.

26 April and 3 May 2007
--See NOTES, PROJECTS, and EXAMS.

19 April 2007 (Thursday)
--HANDOUTS ON GROUP COMMUNICATIONS.  Please read the handouts distributed in class on April 5:
-"Making Virtual Teams Work"
-"Building Your Own Capacities for Collaboration"
-"Problem-Solving Strategies: Nominal Group Technique (NGT)" (handed out on March 29)
--PRESENTATIONS.  None this week. You might use this week as an occasion to review handouts from (and notes on) past presentations.
--WORLD OF WORK.  Read and/or re-read these portions of our text: pages 22-27; 78-92; 98-103; 112-119; 189-198 (and skim the rest of Chapter 8); 297-302; 567-573; and, once again, make sure that you understand and can apply everything in the Writer's Guide, pp. 609-659.

12 April 2007 (Thursday)
--FINAL PROJECT (Report/Proposal):  Progress Report Memo is due.  Please send it to me as a Word atachment if you haven't already given me a hard copy during our conference.

8 April 2007 (Sunday)
--EVALUATION OF INTEGRATING INFORMATION RETRIEVAL.   No later than 6:00 this evening, please send me (as a Word doc attached to an email) a concise single-spaced two- to three-page memo report evaluating the content, style, and usefulness of these parts of draft Module D1 ("Professional and Organization[al] Communication") of Dr. Lei Zhu's web project on INTEGRATING INFORMATION RETRIEVAL (go down to "Class Notes"):

• Web Search Engines and Directories
• Online IR Systems and Digital Libraries
• Introduction to Information Retrieval and Web Search
• Internet Search [.ppt] *
• General Writing [.ppt] *
• Job Search and CV Writing [.ppt] *

SKIM the first three sections; FOCUS MORE THOUGHTFUL ATTENTION on the last three (marked by an asterisk).  Note that the first three sections are available in various multimedia formats; the last three are available only as pdf's. (The exercises that follow the  six sections are optional.)
Some questions to consider as you conduct your review:
(1) How successful is each unit in meeting the needs of undergraduate students in business communication classes? of graduate students in professional communication classes such as ours?
(2) What information might be condensed or omitted? What sort of information might be added or expanded?
(3) What are the strengths of the presentations in terms of clarity, accuracy, and correctness?  What are the weaknesses?
Be as specific (and clear and concise) as you can in your responses.  Remember that we've been invited to examine drafts: the primary goal of this assignment (beyond learning something about the topic covered) is to provide Dr. Zhu and his team with useful feedback as they continue to develop and revise the project.

5 April 2007 (Thursday)
--EVALUATION OF INTEGRATING INFORMATION RETRIEVAL.   Make sure that you've begun working on the evaluation report that's due Sunday evening, April 8 (see above).  Send me an email if you have questions.
--FINAL PROJECT (Report/Proposal):  Although your progress report memo isn't due until April 12, if I let you know that your initial topic proposal was unclear, unfocused, incomplete, or otherwise unacceptable, by now you should have sent me a revised topic proposal memo.
--PRESENTATIONS.  We have two presentations planned for this evening:
(1) Professional Writing for International Audiences (Kelley). To prepare, please read the following short articles:
-"Writing in International English," by Martin A. Schell (2000)
-"Writing [on the Web] for an International Readership," by Brian Forte (2000)
(2) Creating Effective Tables, Charts, and Graphs for Reports and Proposals (Tab). To prepare, please read/re-read the following:
-Chapter 7 (Visual & Document Design II) in World of Work, with an emphasis on pages 161-183.
Also, please have a look at the description of SmartDraw 2007.  Though this graphics package isn't cheap (and not worth purchasing just for our final project), you can download it for a seven-day free trial.  Consider timing this free-trial period with the work schedule you have proposed for your project.   There are, of course, many comparable graphics packages on the market, and some basic ones (all that most of us will probably ever need) are quite inexpensive.
--HANDOUTS ON MEETINGS.  Please read the handouts distributed in class on March 29:
-"Managing Effective Meetings"
-"Meeting Management"
-"Problem-Solving Strategies: Nominal Group Technique (NGT)"
--HANDOUTS ON RESEARCH STRATEGIES.  Please read the handouts distributed in class on March 29:
-"Checklist for Conducting Informational and Other Interviews"
-"Craft Effective Survey Questions"
-Sample (good) questionnaire and cover letter ("Central Metropolitan University").
--WORLD OF WORK.  Read Chapter 21 ("Documenting Sources"), with special attention to pages 585-591.  (In your own project, you may use either APA or MLA documentation format--whichever you're more familiar with: review the appropriate section in Chapter 21.)  Review Chapters 13, 14, 15, 18, and 19.

