Government & Business Correspondence
Overview, Textbooks, Policies, Grades

Government & Business Correspondence (ETWR 1373) focuses on business correspondence delivered through common media (business letters, memos, e-mail, and reports), across organizational hierarchies (work associates at lower, same, and higher organizational levels), and based in typical situations (good news, bad news, policy and schedule changes, information requests, reprimands, rationales, denials, and other tricky business-communication situations). Emphasizes clear, tactful, succinct, direct, well-structured writing that gets the job done.

Overview of Course Objectives

• Successfully analyze business-correspondence situations, especially in terms of organization hierarchy.
• Properly fFormat business letters, memo, and e-mails.
• Use appropriate strategies for difficult rhetorical situations in business correspondence.
• Carefully, tactfully, effectively manage tone in business correspondence.
• Use proper content, organizational, and filing strategies for e-mail.
• Demonstrate awareness of the special problems involving e-mail.
• Apply the principles of good writing and document design in business correspondence.

Textbooks: Required & Supplemental

Required:

John V. Thill, Courtland L. Bovee. Business Communication, activebook version 2.0. Pearson/Prentice Hall. ISBN 013141786X.

Recommended:

• Alred, Brusaw, and Oliu. Handbook of Technical Writing, Any edition. Bedford/St. Martin's.
• Toby D. Atkinson. Merriam-Webster's Guide to International Business Communications. Second Edition.

Course Policies

• All assignments must be word-processed, printed, and handed in (or sent by e-mail attachment) on the due date. Late assignments will be penalized one full grade for each day late.
• This course includes a number of activities (such as quizzes, analyses, sentence revisions) which you'll do in your journal or in the chatroom. Your work on these activities will be counted as part of your final grade.
• Nearly every week there will be a chatroom meeting involving activities that we will do together. Your work on these activities will be counted as part of your final grade.
• Plagiarism is a serious academic offense that will lead to an F in this course and possibly academic probation from ACC. This is damaging to your record, and is not worth the price. Do your own work at all times. If you have questions about what constitutes plagiarism, address these concerns to your instructor before turning in an assignment.
• If you receive a C or lower on any assignment, you may be invited to re-do the assignment. If you choose to accept this invitation, the revised assignment is due no later than one week from the extension of the invitation.
• Grades are based on the following criteria:

A: Excellent	Grammar is impeccable. Document excellently meets the needs of the target audience. Imaginative and proficient application of assignment guidelines. Strong and consistent definition of audience and purpose. Thoughtful, innovative, and complete presentation of subject matter to meet audience needs. Skillful adaptation of language to meet audience needs. Writing reflects consistency of standard usage and is free from all errors attributed to careless proofing.
B: Good	Meets assignment guidelines effectively. Purpose and audience capably defined. Appropriate development of subject matter for reader needs. Organization suitable for audience use. Design and illustration suitable to support audience needs. Style consistently free from mechanical and usage errors.
C: Average	Meets assignment guidelines adequately. Acceptable definition of audience and purpose. Development of subject matter sufficient to audience needs. Organization present. Adequate use of design and illustration to meet audience needs. Style generally appropriate to purpose and audience. Writer demonstrates general mastery of standard written English conventions.
D: Poor	Meets assignment objectives marginally. Scanty definition of audience and purpose. Subject insufficiently or inconsistently developed or presented for the intended audience. Organization demonstrating marginal awareness of logic, sequence, or connection. Design and illustration inadequate to meet reader needs. No discernable style relative to audience and purpose. Writer demonstrates unsatisfactory mastery of standard written English conventions.
F: Failure	Assignment fails to meet stated objectives. Lack of a defined audience or purpose. Subject unsuitable or inadequately developed for audience. Lacking in organizational plan or logical connections between ideas, sentences, or paragraphs. Unsatisfactory use of design and illustrations. Inconsistent style or inappropriate tone. Writer demonstrates poor command of standard written English conventions.

• Your final grade will be calculated this way:

Category	Percentage
Correspondence/writing projects	50
Questionnaire, personal memo	5
Chatroom participation	10
Journal entry	15
Quizzes	20

• You must keep copies of your assignments when they are returned. If there is a grading question at the end of the semester, you will need these assignments to make your case. The instructor will keep a grading sheet, but you are responsible for keeping all returned assignments in case there are any questions after the semester ends.

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