Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Week 1	Aug 22 Classes start @ 4pm	Aug 23	Aug 24 -Introduction to class, peers, syllabi -Assign Introductory Memo (show ex)	Aug 25	Aug 26 -Begin Fake Company creation -Chapter 1 Discussion
Week 2	Aug 29 -Intro to Document Design	Aug 30	Aug 31 -More on Document Design -Small in-class assignment	Sept 1	Sept 2 -Bring in resume info: create functional and chronological resumes
Week 3	Sept 5 No Class	Sept 6	Sept 7 -More resume work/revision -Hand in 2 different designs	Sept 8	Sept 9 -Application Letters -Examples (find ad over weekend)
Week 4	Sept 12 -Application Letter work/revision -Hand in 2 different letters	Sept 13	Sept 14 -More on Pre-Interview preparation -Research a company	Sept 15	Sept 16 -Intro to Interviewing -“How do you show you are an asset?”
Week 5	Sept 19 -Conduct “Fake” Interviews	Sept 20	Sept 21 -Conduct “Fake” Interviews -Intro to Summaries	Sept 22	Sept 23 -Analysis of Interviews/Summary -Discussion of Interviews
Week 6	Sept 26 -More Summaries (examples) -Intro to Memos (revise Intro Memos)	Sept 27	Sept 28 -More Memo types -Fake Company Situation (Memo)	Sept 29	Sept 30 -Intro to Report types
Week 7 Assmnt Week	Oct 3 -Report Work	Oct 4 No Classes 1-5pm	Oct 5 -Report Work	Oct 6	Oct 7 -Peer Review of Report
Week 8 Mid-Terms	Oct 10 -Group Work for Presentations -Hand in Report by end of class time	Oct 11	Oct 12 -Mid-Term Presentation and Mid-Term Evaluation Letter due	Oct 13	Oct 14 No Class Prof Day
Week 9	Oct 17 -Intro to Long Collaborative Report	Oct 18 Deficiencies Due	Oct 19	Oct 20	Oct 21
Week 10	Oct 24	Oct 25	Oct 26 -Peer Review of Long Collaborative Report	Oct 27	Oct 28 -Hand in Long Collaborative Report
Week 11	Oct 31 -Intro to Proposals	Nov 1	Nov 2	Nov 3	Nov 4
Week 12	Nov 7 -Peer Review of Proposals	Nov 8	Nov 9 -Hand in Proposals	Nov 10	Nov 11 No Class Veteran’s Day
Week 13	Nov 14 -Intro to Instructions	Nov 15	Nov 16	Nov 17	Nov 18 -Hand in Instructions assignment -Preparation for second interviews
Week 14	Nov 21 -“Fake” Interviews	Nov 22	Nov 23 -“Fake” Interviews	Nov 24 No Class Thanksgivg	Nov 25 No Class Thanksgivg
Week 15	Nov 28 -Summarize second interviews -Portfolio Work	Nov 29	Nov 30 -Portfolio Work	Dec 1	Dec 2 -Group Work -Hand in Portfolio
Week 16	Dec 5 -Group Work	Dec 6	Dec 7 -Presentations of Fake Company	Dec 8	Dec 9 -Presentations of Fake Company
Week 17 Finals Week	Dec 12 *During Finals Week: Hand back portfolios and hand out grades	Dec 13 11am class final @ 12	Dec 14 8am/1pm finals @ 8am & 2pm *Final grades go in tomorrow	Dec 15 10am/3pm finals @ 10am & 4pm	Dec 16
Week 18	Dec 19	Dec 20	Dec 21 Grades due by 9am	Dec 22	Dec 23
	Dec 26	Dec 27	Dec 28	Dec 29	Dec 30
	Jan 2	Jan 3	Jan 4	Jan 5	Jan 6
	Jan 9 Classes start @ 4pm	Jan 10	Jan 11	Jan 12	Jan 13

Course Description:

This course concentrates on business correspondence, informal report writing, technical communication, job preparation, and oral presentation.

Course Focus:

This course is designed to strengthen a student’s background in writing business and technical communication. Students will also gain the knowledge to present oral information to audiences with varying levels of technical expertise.

