Week 2, Chapter 2: Planning Business Messages

Your textbook author identifies the first phase in the writing process as the prewriting phase. This phase has three tasks: analyzing your audience, anticipating their reaction, and adapting to their needs.

Think of a message in your personal or professional life that you may write in the next few weeks. Explain how you will analyze your audience and anticipate your audience’s needs. Discuss how you will adapt your message based on the results. If you do not anticipate writing a message in the near future, then create an imaginary situation to use in this blog assignment.

Week 1: Virtual Introductions

Between now and 5 p.m. Friday, April 10, enter a comment on this post. In your comment, briefly introduce yourself: your full name, your job (currently or the one you’d like in the future), your program in school, and anything else you would like your instructor and classmates to know about you. See the instructions on the right side of the screen if you are new to blogging.

For this week only, you will receive five points for participation. The goal is to be sure you are registered and able to participate on this blog before the formal blogging assignments begin in Week 2 (April 13 through 17). Once the formal assignments begin, you will be able to earn up to 10 points depending on the quality of your response. Feel free to scroll down and click on "archives" to see what other students in previous classes have written.

Week 8, Final blog assignment: Reflection posting

A reflection paper or presentation is often used in colleges to identify how well students are able to apply course concepts. For this posting, tell us the following:
1) Explain what you learned and the insights you had from completing the blog assignments. Be specific.
2) Include what you learned from reading the comments posted by your classmates.
3) Identify which blog assignment you felt contributed the most to your professional writing ability.

Week 7, Chapter 7: Persuasive messages

Many of you will have careers that do not require you to write sales letters or marketing materials. There are, however, reasons why you should still be aware of persuasive strategies and techniques. Describe a situation where you were persuaded to do something, buy something or say something that you would have preferred not to do/buy/say. What was the primary persuasive technique the person used and why do you think it was effective on you?

Week 6, Chapter 6: Direct letters and goodwill messages

This site provides some good examples and instructions for a variety of letter types, including such specialty items as fax cover sheets: http://www.letterwritingguide.com/ (You may want to add it to your favorites/bookmark it for future use.)

For this week’s blog assignment, describe a goodwill message you have written or have received from someone else. Explain what the situation was (thank-you note, sympathy letter, or other expression of goodwill). Analyze how well you think the purpose was accomplished based on the “Five Ss of Goodwill Messages” discussed in your textbook. What could have been done differently? What was particularly good about the message?

Week 5, Chapter 5: Email and memorandums

Read this article about tips for writing email in the workplace: http://careerplanning.about.com/od/communication/a/email_tips.htm The author provides seven tips. Describe an email you have received that broke one or more of this tips. Be specific. Explain what the email said, which tip(s) it violated, and suggest how the email could have been improved.

Week 4, Chapter 4: Revising and Proofreading

As you go about your usual business this week, keep your eyes open for errors in spelling, grammar and/or punctuation. What did you find, what is the error, what would be correct, and where did you see it? For example, last week I was at a professional development seminar. The speaker had a slide with two incorrect apostrophes in the same phrase. The phrase as written on the slide was “plaintiffs attorney’s.” Because the plaintiffs possess the attorneys and both nouns are plural, the phrase should have been written, “plaintiffs’ attorneys.” For inspiration, visit Boston’s Grammar Vigilante at http://thegrammarvandal.wordpress.com/