Week 1 Thursday

Good Day,

There have been a few questions that I’ve received that I want to address for the whole class.

Re: The Introductions Project

There is some confusion about the “length” and the size of the font for the Introductory memo. The book says one thing and the module says something else. I’m going to tell you now that if you're focused on "length" rather on audience, purpose, and context for the memo, you're focused on the wrong thing.

You might find it helpful to stop thinking about the assignments in here as writing assignments, like those you remember from freshman composition. Business writing is about solving problems with words.

For every assignment in this class:

• you have a context (that's the sum total of all of the elements of the situation you're writing in -- ranging from this is a class so there is an unequal balance of power between teacher and student, to you don't have a lot of free time, to you really want a good grade) 
• you have some kind a problem pushing you toward a particular purpose (what's the purpose of the document you're writing? what problem do you need to solve? how does this document help you do that?) 
• you have one or more audiences (for this first memo, the instructor is your audience) who already know some things and may want to know additional things. In addition, you as the writer may have some things you want the audience to know that your reader(s) may not even know they don't know.

As a general rule, if you have a good handle on context, purpose, and audience -- and have some understanding of the genre requirements of the type of document you intend to produce (memos don't look like novels), the length of the document you produce should be just about right. If it's too long or too short, it's because you don't understand the purpose or the context or haven't figured out what your reader needs and doesn't need.

In this course, think about page length in terms of parameters. If a length is stated, don’t worry a whole lot if you are a little under or a little over. If you’re in the ballpark and you’ve said what you need to say, then you’ll be OK. If the assignment says to make it 1- to 1.5 pages and you give me 1/2 a page (or 3 pages) you need to review the assignment's context, purpose, and audience to determine why you are short or long.

If you're having trouble with length, peer review can help you. A reviewer’s job is to identify the ways in which the document can do a better job of meeting the needs of the reader. (In this case, I’m the reader and my basic need is that the memo do all of the things the assignment asks it to do.)

As for font, just use Times New Roman 12 pt. I've been doing document design for 30 years; I can tell when you're fiddling with fonts to try to cheat space. No need to do it; your document either achieves its objectives or it doesn't.

International Project

I will assign everyone to an International Project group on Friday.

Discussion board

Overall, I’m happy with the work that I’ve seen to this point. I'm especially pleased with the people who have taken the time to post questions to the discussion board rather than emailing me.

When you have a question about class (assignments, problems with technology, anything that is not of a personal, private nature) the entire class benefits if you post that question on the board. And as several people have already discovered, our classes are full of smart and generous people who have stepped up and shared answers/solutions more quickly than I can.

If you're having run of the mill issues, please post them to the discussion board, and reserve email for private/sensitive issues (i.e. "We have a group member we would cheerfully shoot out of a cannon, if only we could find him/her.)

Keep working hard and continue to stay on task.

Have a great day!

Dr. Staggers