29 March 2007 (Thursday)
--INFORMATION RETRIEVAL.  Dr. Lei Zhu will introduce us to the research module that he and his students are developing for professional and organizational communication classes. Before coming to class, please check out http://cs.armstrong.edu/leizhu/iir/modules/d1/index.html.   (I'll be asking you to write an evaluation with recommendations for class on April 5.)
--PRESENTATIONS.  We have two presentations planned for this evening:
(1) Beth will be speaking on "Developing Effective Agendas for Meetings."  To prepare, please read the following short articles:
-"An Agenda for Agendas," by Rick Brenner;
-"Effective Meetings Begin with a Real Agenda," by Steve Kaye;
-"Six Tips for More Effective Meetings" (EffectiveMeetings.com).
[NOTE: These pages may load slowly--or you may even need to revisit the sites and try again: be patient.]
(2) Kerry will be speaking on "Professional Writing for Multicultural Audiences."   To prepare, please read the following:
-"Effective Multicultural Communication," in World Trade magazine;
-"Writing for an International Audience," by Emily Thrush.
--HANDOUTS.  Please read the handouts distributed in class on March 22:
-"Proposal Writing (pp. 442-456);
-"Basics of Conducting Focus Groups," by C. McNamara.
--WORLD OF WORK.  Carefully read Chapters 18 ("Research Strategies") and 19 ("Research Sites and Sources"), pp. 522-562;  review Chapters 13, 14, and 15.

22 March 2007 (Thursday)
--PRESENTATIONS.  This evening Michael will be providing advice on writing federal grants.   To put yourself in a receptive frame of mind, please skim the many worthwhile grant-writing resources (including tips, model proposals, and sample applications) at Grants Information Collection (hosted by the University of Wisconsin at Madison).   Particularly useful in regard to federal grants are Developing & Writing Grant Proposals (from the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance) and the Resources page of Grants.gov.
--WORLD OF WORK.  Carefully read Chapter 15 ("Proposals"), and review Chapters 13 and 14.
--HANDOUTS.  Please read (and know the information in) the handouts on editing and proofreading (prepared by Louis and Lee); "Getting the Job Done: A Sample Model for Business Writing"; the sample internal report (Rydell & Associates); "Research Information Collection" (side a) and "Summary and Concept Review of Formal Reports" (side b).
--REPORTS.  Please read carefully your group reports on the Minutes Evaluations: group A/C and group B/D.
--FINAL PROJECT (Report/Proposal):  Please read the full set of guidelines.
--PROJECT PROPOSAL MEMO.  At the start of class on Thursday,  submit your final-project topic proposal to me in a formal memo (single-spaced, one or two pages), following this plan:    

In the opening section on "Goals and Audience," make sure that you (1) briefly explain the project (and make clear whether it's an information report, an evaluation report, a recommendation report, or a comprehensive proposal; (2) clearly define the goals of the project (i.e., what you hope to achieve--besides a good grade); and (3) identify the particular audience to whom you are addressing your project.  

In the section on "Parts of the Project," provide a concise outline of the work you intend to do, keeping in mind that (under my guidance) your plans may change once you set out to gather information and accomplish your goals.  

