Course Outline of Record

Item	Value
Curriculum Committee Approval Date	04/20/2004
Top Code	050630 - Management Development and Supervision
Units	3 Total Units
Hours	54 Total Hours (Lecture Hours 54)
Total Outside of Class Hours	0
Course Credit Status	Credit: Degree Applicable (D)
Material Fee	No
Basic Skills	Not Basic Skills (N)
Repeatable	No
Grading Policy	Standard Letter (S),  Pass/No Pass (B)

Course Description

This course provides a basic understanding of business communication and develops confidence and skill in writing effective business letters, memos, online communications, and reports. Focus will be placed on forming a solid foundation for writing business documents, eliminating “writer’s block,” improving writing techniques, increasing editing and proofreading skills, and developing actual practice in writing positive, negative, neutral, and persuasive communications. Transfer Credit: CSU.

Course Level Student Learning Outcome(s)

1. Course Outcomes
2. Analyze business problems by producing written and oral communications that reflect decision makingin today’s changing workplace.
3. Compose a variety of positive, negative, routine, and persuasive business communications using thethree-step writing process (planning, drafting, and revising).
4. Create document styles that are useful for various business writing tasks.

Course Objectives

• 1. Understand the importance of good communication in the todays changing workplace and improve individual listening, nonverbal, verbal, and written communication skills.
• 2. Effectively communicate information and ideas by developing business communications that are clear, concise, coherent, consistent, courteous, complete, and correct in every detail.
• 3. Brainstorm ideas, organize information into an outline, and transform the outline into a first draft.
• 4. Differentiate between direct and indirect communication strategies and apply the appropriate plan to a variety of business messages.
• 5. Write effective business messages using the three-step writing process (planning, writing, and revising).
• 6. Use specific writing techniques that improve communications and avoid those pitfalls that detract from a messages effectiveness.
• 7. Demonstrate the proper use of English grammar, spelling, and punctuation in written communications.
• 8. Choose a document style appropriate to the writing task and accurately format documents to maintain a professional appearance.
• 9. Expand proofreading and editing skills.
• 10. Objectively and subjectively evaluate and critique business messages written by others.
• 11. Plan, draft, edit, and finalize a variety of positive, negative, neutral, and persuasive business communications.
• 12. Understand the basics of informal report writing and prepare both an internal and external informal report.
• 13. Refine telephone and voice mail communication skills.
• 14. Prepare for, conduct, and record business meetings.

---

Lecture Content

UNDERSTANDING THE FOUNDATIONS OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION Examining the communication process Identifying barriers to effective communication Developing better listening skills Improving nonverbal communication skills Communicating across cultures Differentiating between internal and external; formal and informal; upward, downward, and lateral communications  IMPLEMENTING THE THREE-STEP WRITING PROCESS  Prewriting business messages  Brainstorming ideas  Identifying the purpose of writing  Analyzing the audience  Comparing direct and indirect communication strategies; applying the appropriate plan to the message  Organizing data and preparing an outline  Writing business messages  Composing the first draft  Emphasizing important ideas and de-emphasizing unimportant ones  Developing sentence unity  Identifying strategies for achieving paragraph coherence  Creating audience-centered messages  "You” attitude  Conversational tone  Positive language  Familiar words  Plain expression  Using active voice, passive voice, and parallelism effectively in messages  Improving writing techniques  Avoiding writing pitfalls  Revising business messages Revising messages to include  Concise wording  Precise verbs  Concrete nouns  Vivid adjectives  Editing messages to eliminate  Wordy prepositional phrases  Long lead-ins  Outdated expressions  Needless adverbs  Fillers  Repetitious words Redundancies  Jargon  Slang  Cliches  Using technology to improve business communications COMPLETING BUSINESS DOCUMENTS Using appropriate business stationery  Letterhead stationery  Company letterhead  Personal letterhead  Interoffice memorandums  Formatting business documents  Letter styles  Block letter style  Modified-block letter style  Simplified letter style  Letter components  Interoffice memorandums  Informal reports  E-mail messages  Faxes  Envelopes  Using technology to improve business communications  Final proofreading of documents  Spelling  Grammar  Tone  Accuracy  Coherence  Punctuation  Format  Signing the document  WRITING INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUMS AND ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS  Writing successful memorandums and electronic communications  Understanding how to use e-mail safely and effectively  Formatting memorandums, faxes, and e-mail messages  Using graphic highlighting techniques to create emphasis and clarity  COMPOSING ROUTINE (NEUTRAL) AND POSITIVE COMMUNICATIONS Writing routine communications  Form letters and acknowledgements  Follow-up correspondence  Routine requests and merchandise orders  Writing positive messages  Favorable replies  Goodwill messages Granting claims  Letters of recommendation  WRITING NEGATIVE COMMUNICATIONS  Differentiating between the use of direct and indirect writing patterns Writing negative messages  Refusing requests, invitations, or claims  Announcing bad news to customers

Method(s) of Instruction

• Lecture (02)
• DE Live Online Lecture (02S)
• DE Online Lecture (02X)

Reading Assignments

Textbook readings as assigned.

Writing Assignments

Application of strategies necessary for effective communication in business.  Students will complete no less than 8 written assignments (e.g., business letters, memos, e-mail messages, short reports) to solve case-study problems and to complete writing-improvement exercises.

Out-of-class Assignments

Video case studies and in-class group activities.

Demonstration of Critical Thinking

Students will develop a logical approach to analyzing and solving business problems by producing effective oral and written communications that reflect successful decision making in todays changing workplace environment.

Required Writing, Problem Solving, Skills Demonstration

Application of strategies necessary for effective communication in business. Students will complete no less than 8 written assignments (e.g., business letters, memos, e-mail messages, short reports) to solve case-study problems and to complete writing-improvement exercises.

Eligible Disciplines

Business: Masters degree in business, business management, business administration, accountancy, finance, marketing, or business education OR bachelors degree in any of the above AND masters degree in economics, personnel management, public administration, or Juris Doctorate (J.D.) or Legum Baccalaureus (LL.B.) degree OR bachelors degree in economics with a business emphasis AND masters degree in personnel management, public administration, or J.D. or LL.B. degree OR the equivalent. Masters degree required.

Textbooks Resources

1. Required Kolin. Successful Writing at Work , 11th ed. Cengage, 2017

Other Resources

1. Punctuation guides 2. Various handouts to supplement text and lecture