Effective Business Writing
Course length
This course is two-weeks long.
Marks overview
Homework 30%
In-class exercises 30%
Daily assessments 10%
Final exam 30%
Textbook
Recommended resources
Recommended Books
Day 1
Chapter 1
Define communication and explain the importance of effective business communication
Explain what it means to communicate as a professional in a business context
Describe the communication process model and the ways that social media are changing the nature of business communication
Outline the challenges and opportunities of mobile communication in business
Define ethics, explain the difference between an ethical dilemma and an ethical lapse, and list six guidelines for making ethical communication choices
Explain how cultural diversity affects business communication and describe the steps you can take to communicate more effectively across cultural boundaries
List four general guidelines for using communication technology effectively
Identify six related skills that you will have the opportunity to develop as you work on your communication skills
Homework
Day 2
Chapter 2
List the advantages and disadvantages of working in teams and describe the characteristics of effective teams
Offer guidelines for collaborative communication, identify major collaboration technologies, and explain how to give constructive feedback
List the key steps needed to ensure productive team meetings and identify the most common meeting technologies
Identify the major types of listening, describe the listening process and explain how good listeners overcome barriers at each stage of the process
Explain the importance of non-verbal communication and identify six major categories of non-verbal expression
Explain the importance of business etiquette and identify three key areas in which good etiquette is essential
Chapter 3
Describe the three-step writing process and explain why it will help you create better messages in less time
Explain what it means to analyse the situation when planning a message
Describe the techniques for gathering information for simple messages and identify three attributes of quality information
Identify the six basic combinations of media and channels and highlight the unique challenges of communication on mobile devices
Explain why good organization is important to both you and your audience and explain how to organize any business message
In-class exercise
2-14. Negotiation and Conflict Resolution: Resolving Conflicts; Communication Ethics: Providing Ethical Leadership [LO-1, p. 34], Chapter 2
During team meetings, one member constantly calls for votes or decisions before all the members have voiced their views. As the leader, you asked this member privately about his behaviour. He replied that he is trying to move the team toward its goals but you are concerned that he is really trying to take control. How can you deal with this situation without removing the member from the group?
(Bovee, 2019, p. 54)
3-8. A day after sending an email to all 1800 employees in your company regarding income tax implications of the company’s retirement plan, you discover that one of the sources you relied on for your information plagiarized from other sources. You quickly double-check all the information in your message and confirm that it is accurate. However, you are concerned about using plagiarized information, even though you did nothing wrong. How would you handle this situation? [LO-3], Chapter 3
(Bovee, 2019, p. 81)
Bovee, C. L., Thill, J. V., Scribner, J. A. (2019). Business Communication Essentials, Fifth Canadian Edition, 5th Edition. VitalSource Bookshelf version.
Homework
Day 3
Chapter 4
Identify the four aspects of being sensitive to audience needs when writing business messages
Identify seven characteristics that build and maintain a communicator’s credibility
Explain how to achieve a tone that is conversational but businesslike, explain the value of using plain language, and define active and passive voice
Describe how to select words that are not only correct but also effective
Define the four types of sentences and explain how sentence style affects emphasis within a message
Define the three key elements of a paragraph and list five ways to develop coherent paragraphs
List five techniques for writing effective messages for mobile readers
Chapter 5
Discuss the value of careful revision and describe the tasks involved in evaluating your first drafts and the work of other writers
List four techniques you can use to improve the readability of your messages
Describe the steps you can take to improve the clarity of your writing and give four tips for making your writing more concise
List four principles of effective design and explain the role of major design elements in document readability
Explain the importance of proofreading and give six tips for successful proofreading
Discuss the most important issues to consider when distributing your messages
In-class exercise
4-61. Writing: Creating a Businesslike Tone; Media Skills: Email [LO-1, p. 86; also see p. 8, 62, 91]
Read the following email message and then,
analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each sentence; and
revise the message so that it follows this chapter’s guidelines about
“you” attitude and word choices.
The message was written by the marketing manager of an online retailer of baby-related products in the hope of becoming a retail outlet for Inglesina strollers and high chairs. As a manufacturer of stylish, top-quality products, Inglesina (based in Italy) is extremely selective about the retail outlets through which it allows its products to be sold.