Text and Materials:

>Book- Searles, George J. Workplace Communications. New York: Longman, 2003.

>Two 3.5” computer disks or a USB storage device

Attendance:

>Attendance is crucial to understanding all of the course materials and to earning a passing grade.

>Students with excused absences (illness with a doctor’s note, school-sponsored activities, military duty, or family emergencies) have two weeks to make up missed assignments.

>If a student misses 5 class periods due to unexcused absences, 10 points will be deducted from his/her final points. If a student misses 7 class periods, 20 points will be deducted from his/her total points. If a student were to miss 9 or more class periods, he/she would receive an F for the course.

Assignments:

Daily- Discussions of readings, 10 point assignments

Throughout the semester- 2 “Fake” Interviews, Mid-Term Presentation

By the end of the semester-

>Individual Professional Portfolio which includes one final draft of each (to be displayed in your Individual Professional Portfolio):

>Resume

>Application Letter

>Memo

>Business Letter

>Proposal

>Report

>Summary

>Fake Company documents and Final Presentation

Details of Assignments:

>The Fake Company documents and Final Presentation- The connecting theme throughout the entire semester will be the fake company. In groups

of no more than three students, a fake company will be created along with documents that a company must posess such as a logo,

motto, job descriptions, organizational charts, etc. These documents will be created by students and revised by students throughout the semester. At the end of the semester, a Final Presentation will be given by the group of students “showing off” their company and all of its documents. If the group elects to put together a Power Point Presentation, bonus points will be awarded. [100 points for the Fake Company final documents and Final Presentation]

>“Fake” Interviews- After completion of this course, students will have tested their interviewing skills through two “fake” interviews. Both

interviews will be videotaped, and students will get to view themselves afterwards and critically analyze what they did well in the interview as well as what they could have done better. The second interview will allow students to improve upon the first interview. Both interviews will be conducted in class, and both interviews must be accompanied by summaries (of what went well and not so well) in order to receive full credit. [50 points for each interview]

>Mid-Term Presentation- This Presentation will be a laid-back presentation of students’ work up to the mid-term point of the semester. Students

should bring in all documents they have designed thus far including group work on the Fake Company. At this time, students will also write and read out loud a Mid-Term Evaluation Letter to the class and teacher concerning what they have learned so far and what they would like to learn more about. [25 points for Mid-Term Presentation and Mid-Term Evaluation Letter]

>Individual Professional Portfolio- This portfolio will be a representation of all of the finalized documents students will create and revise

throughout the semester. The portfolio should be contained in a professional-looking folder and contain specific documents (which have been revised thoroughly) as required by the instructor such as a resume, an application letter, a few different types of memos and business letters, as well as larger projects such as proposals and reports. [200 points]

>Resume-

>Application Letter-

>Memo-

>Business Letter-

>Proposal-

>Report-

>Summary- Many summaries will be created throughout the semester. Students will get to choose the best one that they have created/written for

their Individual Professional Portfolio.

Application Letters are letters which are meant to be personable, professional, and persuasive. The letter of application should respond to the kinds of qualifications the employer seeks. This letter also should emphasize the most relevant details in a resume.

Business Letters are correspondence between companies and between companies and consumers which are vital to the success of a company. This types of letters can usually be divided into the following four categories: inquiry letters, special request letters, sales letters, and customer relations letters.

Instructions “explain how to perform a task in a step-by-step manner” (Kolin 568).

Memos are a type of writing one can expect to prepare frequently in any job. Memos are “brief in-house correspondence sent up and dwon the corporate ladder” (Kolin 124).

Proposals are a detailed plan of action that a writer submits to a reader for approval. The ingredients for a winning proposal are: time, budget, and satisfaction.

A short report is “an organized presentation of relevant data on any topic that a company tracks in its day-to-day operations” (Kolin 651). These types of reports include: periodic reports, sales reports, progress reports, trip/travel reports, test reports, and incident reports. Long reports are a “major study that provides an in-depth view of the problem” (691).

A resume contains a factual and concise summary of one’s qualifications.

Works Cited:

Kolin, Phillip C. Successful Writing At Work. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 2004.