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In 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.
See the Course Calendar for a calendar-style view of semester due dates.
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Note: This is a new course and a new book. Therefore, we just can't be certain of the timings. The essential part of this course corresponds to Chapter 8 through 11 of the textbook. Below, you'll notice quite a few projects listed in relation to these chapters. Our plan will be to select a few to group-write during class times and have you select one of each type to write outside of class. That's the plan anyway . . .
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| Instructor |
David A. McMurrey |
| Class meetings |
Mon/Wed 12:00-1:15 pm |
| Office |
Northridge 4225 |
| Office hours |
Mon/Wed. 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., and by apptmt. (Always call before driving all the way out to Northridge Campus.) |
| Phone |
512-223-4804 |
| E-mail |
hcexres@io.com |
Getting organized. In our first class meeting, we'll discuss the schedule, policies, objectives, and requirements for this course. Let's find out whether we want to cover reports, proposals, and oral presentations. It's your class, but my inclination is not. I'll ask you to fill out an online questionnaire and write a brief get-acquainted memo that will be posted on our course website so we can all get know each other!
Introduction to business correspondence. Let's see what Mary Ellen Guffey thinks about the importance of business communications skills in careers and in the workplace in general, about the new workplace, about the communication process and barriers to it, and about communicating in organizations.
During the week of January 17 when there is no class January 17 and when I am out of town January 19, here's what to do:
- Read my summaries of chapters 2, 3, and 4 in the Guffey book. (These summaries are provided in links below.)
- Take the quizzes for these three chapters, and send me e-mail about which items you missed. (Don't worry about low scores!)
- Do the three CLUE reviews (chapters 2, 3, and 4).
- Study the Problem International Letter in Guffey 4.9, and describe the problems you find in it.
I hope this will keep you busy until I see you again, January 24. — David
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Communicating in teams. This week let's dig into Guffey's discussion of groups and teams and the nature of communication within them.
I acknowledge this this week may be a lot of work, but we need to push to get to the units where we start writing letters, memos, and e-mail.
| Readings |
Guffey, Chapter 2, "Communicating in Small Groups and Teams"
Chapter 2 Summary
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| Out-of-class |
Enter your notes and thoughts about the following in your open journal:
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2.7 Teamwork: Moving from "Me" to "We" Thinking
2.14 Making Meetings Count
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due Jan. 23 |
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| In-class
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CLUE Review 2
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Workplace listening and nonverbal communication. Is anybody listening . . . ?
| Readings
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Guffey, Chapter 3, "Workplace Listening and Nonverbal Communication"
How to Decipher Body Language (More at www.meguffey.com, page 79)
Chapter 3 Summary
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| Out-of-class |
Enter your thoughts about the following in your open journal; and tell us how you scored on the quiz (be honest!):
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3.4 How Good Are your Listening Skills? Self-Checked Rating Quiz
3.19 Defining "Business Casual"
3.18 Backlash Against Business Casual Dress |
due Jan. 23 |
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| In-class |
CLUE Review 3
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Cross-cultural communication. Stop being such a creepy pushy North Americans and be nice to the peoples of the world!
Planning business communications. In this unit, take a look at how Guffey thinks we should prepare to write business messages.
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Readings
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Guffey, Chapter 5, "Preparing to Write Business Messages"
Tutorial on Plain Language (More at www.meguffey.com, page 144)
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Out-of-class
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Enter your thoughts about the following in your open journal:
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5.2 Selecting Communication Channels
5.11 Instant Messaging: Valid Business Channel
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due Jan. 30
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In-class
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We'll select and do as many of these as we can in class and decide about the rest:
5.4 Reader Benefits and the "You" View
5.5 Language Bias
5.6 Positive Expression
5.7 Courteous Expression
5.8 Familiar Words
5.1 Document for Analysis
CLUE Review 5
Business-letter revision
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Projects
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Organizing and writing business messages. Now let's see if Mary Ellen Guffey can help us with the drafting of business letters, memos, and e-mail.
| Readings
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Guffey, Chapter 6, "Organizing and Writing Business Messages"
Outlining techniques, (More at www.meguffey.com, page 160)
Jumpstarting your writing, (More at www.meguffey.com, page 166)
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| Out-of-class
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In-class
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We'll select and do as many of these as we can in class and decide about the rest:
6.7 Outlining
6.10 Sentence Length
6.11 Active and Passive Voice
6.12 Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers
6.13 Transitional Expressions
6.14 Paragraph Organization
6.1 Document for Analysis
CLUE Review 6
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Projects
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Finalizing business messages. Let's take a look at the third phase of developing business messages, as presented by Mary Ellen Guffey.
Routine e-mail and memos. Practice using business correspondence to provide information, explain procedures, reply to requests, and confirm receipt of information.
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Projects
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Choose the most interesting and challenging of these types: information e-mail/memo, procedure memo, request memo, reply memo/e-mail, and confirmation memo. You are welcome to use similar business-correspondence projects at your work.
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