EnglishINESS WRITING 307 BUS

Instructor Information
Instructor: Londie Martin Office: CCIT 236, Pod I Office Hours: Tue & Thu 12:30 2:00 pm E-mail: londiem@email.arizona.edu Office Phone: 520 . 626 . 4875

Course Information
Course & Section: 307 section 031 Location: ILC 129 Meeting days/times: MTWHF 9 11:50 am Course Length: May 17 June 5 Course Webspace: http://d2l.arizona.edu

Course Description
English 307 is a business writing course. Its primary goal is to give junior- and senior-level students the opportunity to develop their use of rhetorical strategies and communications technologies appropriate to workplaces. With an emphasis on written communication, students will engage in projects that require them to analyze and respond to a variety of professional situations. Students will plan and create a range of individual and collaborative projects including, but not limited to, employment documents, proposals, reports, brochures, newsletters, memos, letters, and other business genres. Workplace practices, business communication assessment, promotional resources, and writing on behalf of an organization are just some of the topics studied in English 307. Through client-based projects, simulations, and/or case studies, students will analyze and reflect upon the role of communication practices in a range of business settings. Students can expect to engage in reading discussions, daily assignments, on- and off-campus research, technology use, and oral reports. This section is a special, condensed 3-week version of the regular 16-week Business Writing course. Therefore, this course requires an intense amount of writing and reading outside of class in a short period of time. Students in this pre-session course are expected to complete all the requirements of the regular session Business Writing curriculum.

Course Goals
From the variety of majors represented in this course to the inclusion of more electronic media in workplace environments, technical writing as a category is marked by diversity. Keeping in mind this diversity, in our course you will learn about the following issues: Context: professional cultures, social contexts, organizational identities, and ethics Process: the recursive nature of writing and the relationship between form and content Technologies: investigating unfamiliar technologies and applications, and using already familiar technologies and applications in new contexts Research: a variety of research methods Collaboration: dividing labor equally, working and communicating online, mediating interpersonal relationships, and evaluating and responding to peers work Project management: simultaneously managing short- and long-term projects, simultaneously managing individual and collaborative projects, developing strategies for oral communication, and incorporating technology into projects Document design: written and visual information, format, layout, graphics, and issues of usability

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Required Texts
Alred, Gerald J., Charles T. Brusaw, and Walter E. Oliu. The Business Writers Handbook. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. Articles will be distributed via D2L or other methods throughout the semester. Students are responsible for accessing these materials or for obtaining and keeping track of any distributed hard copies.

Required Materials
$15-$20 dollars for printing, copying, and producing costs Storage Space (for example, a flash drive/memory stick) A University of Arizona NetID Reliable email address Access to a computer outside of class with the following: A printer The Internet Adobe Reader (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html) Word processing software, such as Microsoft Word or OpenOffice

Note: A fundamental assumption of this course is that an increasing amount of workplace writing will take place onlinenot merely as documents word processed then printed out, but in E-mail, realtime remote discussion, and other forms. In order to learn to communicate more effectively online, much of your work in this course will rely on email, listserv, the WWW, and other electronic media. In fact, the bulk of your course materials, such as syllabus, schedule, and project guides will be made available to you through Desire2Learn (http://d2l.arizona.edu).

Course Policies
Technology Responsibilities
Because the exchange of information and materials in this class will be largely electronic, familiarity with certain technologies is crucial for participation and success in the course. Thus, you should be able to attend to the responsibilities in the list below. If you need any assistance now or at any point during the semester, please do not hesitate to ask me. You are expected to back up all drafts of all files; that is, you should save each new draft under a new filename on disk (e.g., zip drive, flash drive, CD-R/CD-RW) or via e-mail. You are expected to have proficiency with your University e-mail account and web browsing. You are expected to know how to use a word processing program, attach files to E-mails, and upload files to the course D2L. You are expected to check your E-mail and the D2L site on a daily basis for notices and updates. You are expected to become more proficient with unfamiliar computer technologies and applications used in this course.

Collaborative Work
Collaborative work is a major element of this course. In fact, many projects will require you to act as either co-developer and/or co-author. You and your team members are responsible for updating

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one another and me about assignment progress. In addition, you are responsible for negotiating all aspects of your work, including planning, drafting, revising, file managing, and scheduling of tasks. One major challenge of this type of work is assuring that all members have access to the most up-todate versions of the project. Please be aware that the failure of your partner will negatively impact your performance if you have not come up with a contingency plan in the event of an emergency. You will also evaluate your own and your peers participation in collaborative projects, and thus, you should maintain detailed daily notes and records about your work. I will use these evaluations in my determination of individual grades for collaborative projects. In general, all members of a team receive the same grade. There are instances, however, where one or more team members are otherwise unprofessional and/or unproductive. Should these cases occur, I reserve the right to lower grades for poor performance.

