Week 4 Friday

Good Morning,

I'm having a problem this morning accessing Web Campus. When I attempt to log in from my office computer at UNLV, I receive an error message ("you're already logged in and can't open a second version of WebCampus") and then I'm ejected from the system.

Consequently, I will keep this brief.

1. I was unhappy with our overall class grading curve for the Intro Memo and Progress Reports, so I recalibrated the numbers on the scoring forms (we'll use this new formula going forward). I also manually adjusted your grades (upward) for those two projects last night. Thus, the grades in the gradebook currently are your real, final grades for those projects.
   
2. Check the Calendar for the work that is due this week.
   
3. If you have participated in the peer review process for the Job project and/or the Final Recommendations Report and you wish to receive feedback from me on your revised drafts, you must submit drafts to me by Sunday evening. I will not/can not review drafts submitted via email; use the Assignment dropbox. The sooner you get these documents to me, the faster I can get them back to you.
   
4. If you received a "0" on the Progress Report because you had not contributed to/participated on your team, you will not pass this course. Review the syllabus policy re: all major assignments must be completed in order to pass the course. This policy is not subject to discussion or negotiation.

Keep up the good work, everyone. We are near the end

Dr. Staggers

Really not loving those early project grades

Good evening,

I've uploaded grades for the Intro Memo and the International Project Progress Report into the gradebook, and I'm not super happy with them.

The way the grading forms are set up for these "early" smaller projects tends to weight grades toward the bottom of the range. If on a given criteria, I think you are in the "average" range, then you automatically get a "3," which really works out to the equivalent of a C-. I'd rather you have a "3.5" or a solid mid-range C if you're in the average range.

So, long story short, I'll go in on Friday - or over the weekend -- and manually adjust those scores so that they more accurately reflect the work you really did. Do not expect that this is going to save a lower-than-desired grade or make a big shift in your semester points total.

That's it for today.

Dr. S

Week 4 Thursday

Good Morning,

Just a quick reminder that your final Faux Pas Case documents (individual project) and Research Design Plan (group project) are due on Friday. For the Research Design Plan, have one person on your team submit the final version for grading. In the comments box in the submission window, please include the names of everyone on your team. That will help me speed up the grading somewhat.

We have a very messy week ahead of us next week, with a holiday right in the middle. So, if you want to try to work ahead, feel free to do so. If you have participated in peer review, you may submit Job Project draft documents and/or Reommendation Report documents for the optional instructor review immediately. I'll get comments back to you on a rolling basis as those drafts come in, starting this afternoon/evening.

General tips for the Job Project

Finally, I want to offer some general observations that apply to the Job Project:

Resume

• Keep the resume on 1 page, unless you have extensive work experience relevant to the specific job you’re applying for. 
• Aligning your name in the top left (instead of center) ensures your name gets read first; if you’re aligning elsewhere you should explain your thinking in your PAM (it’s okay to align wherever, you just need a reason.) 
• ALL CAPS make subheadings harder to read; if you’re using them you should explain why in your PAM. 

• Try to keep your objective to 2 lines; focus on what you can do for them, not what they can do for you.
  

• The objective statement should function like the “thesis statement” (think back to freshman composition) for your resume. It should highlight your 2-3 highest qualifications (your best skills that match up with the most important things the ad says they’re looking for.)
  

• All body text should be indented considerably to avoid violating the “column test” and make it easier for readers to scan your document.
  

• Use parallel grammatical structure for your bulleted lists of skills, and start every bullet item with a strong action verb. But don’t overdo your use of bullets. Use them strategically to highlight the most important information. 

