English 307, danika brown instructor (http://www.u.arizona.edu/~danika)

Syllabus

Texts:
The readings for this course will be announced regularly and available either online or on reserve in the library. You will be reading articles and chapters on professional communication strategies, as well as the implications of professional communication and workplace issues.

While I am not requiring a textbook, per se, I do require you to purchase a business writing handbook to provide you with standard formats for professional communication and the dominant guidelines for style (which we will analyze extensively). I recommend one of the following, but you may ask me if you have an alternative:

• Baugh, L. Sue, et al. Handbook for Business Writing. NTC Publishing Group, 1993.
• Brusaw, Charles T., et al. The Business Writer's Handbook, 5th ed. St. Martins P, 1997.
• Shelton, James H. Handbook for Technical Writing. NTC Business Books, 1994.

Policies
Basically, I ask that you come to class, do the readings, participate in the discussions, invest yourself in the MOO activities, work well with your group, and have a generally pleasant time in the course. Nonetheless, in as much as we are in an institution of higher learning and I am held responsible for asking you to adhere to some more specific guidelines, you'll want to take the link and read through the "Policies" of the composition program (or my version of them).

Assignment Overview
You will receive detailed assignment sheets for your major assignments and specific instructions for smaller assignments. However, to give you a sense of what you can expect:

• Weekly Responses: You will be writing responses to each other, to me, to the readings and the class every week. These will be in the form of business letters, memos, reports and other professional communication genres. They will include a good deal of analysis.
• Job Packet: You will create a job packet that will include a skills inventory, a resume, a cover letter, and a job description that you will create for the organization that this class will be constructing. This will be your first major assignment and will take up the first weeks of class. You are required to get an A on this assignment to be hired. You will have revising opportunities until you do get an A packet together.
• Proposal for Final Project: One of the first things you will do as a class, once you are hired into the organization, is determine working groups. With your group, you will establish a proposal for a final project. This proposal will entail how you plan to set up the organization of your group and why you chose that structure. The proposal will have to be approved by the whole class.
• Final Project: For the final project, you will create (based on your proposal) your working group's virtual office space on OldPuebloMOO. You will present your working group's philosophy to the class, explain the space and the contents of the space, including outlines of proposed projects/activities for the organization. The project will be grounded in an analytical understanding of the implications of your decisions about space, organizational structure, and communication.

Schedule

Week 1
Introductions, syllabus, overview
Introduction to OldPuebloMOO; begin skills inventory and identity creation on the MOO

Week 2
Draft of resume, sample job descriptions, begin shaping the workplace
(see resources)
Posting materials on the MOO, including resume, cover letter, and description.

Week 3
Final draft of job packet due
(see readings)
Establishing working groups

Week 4
Revisions and hiring
Details of working groups
readings and analysis

Week 5
Proposals--what does a proposal entail; data gathering for your group proposals
Group work-- types of groups and implications of those group structures

Week 6
Job packet must have been revised and you must have been hired by now!
Analysis of professional communication, collaboration, and implications of communication
Workgroups

Week 7
Drafts of proposals, peer review
Analysis

Week 8
Mission of the organization determined; job descriptions clarified and further organizational issues determined by class
Workgroups

Week 9
Proposals due: analysis and approval by whole class, revisions if necessary.

Week 10
Class project: determine and describe how this "organization" will look and what the implications of that apparent structure are. What will be the forms of communication? What values will that communication construct?

Week 11-15
Group work on final projects
Reading and analysis continued

Week 16
Final projects due and presented.