Our
e-tailing company, Best Baby Gear, specializes in only the very best products for parents of newborns, infants, and toddlers. We constantly scour the world looking for products that are good enough and well-built enough and classy enough—good enough that is to take their place alongside the hundreds of other carefully selected products that adorn the pages of our award-winning website, www.bestbabygear.com. We
aim for the fences every time we select a product to join this portfolio; we don’t want to waste our time with onesey-twosey products that might sell a half dozen units per annum—no, we want every product to be a top-drawer success, selling at least one hundred units per specific model per year in order to justify our expense and hassle factor in adding it to the abovementioned portfolio. After careful consideration, we thusly concluded that your Inglesina lines meet our needs and would therefore like to add it.
(Bovee, 2019, p. 105)
Bovee, C. L., Thill, J. V., Scribner, J. A. (2019). Business Communication Essentials, Fifth Canadian Edition, 5th Edition.
Homework
Day 4
Useful resource
Chapter 6
Identify the major digital channels used for brief business messages and describe the nine compositional modes needed for digital media
Describe the use of social networks in business communication
Explain how companies and business professionals can use content-sharing websites
Describe the evolving role of email in business communication and explain how to adapt the three-step writing process to email messages
Describe the advantages and disadvantages of business messaging and identify guidelines to effective messaging in the workplace
Describe the use of blogging and micro-blogging in business communication and briefly explain how to adapt the three-step process to blogging
Explain how to adapt the three-step writing process to podcasts
In-class exercise
6-31. Media Skills: Blogging [LO-6, p. 149] From what you’ve learned about planning and writing business messages, you should be able to identify numerous errors made by the writer of the following blog post.
[headline]
Get Ready!
[post]
We are hoping to be back at work soon, with everything running smoothly, same production schedule, and no late projects or missed deadlines. So you need to clean out your desk, put your stuff in boxes, and clean off the walls. You can put the items you had up on your walls in boxes, also.
We have provided boxes. The move will happen this weekend. We’ll be in our new offices when you arrive on Monday.
We will not be responsible for personal belongings during the move.
First, describe the flaws you discover in this blog post. Next, develop a plan for rewriting the post.
Use the following steps to organize your efforts before you begin writing:
Determine the purpose
Identify and analyse your audience
Define the main idea
Outline the major supporting points
Choose between the direct and indirect approaches [p. 75]
Now rewrite the post.
(Bovee, 2019, p. 160)
Bovee, C. L., Thill, J. V., Scribner, J. A. (2019). Business Communication Essentials, Fifth Canadian Edition, 5th Edition.
Homework
Day 5
Books & Articles to read
Chapter 7
Outline an effective strategy for writing routine business requests
Describe three common types of routine requests
Outline an effective strategy for writing routine replies, routine messages and positive messages
Describe seven common types of routine replies, routine messages and positive messages
Chapter 8
Apply the three-step writing process to negative messages
Explain how to use the direct approach effectively when conveying negative news
Explain how to use the indirect approach effectively when conveying negative news and explain how to avoid ethical problems when using this approach
Describe successful strategies for sending negative messages on routine business matters
Describe successful strategies for sending negative employment-related messages
List the important points to consider when conveying negative organizational news
Describe an effective strategy for responding to negative information in a social media environment
In-class exercise
7-25. Message Strategies: Making Routine Requests; Completing: Evaluating Content, Organization, and Tone [LO-1 & LO-2, pp. 167-8], Chapter 7
Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of this message and then revise it so that it follows the guidelines for routine requests for information in chapter 7:
I’m fed up with the mistakes that our current accounting firm makes. I run a small construction company, and I don’t have time to double-check every bookkeeping entry and call the accountants a dozen times when they won’t return my messages. Please explain how your firm would do a better job than my current accountants. You have a good reputation among homebuilders, but before I consider hiring you to take over my accounting, I need to know that you care about quality work and good customer service.
(Bovee, 2019, p. 182)
Bovee, C. L., Thill, J. V., Scribner, J. A. (2019). Business Communication Essentials, Fifth Canadian Edition, 5th Edition.
Homework
Day 6
Interesting article
Chapter 9
Apply the three-step writing process to persuasive messages
Describe an effective strategy for developing persuasive business messages
Identify the three most common categories of persuasive business messages
Describe an effective strategy for developing marketing and sales messages
Explain how to modify your approach when writing promotional messages for social media
Identify steps you can take to avoid ethical lapses in marketing and sales messages
In-class exercise
9-27. Message Strategies: Persuasive Business Messages [LO-3, p. 222]: Read the following message then:
analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each sentence; and
revise the document so that it follows the guidelines in chapter 9.