Cover letter

• Include any info that identifies the job – date you saw it, job listing #, etc. Saying only that you saw the job “on your website” without an accompanying date or other identifying information is sure to lower your grade.
• The last sentence (or thereabouts) in your opening paragraph functions like the “thesis statement” for your cover letter; it should highlight your 2—3 best qualities, and you should have body paragraphs that then develop those main ideas. 
• It’s not enough to make a claim that you possess “x” quality; you need to show (with a carefully chosen example) how you acquired that quality or how you have used that quality. Anyone can say they have certain skills or attributes, but if you offer a specific examples, your letter will be much more effective. 
• The most important thing in the cover letter are the examples that SHOW you have a particular skill or attribute. Be selective in your choice of example and be sure to be descriptive so that the reader can see how you have used this attribute in the past. 
• Surface errors, proofreading errors, mangled syntax, and awkward sentence structures have a significant, negative impact on your grade on this assignment (and on your chances of surviving the screening process during a real job search); if you know you have problems with sentence structure try to go to the Writing Lab or get proofreading help from friends who are stronger writers. 

JAM and PAM

These are analytical documents. I’m more interested in WHY you made your choices. Don’t just tell me what you did. 

• Discuss why your choices are the best choices for this particular situation. 
• Make explicit connections between your choices and the job. 
• Make explicit connections between your attributes and the job requirements. 
• Finally, if you use the 407A Memo Template, remove the footer so that it doesn’t show up on all of the documents.

One more week, folks. Keep up the good work. Keep working hard.
If you have any questions/concerns, please let me know.

Dr. Staggers

Week 4 Wednesday

Good Morning,

I hope to have Introductory Memos back to you by the end of the day. I'm having a bit of trouble with browser compatibility and Web Campus this week, and it's slowing me down just a bit. (WebCampus insists I sign in with my ID and password multiple times in order to download your attachments. Kind of a pain.) Overall, many of you still need to do a better job with introductions, conclusions, and – most of all – using multiple short, succinct paragraphs in every section. So, that's a lesson learned from the memo assignment that you can apply to your work going forward.

Audience, Purpose and Context: Recommendation Report
Remember, your primary deliverable for the International Project is a Recommendation Report. You are not creating any kind of workshop or travel guide or documents for employees. You are only making recommendations to the company as to the kinds of information that they should gather to help prepare their employees for the move. It's important that you tell Bellcom how you arrived at your recommendations: Why were the sources you chose to rely on the best/most credible sources? And based on those sources, what are the most important things Bellcom can do to prepare their employees to do business in the new city?

A note about formatting your Final Report: You should use the final report template as your base. The other materials are separate documents that are included with the final report. In other words, if you were submitting the Final Report as a hard copy, all of the materials would be presented in one folder, even if they are saved as separate files electronically. Since you are required to submit your materials electronically for this class, your electronic submission is no different. All of the materials are submitted as one file even if they are separate documents. If you're having trouble with the file merge process, you may submit your final report in a zip file if you wish. 

Once again, you can submit separate documents of your Final Report to the Peer Review space, but you probably should get the formatting correct from the beginning and offer a single file for peer review. Just a reminder, that there is a single peer review space for the entire class for the final report. I encourage you to share your draft, look at drafts posted by other teams, and offer feedback to other teams. Seeing how other groups are approaching this writing problem will be incredibly helpful.

Have a great day!

Julie

Week 4 Tuesday

Good Morning,

All drafts -- Research Design Plan and Faux Pas Case -- have been returned, and I'm grading my brains out on Progress Reports and Intro Memos.

Your Faux Pas Case documents are due on Friday. Once again, please put all of the documents in one file. (Either merge files in MS-Word or convert documents to PDF and submit as a single PDF. Youtube has excellent videos on how to do this.) If you try to submit them separately, they will be returned ungraded.

If you have questions about my comments on documents I have reviewed, please let me know. Remember, most of my comments are higher-order, so be sure to edit your documents closely. I did not point out every grammar/punctuation error.

I am seeing a LOT of verbatim language -- phrases, sentences, whole paragraphs -- lifted directly from the sample documents for this project. The samples are not models. That is, some of the samples have elements that are very, very poorly executed. I will 100% treat borrowings of language from the sample documents like plagiarism. 

Tips for the Faux Pas Case

Here are a few general comments about the Faux Pas Case::

1. The introduction of any memo needs to set the context for the memo, state the purpose, and preview the memo content, especially the internal document for the Faux project. Similarly, any conclusion you write needs to summarize, offer to answer any questions the reader might have, and provide an open avenue for communication.
   
