Syllabus (pdf) - KUAIS

Comm 320: Business Communication
Fall 2010
Monday-Wednesday, 12:30 – 13:45
Instructor: Valerie Taşıran
Office: SOS 128
E-mail vtasiran@ku.edu.tr
Course Description
COMM 320 is designed to prepare students to enter the job market and enhance their
ability to communicate effectively in business and professional situations. In this class,
students will gain experience writing business documents, conducting business research,
reading and analyzing case studies, and making presentations. This course will also
introduce students to the fundamentals of communication and interpersonal and cultural
dynamics on the job.
Course Objectives
In COMM 320, students will:
• develop the written and oral language and communication skills necessary for
effective business and professional communication.
• achieve familiarity with and practice in the use of various types of business
communication, including written forms including memos, reports, e-mails, web
pages, Power Point slides and letters, as well as oral forms such as business
meetings and presentations.
• analyze exemplary models of business communication documents and practice
strategies for increasing document clarity and conciseness in their own work.
• raise awareness of cross cultural communication issues.
• write a CV and job application (cover) letter.
• practice working efficiently in groups.
Course Materials
Readings are taken from Writing That Works: Communicating Effectively on the Job by
Walter E. Oliu, Charles T. Brusaw, and Gerald J. Alred, which is available in the Pandora
bookstore. Some required and supplemental readings are also available on the course
website: http://courses.ku.edu.tr/comm320.
Course Policies
Attendance and Expectations:
• Attendance is vital to success in this class. If you have 7 or more absences, excused or
unexcused, you will fail the class. It is your responsibility to find out about any
assignments missed due to absence from class. Your participation grade will be
determined by how actively you are involved in group activities and class discussions.
• Students must be on-time to class. Students who arrive more than 15 minutes late
are welcome to stay and participate in class, but will be considered absent. However,
in such cases students who are marked absent may still earn participation points.
• Students must conduct themselves in a professional manner at all times. This means
no playing with mobile phones, doing homework for other classes, sleeping, or
engaging in disruptive and/or disrespectful behavior. Students behaving
unprofessionally will be asked to leave and marked absent.
• Email sent to the instructor must be professional and appropriate. Email messages
must be spell-checked, grammatically correct, and composed of complete sentences.
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Messages should contain both a salutation (Dear Valerie,) and a signature (Thank
you, Serdar), and should have a clear subject line. Email messages with no text in the
body or with attachments that are not clearly identified (e.g. tasirancv.docx) will be
sent directly to the trash folder and will not be read.
Plagiarism and Submission of Work:
• All work submitted for this class must be your own original work produced for this
class. Any student believed to have plagiarized or colluded on any assignment
submitted for this course will receive a score of -100 on the assignment in question
and be referred to the university's disciplinary council.
• All work must be submitted to turnitin.com. You may upload your work yourself
using the password you will be sent via email. Assignments must be uploaded as .doc
or .docx files with clear names like “TasiranCV.docx.” Work that has not been
submitted to turnitin.com will not be graded.
• Grades for each assignment will be posted on KUAIS. If you would like comments or
feedback on your assignment, you must submit a hard copy to me by the deadline
stated on the syllabus.
• All work submitted for a grade must be spell-checked and proof-read. Work that has
not been spell-checked will be given a grade of zero and can not be redone, except as
your one official revision.
• As professionals in training, students are expected to respect all course deadlines.
Late work will not be accepted.
• Students may revise their CVs as many times as necessary until they are satisfied
with their work and with their grade. Revised CVs must be submitted as hard copies
in class and accompanied by all previous versions. The last day to submit revised CVs
is Wednesday, December 29 in class.
• Students may revise one other assignment of their choice once at any point during
the semester. This revised assignment must be submitted as a hard copy along with
the original version. The last day to submit this revised assignment is Wednesday,
December 29 in class. Slides, annotated bibliographies and other materials related to
the presentation may not be revised.
Deadlines:
Sunday, October 10 Curriculum Vitae (CV) 10%
Sunday, October 10 Cover Letter 5%
Wednesday, October 20 Memo 5%
Monday, October 25 Negative Letter 5%
Friday, October 29 Persuasive Letter 5%
Friday, November 12 E-mail 5%
Friday, December 17 Web Document 5%
Friday, December 24 Instructions 5%
Other Assignments:
Presentation 30%
Including PowerPoint slides, Proposal and Report
Quizzes 10%
Three quizzes will be given during the semester; your top two quiz scores will be included in
your grade. No make-up quizzes will be given.
Participation 15%
Thoughtful participation and professional demeanor are expected throughout the semester.
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Tentative Course Schedule
Week One – September 27, 29
Getting Started in the Business World Part I
Reading: Oliu, Chapter Sixteen, “Finding the Right Job.”
• Introduction to the Course
• CVs and Resumes
Week Two – October 4, 6
Getting Started in the Business World Part II
Reading: Oliu, Chapter Sixteen, “Finding the Right Job.”
Assignment: Bring Draft CV to Class on Wednesday, October 6.
• Cover Letters
• In-Class Workshop on CVs and Cover Letters, Discussion of Oliu
CV and Cover Letter due on turnitin.com by 24:00 on October 10.
Week Three – October 11, 13
The Basics of Business Communication: Planning
Reading: Oliu, Chapter 1, “Assessing Audience and Purpose: A Case Study;”
Chapter 8, “Understanding the Principles of Business Communication.”
• Planning and writing basic business messages
Week Four – October 18, 20
The Basics of Business Communication: Writing and Revising
Reading: Oliu, Chapter 2, “Organizing Your Information;” Chapter 3, “Writing the
Draft;” Chapter 4, “Revising the Draft.”
Memo due on turnitin.com by 17:00 on Wednesday, October 20 (Exercise 3,
p. 24).
Week Five – October 25, 27
Negative Letters and Persuasive Letters
Reading: Oliu, Chapter 9, “Writing Business Correspondence.”
Negative Letter due on turnitin.com by 17:00 on Monday, October 25
(Exercise 3, pp. 356-7).
Persuasive Letter due on turnitin.com by 17:00 on Friday, October 29
(Exercise 4, p. 357).
Week Six – November 1, 3
Proposals
Reading: Oliu, Chapter 13, “Writing Proposals;” Chapter 5, “Collaborative Writing.”
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Week Seven – November 8, 10
Business E-Mail Etiquette
Reading: David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, Send: The Essential Guide to Email for
Office and Home. (selections)
E-mail and Proposal due by e-mail and on turnitin.com by 17:00, Friday,
November 12.
Week Eight – November 15, 17
Kurban Bayramı – No Class!
Week Nine – November 22, 24
Reports and Presentations I: Effective Design and Use of Slides and other
Documents
Reading: http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/, Oliu, Chapter 7, “Designing
Effective Documents and Visuals.”
Week Ten – November 29, December 1
Reports and Presentations II: Reports
Oliu, Chapter 10, “Writing Informal Reports,” Chapter 11, “Writing Formal Reports.”
Week Eleven – December 6, 8
Reports and Presentations II: Meetings and Presentations
Oliu, Chapter 14, “Giving Presentations and Conducting Meetings.”
Week Twelve – December 13, 15
Writing for the Web
Reading: Oliu, Chapter 15, “Writing for the Web.”
Web Document due on turnitin.com by 17:00 Friday, December 17.
Week Thirteen – December 20, 22
Writing Instructions
Reading: Oliu, Chapter 12, “Writing Instructions.”
Instructions due on turnitin.com by 17:00 Friday, December 24.
• Student Presentations
Week Fourteen – December 27, 29
• Student Presentations
Week Fifteen – January 3, 5
• Student Presentations
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