Dear TechStar Computing:
I’m writing to you because of my disappointment with my new multimedia PC display. The display part works all right, but the audio volume is also set too high and the volume knob doesn’t turn it down. It’s driving us crazy. The volume knob doesn’t seem to be connected to anything but simply spins around. I can’t believe you would put out a product like this without testing it first.
I depend on my computer to run my small business and want to know what you are going to do about it. This reminds me of every time I buy electronic equipment from what seems like any company. Something is always wrong. I thought quality was supposed to be important, but I guess not.
Anyway, I need this fixed right away. Please tell me what you want me to do.
(Bovee, 2019, p. 234)
Bovee, C. L., Thill, J. V., Scribner, J. A. (2019). Business Communication Essentials, Fifth Canadian Edition, 5th Edition.
Homework
Day 7
Important resources
Chapter 10
Adapt the three-step writing process to reports and proposals
Describe an effective process for conducting business research, explain how to evaluate the credibility of an information source, and identify the five ways to use research results
Explain the role of
secondary research and describe the two major categories of online research tools
Explain the role of
primary research and identify the two most common forms of primary research for business communication purposes
Explain how to plan informational reports and website content
Identify the three most common ways to organize analytical reports
Explain how to plan proposals
In-class exercise
10-14. Research: Documenting Sources [LO-2]
Select five business articles from reputable online sources. Develop a bibliography (resource list), using Zotero. I will specify which documentation style to use. (Bovee, 2019, p. 271)
Bovee, C. L., Thill, J. V., Scribner, J. A. (2019). Business Communication Essentials, Fifth Canadian Edition, 5th Edition.
Homework
Day 8
Interesting books
Chapter 11
List the topics commonly covered in the introduction, body, and close of informational reports, analytical reports, and proposals
Identify six guidelines for drafting effective website content and offer guidelines for becoming a valuable wiki contributor
Discuss six principles of graphic design that can improve the quality of your visuals and identify the major types of business visuals
Summarize the four tasks involved in completing business reports and proposals
In-class activity
11-14. Applying Visual Design Principles [LO-3, p. 285]
Find three visual presentations of data, information, or concepts on any business subject.
Which of the three presents its data or information most clearly?
What design choices promote this level of clarity?
What improvements would you make to the other visuals to make them clearer? (Bovee, 2019, p. 318)
Bovee, C. L., Thill, J. V., Scribner, J. A. (2019). Business Communication Essentials, Fifth Canadian Edition, 5th Edition.
Homework
Day 9
“While presentation technology has evolved over the years, the presentations themselves have not necessarily evolved. Today, millions of presentations are given every day with the aid of such applications as PowerPoint, Keynote (from Apple Inc.), or one of the host of good cloud-based applications. Yet, most presentations remain mind-numbingly dull, something to be endured by both presenter and audience alike, or heavily decorated and animated affairs with excessive motion that distracts from even well-researched content. Presentations are still generally ineffective, not because presenters lack intelligence or creativity, but because they have learned bad habits and they lack awareness and knowledge about what makes for a great presentation.”[1]
[1] G. Reynolds, ‘Presentations Today’, in
Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, 2nd Edition, New Riders, 2011 [Online]. Available:
https://learning-oreilly-com.ezproxy.torontopubliclibrary.ca/library/view/presentation-zen-simple/9780132901529/. [Accessed: 30-Sep-2021]
If you have a Toronto Public Library card, then you can access that book via this URL: https://learning-oreilly-com.ezproxy.torontopubliclibrary.ca/library/view/presentation-zen-simple/9780132901529/
Chapter 12
Highlight the importance of presentations in your business career and explain how to adapt the planning step of the three-step process to presentations
Describe the tasks involved in developing a presentation
Describe the six major writing and design tasks required to enhance your presentation with effective visuals
Outline four key tasks involved in completing a presentation
Describe four important aspects of delivering a presentation in today’s social media environment
In-class exercise
12-16. Presentations: Designing Presentation Visuals [LO-4, p. 342]
Using the guidelines discussed in chapter 12 and the articles linked below, create three to five slides summarizing the issues discussed in one of the links bellow. Include citations and sources for any material you [use or] quote directly. (Bovee, C. L., Thill, J. V., Scribner, J. A. (2019). Business Communication Essentials, Fifth Canadian Edition, 5th Edition., p. 351)
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Homework
Day 10