2. The first part of the memo should describe the situation so that everyone understands the problem in the same way. In other words, the background section is important in that it establishes the situation so that there are no misunderstandings and so all of the details are out in the open.
   
3. The rest of the memo needs to outline possible solutions and then make an argument for the best solution. Each of the options needs to be discussed in detail in terms of both strengths and weaknesses. You need to convince your supervisors that you have carefully considered all possible options before selecting the one that you feel is the most appropriate. You should include a discussion of your plan to revise Nestor’s letter and get him on board. Remember, the key to this memo is that you SHOW your boss that you have thought about this problem in great detail and that you have made an INFORMED decision.
   
4. The key to revising Nestor’s letter is to write something that will solve the existing problem without creating new problems for the parties involved.
   
5. Finally, when writing your PAMs, you need to spend time discussing WHY you made the choices you made for the two documents. And the “production” section should discuss your writing process and what you have learned about how you write and how you can write more successfully in the future. In other words, the whole PAM needs to be more reflective, for most of you, throughout.

Hang in there, people. This is a really, really hard week.

Dr. Staggers

Week 4 Monday

Good Morning,

I hope that you all had a productive weekend. I'm up to my eyeballs in reviewing and grading. I'll get review comments back to you first and then return items that have been submitted for grades, all ASAP.

This week is quite busy again. Since next week is the last week of the session, we need to get a lot done this week so that everyone will have time to finish up next week.


Job Project
If you haven't already submitted first drafts of your job project to your peer review group, you might want to do that soon. You can submit any or all of the four documents.

International Project
This is a critical time for your group project, so keep working hard. You all need to finish the revisions on the Research Design Plan and you all should be starting to put your Recommendation Report together. This is a difficult and time-consuming process, so get started early and revise often. 


By Friday at the latest, you'll also want to submit a first draft of your Recommendation Report to your peer review space. Remember, this is a first draft, so don’t worry if all the content is not there. You should, however, have it formatted correctly and have all of the required sections in place, even if you don’t have all of the content.

In fact, at this stage, if you're missing content, it's helpful to pencil in the names of the people responsible for completing each section. Who's doing the research? Drafting the section? Developing any needed visuals?

You should have the beginnings of Front Matter material, a formatted report, and Back Matter material.

What's due Friday
Your team's final Research Design Plan is due in the Assignment Dropbox on Friday.

Your Faux Pas Case documents are due on Friday. Once again, please put all of the documents in one file. If you try to submit them separately, they will be returned ungraded. See the separate blog entry on how to merge documents if you're having trouble.

Good luck with the rest of the week. 

Dr. S

Week 3 Friday

Good Day,

The last day of Week 3 should find everyone in the middle of the busiest time in the class, including me. By the end of the day today, you should have completed all of the quizzes, completed all of the exercises, and submitted your introductory memo for evaluation. Each team should also have submitted the International Project Progress Report for evaluation.

You should have completed the reading for the Job Project and you should be in the process of constructing all of your Job Project documents. Two quick points to keep in mind about your Job Project: the resume needs to be visually appealing (NOT a Microsoft template) and your cover letter should use specific examples to SHOW how you meet the needs of the employer.

Your work on the Faux Pas Case Project and the Job Project this week is critical. These two projects count for 35% of your grade, so don’t let up. I know that this course is taxing, but maintain your focus and work hard on drafting, revising, and editing these two projects effectively. There is still A LOT to do before this summer session is over.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.

Have a great weekend!

Dr. S.

P.S. Remember, by Sunday you should have submitted drafts of your Job Project documents for peer review, and submitted a file with the drafts of your Faux Pas Case documents to me (optional).Dr. S.

Week 3 Thursday

Some notes to keep you on track as the week winds down...

Faux Pas Case

As you're working on those Faux Pas drafts, feel free to brainstorm approaches and share drafts with other people in class. The memo to Nestor is especially hard to do well, and having someone else check your draft for appropriate tone is always a good idea. In addition, seeing how other people are approaching this tricky situation might help you refine your own approach. 