In the section on "Established Deadlines," set realistic deadlines for conducting research, drafting, seeking feedback, revising, and editing.  I'll be requesting a progress report memo on April 12.  Make sure that all work is completed by 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 3 (the deadline for submitting the deliverables to me).    

Under "Questions and Requests," list any uncertainties you may have regarding the completion of your project, and don't hesitate to suggest how I might be of help. 

8 March 2007 (Thursday)
--REVISING CLASS MINUTES.  Submit hard copies of group reports in response to questions/recommended revisions for Excerpts A and C (Carla's group) and to Excerpts B and D (Kerry's group).  On the reports, identify those members who actively, conscientiously, and promptly contributed informed responses to the report; omit the names of group members who did not make such contributions. (By the way, some of the same kinds of questions that appear in this revision exercise will also appear on the final exam. In short, you will need to know how to write professionally.) In addition to contributing to your group report, study the excerpts and questions being considered by the other group, and be prepared to critique your own set of minutes. Guidelines for keeping minutes were assigned early in the term: please review those guidelines before tonight's class. 
--HANDOUTS.  Please read (and know the information in) the handouts "Top Ten Things You Need to Know about E-Resumes," "Using Resume Keywords," "Culturally Competent Resumes for the Global Job Market," and "Why You Should Create an Employee Handbook."
--WORLD OF WORK.  Carefully read these two chapters in our text:
-Chapter 13 (Principles of Workplace Reports), pp. 358-389.
-Chapter 14 (Recommendation Reports), pp. 390-413.
These two chapters (along with Chapter 15, which will be assigned for March 22) will serve as foundation readings for the final course project. I'll soon be supplementing these assignments with information and links at our NOTES page.
--PROFESSIONAL WRITING HANDOUTS & RESOURCES.  By this point in the term, you should understand and be ready to apply all of the basic principles, guidelines, and information collected in these online handouts from the Purdue University OWL(which, for the most part, are simpler treatments of topics treated more extensively in class and in our texts).  If you recognize that you need to review these materials (perhaps intensely), please do so. Just as importantly, if you have trouble composing clear, concise, and coherent sentences that are grammatically correct, your problems go well beyond proofreading: please take advantage of the grammar, spelling, and punctuation resources at the Purdue OWL--and let me know if you would like additional assistance and/or practice in any of the areas covered here.

1 March 2007 (Thursday)
--RESUMES. Turn in your Memo Assignment: Resume Evaluation.  (I should already have a copy of your resume on hand; if you have revised your resume since last week's class, please make sure to attach your revised resume to the memo.)
--WORLD OF WORK.  Carefully read these two chapters in our text:
-Chapter 10 ("Portfolios and Interviews"), pp. 286-307
-Chapter 11 ("Communicating News"), pp. 308-330.
--MINUTES. Visit the MINUTES page of this course site, and carefully read and evaluate the five sets of minutes submitted so far (January 25-February 22).  This assignment serves two purposes:
(1)  Use this occasion to make sure that you are thoroughly familiar with all of the information (in our texts and handouts as well as on this course site and in class presentations) that we have covered since the start of term. (At this point, it would also be wise to review carefully all entries on the ASSIGNMENTS and NOTES pages.)  This information will serve as the foundation for our work throughout the rest of the semester--and you will be expected to recall, interpret, and apply this information on the final exam. If you have questions about any of the materials covered so far, please send me those questions in an e-mail before this evening's class.
(2)  In tonight's class, we'll evaluate excerpts from the minutes and consider strengths and weaknesses in terms of clarity, format, appropriate content, correctness, conciseness, and logic.

