 70-72% = C- 60% = F
The following syllabus is tentative, and subject to change. I will give you as much notice as possible for changes in assignments or due dates. You are responsible for changes announced in class or transmitted via e-mail. Check your e-mail regularly! Daily exercises will be assigned and quiz dates will be announced as we go along. The assigned readings should be completed before class so they can be discussed the day they are listed; EBC stands for Excellence in Business Communication and RPW stands for Revising Professional Writing.
Week Topic/Readings Written Assignment Due
1 – Jan 19 Introduction to course/writing process
Jan 21 The communication situation; ECB 1-27 Diagnostic Memo
2 – Jan 24 Writer-based vs. reader-based prose; EBC 92-117 EBC exercises
Jan 26 Informative prose; paragraph unity; parallel
structure; RPW Chps. 1, 4, & 9 RPW exercises
Jan 28 Proposal Dialogue Email 3 topic ideas
3 -- Jan 31 Proposal case study; EBC pp. 308-322 Case study exercise
Feb 2 Proposal Components; EBC pp. 322-346 Library assignment
Feb 4 Graphics; Format; Tone; RPW Chps. 3, 7, & 12 RPW exercises
4 – Feb 7 Proposal Workshop Draft of Proposal
Feb 9 Organizing informational reports Conferences
EBC pp. 316-19, 344-46
Feb 11 Interpreting and illustrating statistical
information; EBC pp. 354-356; 377-385
5 - Feb 14 Collaborative Writing; EBC pp. 33-60 Proposal
Feb 16 Sample informative reports; Cohesion; Informative Report Critical
Sentence fragments; RPW Chps. 5 & 14 Analysis
Feb 18 Conciseness, RPW Chp. 8; EBC pp. 172-174 RPW exercises
**Resource/Ideas Workshop**
6 – Feb 21 MLA Style; Annotated Bibliographies; EBC pp. 420-421
Feb 23 Group Project Workshop
Feb 25 Letters of Consent; Primary research methods; Group Project
EBC pp. 325-336
7 – Feb 28 Progress Reports; EBC pp 312-313 survey/interview questions
Mar 2 Sample progress reports; Outlines; Progress report analysis
Mar 4 Conclusions vs. recommendations; EBC p. 356-358
8 – Mar 7 Effective argumentation; EBC pp. 266-279; RPW Ch. 2
Mar 9 Interpreting evidence/Audience analysis sample report exercise
Mar 11 Progress Report I Workshop
9 - Mar 14 Sample A & R reports; EBC 402-416 Progress Report I
Mar 16 Improving editing skills; RPW Chp. 13 RPW exercises
EBC Appendix C
Mar 18 Report readability; Headings & Transitions RPW exercises
EBC pp. 377-385; RPW chp. 6
----March 19-27th ---- Spring Break ---- Enjoy!
10 –Mar 28 Detailed outlines; Using sources; Viewpoint;
EBC pp. 357-361; http://owl.english.purdue.edu
Mar 30 Front Matter; Supplementary parts; EBC pp. 400-421
Apr 1 Executive Summary, Letter of Transmittal
11 –Apr 4 Report analysis; EBC pp. 266-279 Conferences
Apr 6 Active/passive voice; Pronoun use; Progress Report II
RPW Chps. 10 & 17
Apr 8 A & R pitfalls to avoid
12 – Apr 11 Q & A on A & R
Apr 13 A & R Report Workshop
Apr 15 Electronic Portfolios
13 – Apr 18 Resumes; Application Letters; EBC pp. 476-508 A & R Draft
Apr 20 Oral report preparation; EBC pp. 442-468
Apr 22 Application Letters Workshop
14 - Apr 25 Oral Reports A & R Report
Apr 27 Oral Reports Peer Evaluations
Apr 29 Oral Reports Peer Evaluations
15 – May 2 Oral Reports Peer Evaluations
May 4 Oral Reports Peer Evaluations
May 6 Final Exam Preparation
FINAL EXAM, MONDAY, MAY 9, 2005, FROM 8:00-9:55 a.m.