Taking a look at the Evaluation criteria on the Evaluation page in the module as well as the peer review worksheets on the Peer Review page might help you evaluate and revise your work as well.

Week 3 Wednesday

Good Morning,

Just a few reminders today:

Introductions Project
Final versions of the Introductory Memo are due for evaluation (grading) on Friday. Make sure you submit in the proper format and with the proper filenames. (See "Submission" page in the project module for details.)

Faux Pas Case
I see that many people have posted drafts of their Faux Pas Case project for peer review. Please take the time to respond to these drafts to the best of your ability as soon as possible – in whatever fashion works best for you. Remember, the more feedback you give and get, the better your revisions will be. 

Week 3 Tuesday

Hello,


Just a couple of reminders on Tuesday:

Faux Pas Case

I encourage you to participate in the peer review for the Faux Pas case, because it's a pretty challenging assignment. The Faux Pas case is about problem solving; I’m looking for documents that solve the problem in the most ethical manner. You can submit any or all of your documents. 

Confused about Faux Pas Case

Hello People,

Are you confused about which documents you should be writing for the International Project?

During the regular semester, that assignment asks you to create four documents: 1) a revision of Bill's letter, 2) a memo to Bill about the revision; 3) a memo to the Big Boss explaining the entire situation -- what happened in France and your solution to the problem; and 4) a memo to the instructor (me) explaining how/why you constructed your documents the way you did.

In trying to cut your work load down a little bit, by asking you to create only three documents, I confused some of you. Some folks are working on the memo to the Big Boss; others are working on a memo to me.

I think in order to keep things fair and prevent people from having toss out work they have already started, I will give you the option -- for the third document in the Faux Pas case -- of writing EITHER the memo to the Big Boss OR the memo to me.

So, if you have a start on one and want to continue in that direction, great. If you haven't started, pick whichever you like best.

In terms of grading, what I'm looking for in that third document is your ability to explain a complicated process to a third party. These options are pretty much equal in terms of degree of difficulty.

Hope that helps clear things up. If you have additional questions, be sure to ask them at the discussion board.

Dr. S

Week 3 Monday

Good Morning,

I know some folks may be running a bit behind owing to Father's Day festivities yesterday.

I encourage you to swap drafts of your Faux Pax Case documents through the peer review board if you haven't already done so. Likewise, if your team has even a very sketchy draft of the International Project Research Design plan (could be nothing more than your primary and secondary research questions), get them posted to the Peer Review space today and I can get you some feedback.

Here's what you should be focusing on this week:

• Complete the assigned readings as well as Exercises 8-10 and Quizzes 9-10.
• Conduct your research for the International Project
• Revise and edit your Faux Pas Case Documents (strongly encourage you to exchange drafts with other people)
• Revise, edit and submit your Introductory Memo for grading

As always, post questions as they arise over on the discussion board.

Dr. S

Web Campus down on Friday

At this moment, WebCampus seems to be down at UNLV. Rest assured, work that could not be submitted because WebCampus was down will not be counted as "late."

They'll send me a report, eventually, detailing when the system went down, why, and for how long.

Check in periodically and submit your work within a reasonable time period after the system is up and running again.

Week 2 Friday

Good Morning,

I have to say, we have a remarkable number of teams that look like they are off to a really good start with the International Project. Hats off to you!

We have a few teams that are getting off to a slower start. However, I think we have a lot of groups where people tend to work at the same time during the week. Some of the groups that have a good lead on the project are made up mostly of people working on this class early in the week. I'm guessing/hoping that some of the groups that aren't really rolling yet are made up of people who do most of their work late in the week/over the weekend.

As a reminder, here is what you need to know about this class:

• As stated in the course syllabus, in order to do well in this class, you need to have about 20 hours per week to devote to it. It is VERY difficult to pass this course if you are taking another course and working a job.

• You cannot pass this course if you do not complete each and every major project (see syllabus.) This includes the two main components of the International Project - the Research Design Plan and the Recommendation Report, which you must complete as part of a team.

• The International Project is a group project that is worth about 40% of your semester grade.