22 February 2005 (Thursday)
--RESUMES. Bring to class 11 copies of your resume for peer reviews. If you're interested in registering for the free resume workshop to be conducted next week by Ms. Barbara Myers in the Office of Career Services, please call 927 5372.
--WORLD OF WORK.  Carefully review the first half (pages 233-263) of Chapter 9: "Resumes, Employment Letters, and Application Letters" and then carefully read the remainder of the chapter (pp. 263-284).
--HANDOUTS.  Please read the handouts "When to Lie on Your Resume," "Technical Writing Tips," and "Ten New Resume Secrets."
--ONLINE READINGS.
-"Write Your Own Performance Review," by Sherry L. Reed
-"Resumes," by David A. McMurrey

15 February 2005 (Thursday)
--HANDOUTS.  Please read (and evaluate) the two short handouts distributed in class on February 8: "Class Presentation Evaluation Form" and "Textual Impressions."
--ONLINE READINGS. Read these short pieces:
-"Overcoming Speaking Anxiety in Meetings and Presentations," by Lenny Laskowski
-"Tips for Successful Presentations" (Pacific-Bell/UCLA Initiatives, 2002)
-"Enhancing Multimedia Presentations," (pdf) by Lynell Burmark (2000).
Also, please have a quick look at the website for AASU's Media Services Department in Lane Library, with special attention to the equipment and training services available.
--WORLD OF WORK.  Carefully read the first half (pages 233-263) of Chapter 9: "Resumes, Employment Letters, and Application Letters."
--LIBERAL STUDIES ASSIGNMENT.  Please be prepared to provide a concise (three- to five-minute) and cogent  response tonight to the question that follows your name (below).  To supplement your response, I strongly encourage you to provide the class with a brief (one-page) handout, listing key points and/or offering a few key quotations and citations (that is, places where we might go to obtain more information).  Following each question below is a starting point to help you locate a suitable response to your question; but don't feel restricted by what is, after all, just a starting point.  (That said, several of you will find that your starting point is also your focal point.)  If you have any questions while working on this assignment, please send me an e-mail--but no later than Tuesday evening, Feb. 13.
__________________________

11 February 2007 (Sunday evening)
-Topics for Presentations PROJECT are due this evening.

8 February 2007 (Thursday)
--WORLD OF WORK.  Carefully read all of Chapter 12 ("Oral Presentations"), pages 331-355, and all of Chapter Five ("Design and Development of Documents"), pages 96-129.  If you ever have questions about assigned readings in our textbooks, please e-mail your questions to me before the next class meeting.  Otherwise, I'll presume that you have a thorough knowledge of the assigned materials. We may sometimes use class time to highlight or challenge a few specific items in the readings but not to review entire chapters.    
--HANDBOOK.  In the "A-Z" section of The Business Style Handbook (pages 55-261), please read the entries for the following words and topics: "Website"; "regardless"; the Latin abbreviations "etc," "i.e.," "e.g.," and "et al."; "abbreviations"; "disinterested"; "fewer" and "less"; "imply" and "infer"; "between" and "among"; "latter"; "heading" and "headline"; "names"; "numbers."   If you can put your hands on another major style guide or unabridged dictionary (see pages 263-64 on "Stylebooks" and "Dictionaries"),  look up these same entries and note where and how guidelines may differ. 
--HANDOUTS.  Please read the two short handouts distributed in class on February 1: "Maintaining a 'You-Attitude'" and "Leading with Effective Letters, Memos, and E-mails."  
--ONLINE READINGS. Read these short pieces: "Ten things you should know about PowerPoint abuse"; "How to Rein in PowerPoint Abuse" (pages 1 and 2); "PowerPoint Is Evil"; "The Gettysburg PowerPoint Presentation."