Professional Quality of Work

You are expected to produce high-quality professional documents that are appropriate for specific business situations. As stated in the requirements for writing outlined in the WRIPAC course policies statement, your documents should have appropriate margins, spacing, and formatting for the type of document you are turning in. Because genres vary widely across projects, formatting guidelines will be given for each of the major assignments. Additionally, your assignments should be printed at least in a minimum standard of 300 dpi. Laser printing is recommended. Finally, there should be no obvious last-minute changes to the work (i.e., use of white-out or hand-written information). All e-mails should be professional in tone and proofread carefully; they should also utilize standard punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.

Attendance & Punctuality

Attendance is mandatory. Students who miss more than 2 classes of our pre-session course may receive an E. Keep in mind that since you will be working collaboratively with peers, you also will be required to attend any scheduled out-of-class meetings to complete course assignments. Being late to class is disruptive. If you are late to class on a regular basis (15 minutes or more), I will count those 15-minute increments toward your class attendance, and you may risk failing the course because of late arrivals. All holidays or special events observed by organized religions will be honored for those students who show affiliation with that particular religion. Dean's excuses will be honored for approved events.

Late and Incomplete Work

If you must miss a scheduled class meeting, you are not excused from the work due at or accomplished during that class session. You should make arrangements to turn in your work in advance of your absence or before 5 p.m. on that same day. You are responsible for seeking out me and your group members to determine what you have misseddo not expect me or your group members to contact you first. If a serious and unavoidable problem arises, however, you should contact me prior to the deadline to determine whether or not an extension for the work will or will not be granted. An extension of a deadline is a privilege, not a right, and therefore is based upon my judgment of what is reasonable and fair. Computer problems are not an acceptable excuse for a late assignment, so remember to back-up your work multiple times.

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Late work without arrangements made in advance will result in a 10% deduction per day late. For example, this means that if the assignment was due on Monday and you turned it in on Wednesday, there would be a 20% deduction. A course grade of an I for Incomplete will only be assigned in extreme cases and where a majority of the work for the course has already been completed.

Course Content
If any of the course materials, subject matter, or requirements in this course contain materials that are offensive to you, speak to your instructor. Usually the resolution will be to drop the course promptly.

Academic Integrity
All UA students are responsible for upholding the Code of Academic Integrity, available through the office of the Dean of Students and online at http://deanofstudents.arizona.edu/codeofacademicintegrity Submitting an item of academic work that has previously been submitted without fair citation of the original work or authorization by the faculty member supervising the work is prohibited by the Student Code of Conduct.

Class Conduct
All UA students are responsible for upholding the Student Code of Conduct, which can be read online at http://deanofstudents.arizona.edu/policiesandcodes/studentcodeofconduct

Disabilities Accommodations
If you anticipate accessibility issues related to the format or requirements of the course, please meet with me so we can discuss solutions. If you plan to use reasonable accommodations, you must register with Disability Resources (621-3268) and self-identify through the established process. http://www.drc.arizona.edu

Assignments
Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3 Unit 4 Unit 5 Throughout Memo of Introduction (Individual) Job Analysis Materials (Individual) Client Research & Proposal (Collaborative) Client Deliverable Production & Product (Collaborative) Reflective Report & Evaluations (Individual) Job Materials Portfolio (Individual) Quizzes and Reading Responses (Individual) 5% 15% 25% 20% 10% 20% 5%

Grading
You must complete all the larger projects and their components to pass the course. For each project, you must submit multiple components (including preliminary assignments, research notes, drafts, etc.). Therefore, you should save all graded and ungraded materials assigned within each unit, and should also save each draft of each assignment under a separate filename. All assignments will be graded on the standard letter-grade scale: A = 100 90 B = 89 80 C = 79 70 D = 69 60 E = 59 or below

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Grades will consider the following aspects of writing, in the context of a particular assignment: purpose, audience, content, expression, organization, development of ideas, document design, mechanics, and maturity of thought. I am more than happy to conference with you, one-on-one, about your assessments and progress. However, I will not discuss your grades via email. FERPA prevents the disclosure of grading via email, and therefore, I have to comply. Please feel free to schedule an appointment to discuss your work. When coming to a conference of this sort, please come with specific questions about your writing. The policies in this syllabus are considered contractual at the University of Arizona. If you remain in the class after day one, you have agreed to all that is required. The details of the day-by-day schedule are subject to change but not the requirements outlined in the course description and policies. Consult the Department of English web site for policies (with hyperlinks) concerning undergraduate courses: http://w3.arizona.edu/~engladv/pols.html and http://w3.arizona.edu/~english/

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