1 February 2007 (Thursday)
--WORLD OF WORK.  Carefully read all of Chapter Eight ("Workplace Correspondence"), pages 188-232.
--HANDBOOK.  Please read the short opening chapters on "Fortune 500 Survey Results," "Why Style Matters," and "The Case for Standards"--pages 1-23.  And please be sure to bring this text to class with you next week: we'll be examining the uses--as well as considering the limitations--of style guides.
--HANDOUTS.  Please read the three short handouts distributed in class on January 25: "Leading by Saying 'Thank You,'" "Top Ten Least-Wanted Phrases in Business Writing," and "Listen Up!"
--ONLINE READINGS. Read these three short pieces on communicating effectively (o not) through e-mail: "Poorly Written Drivel,"  "Please Stop Barking: How to Write a Professional E-mail," and "Poorly Written E-Mail."  Also, please read this short article (followed by a brief exercise), "Focus on 'You' Instead of 'I' and 'We'" (excerpted from Effective Business Communications, Murphy & Hildebrandt).

25 January 2007 (Thursday)
--SYLLABUS.  A final reminder to please make sure that you have read the course syllabus carefully.
--WORLD OF WORK.  Please review the pages assigned for last week (Jan. 18), and then read the following:
-pages 60-65 of Chapter Three ("Persuasion"), with special attention to discussions of the "you attitude" and "the so-what principle."
-pages 78-88 of Chapter Four ("Achieving Clarity and Conciseness").
--HANDBOOK.  Please review Chapter Five ("E-mail: Before You Hit Send," pp. 41-53).
--LISTENING SKILLS.  Please print out and read carefully Dr. John Kline's How To Be an Effective Listener.  (How To Be an Effective Listener is the final chapter of Kline's 1996 book Listening Effectively, all of which is available online.)  Also, during the few days leading up to this evening's class, carefully observe the listening skills of any one of your colleagues at work: an individual whom you consider to be either an exceptionally good listener or a notably poor listener. Be prepared in tonight's class to discuss that person's specific listening behaviors.
--NOTES.  This week, as every week, make sure that before coming to class you read the most recent postscript and preview posted at NOTES.

18 January 2007 (Thursday)
--SYLLABUS.  Make sure that you have read the course syllabus carefully.
-HOW TO WRITE FOR THE WORLD OF WORK, 7th ed. (hereafter referred to as World of Work).  Read Chapter One ("The Process of Workplace Communication," pp. 2-34), with particular attention to pp. 6-8 and 22-28; read pp. 53-56 (on e-mail) in Chapter Two; check out the table of contents (ix-xx), and finally skim through the entire text to get a general sense of what material is covered in each of the 21 chapters.  
-THE BUSINESS STYLE HANDBOOK (hereafter referred to as Handbook).   Read Chapter Five ("E-mail: Before You Hit Send," pp. 41-53).
--INTRODUCTORY REPORT (via E-MAIL).  By six p.m., send me an e-mail (at engl7100@yahoo.com) with Word attachment in which you respond clearly and concisely to the following:
(1)  In our first class meeting we briefly considered various communication skills that research indicates to be critical for managerial success.  How do you rate yourself on each of these skills?  In what ways can you work to improve each skill? 
(2)  Tell me which three or four of the 21 chapters in World of Work should be most useful to you (in light of your current job responsibilities and/or your career goals).
(3)   Please provide the following background information to help me shape our seminar to meet your needs (answer concisely: bulleted lists are encouraged):
(a)  Employment background.  Positions you have held in recent years and your major responsibilities in those positions.  (I'm especially interested in the kinds of communication associated with those responsibilities.)
(b)  Career goals.  What you hope to be doing professionally roughly five years from now.
(c)  Educational background.  Your undergraduate (and graduate, if applicable) area(s) of study and specific communication courses that you have taken in the past. 
If you have questions about this assignment, please send me an e-mail well before the six p.m. deadline on Thursday. 

14 January 2007 (Sunday)
--SYLLABUS.  Be sure to read the course syllabus carefully. If you have any questions regarding the syllabus, include them in your e-mail (below).
--E-MAIL and FORUM.  By 6:00 this evening, please send me an e-mail (at engl7100@yahoo.com) from the e-mail address that you'd prefer I use throughout the term to contact you.   All you need to include in the message is your name and e-mail address.  Once I receive your e-mail, I'll enter your address in the class address book and give you access to the online forum.

23 April 2007