• If you have not yet made contact with the other members of your team, you are extremely far behind. Your options at this point are to 1) step up and take a leadership role in getting your team off the ground, or 2) drop this course. This course is offered every semester in live classroom, hybrid classroom and online formats. You may find another format or a less compressed schedule is a better fit for you.

One more note about the International Project: as I mentioned prieviously, the peer review space for the Research Design Plan is a multi-group space, and you should use it to your advantage to have a conversation with people in other groups about strategies for creating a strong document, including what sections you might use, what information should go in each section, and what are the best methods for convincing the reader that you have a well-conceived research plan. If your team posts a draft on to the Peer Review space on Sunday -- no matter how wobbly or incomplete the draft is -- I'll take a look at it and get you some quick feedback on your research questions and your approach to the project.


Just because I'm looking at drafts, doesn't mean you shouldn't also take a peek. One of the benefits of looking at other teams drafts at this stage of the game is that seeing the other teams' vision of the project usually helps you get a better understanding of your own project. Last summer, I had a couple of teams that looked at the drafts in the peer review space and quickly figured out that what they were doing was wrong, wrong, wrong. Post whatever you have and looking at what everyone else has posted is a win-win.

That's it for the housekeeping business for today.

Folks who are working hard in here, keep up the good work!

Folks who are significantly behind, I recognize that you're probably working very hard somewhere -- or several somewheres -- even if we're not seeing much of you in here.

Please don't take my advice to drop the class as an indictment of you as a student. Usually students in summer session are extremely hard workers and good students. Even excellent students, however, can find themselves in over their heads during the hectic summer session.

If you do decide you need to drop the class, please send me a quick note through WebCampus.

Have the best possible weekend!


Julie

Week 2 Thursday

Good Morning,

As I mentioned on Tuesday, there is an optional peer review for your Research Design Plans that starts on Sunday. I encourage you to post whatever you have, even if all that you have is your list of research questions. If you'll post a draft I can get your team some feedback. The most important part of this project is asking the right research questions; if your questions are taking you off course I can help you get back on track.

I also STRONGLY encourage you to consider using Google Docs to develop and share your draft documents. Check out this video:

Week 2 Wednesday

Good Morning,

Things seem to be moving along smoothly.

All of your International Project teams have been set up. Check the discussion board for your group's discussion space. You'll only see the group for your team and team members are listed.

If you participated in the Introduction Project peer review, you should have already returned (or be returning ASAP) any feedback to other authors. Whether or not you participated in the peer review, you should be revising your draft memo now.

Professional tip: If you receive what looks like a simple assignment on June 7 and it's not due until June 24, the bar may be higher than you think.

Week 2 Tuesday

Good Day,

First, my apologies for the delayed post today. Tuesday's message should have posted automatically at 12:01 a.m. I'll have to poke around in the blogging app to see what I did wrong.

Second, let's talk about the group project...

International Project Groups are available now

You have been assigned to a group for the international project. Each team has a discussion space and a chat room. I've also set up a separate thread just for Project Managers. 

Again, the best advice I can give you for getting this project off the ground is to make sure you have a handle on what the project is asking you to do, and then appoint a project manager.

Week 2 Monday

As we begin the second week, your workload once again concentrates primarily on developing your skills before the real writing begins.

 

What's on tap this week

Reading: You will also need to start reading for the Faux Pas Case project this week.

Minor assignments: You also need to complete exercises 5-7 and quizzes 4-8.  So far, people seem to be doing rather well on the quizzes overall. Keep up the good work. You can pick up some extra credit/participation points by posting on the discussion boards.

The Big Deal This Week: The International Project should take a majority of your intellectual time this week. I'm making some adjustments to the project to make it just a little bit easier for you to negotiate. 

• First, I'm going to give you the option to SIGN UP for groups today (Monday). I'll assign everyone who has not signed up for a group by 11:59 pm Monday to groups as spaces are available. Check the group sign-up sheet on our course homepage in WebCampus. The sign up sheets give you the option to join/form a group with anyone else in class you've already found to be compatible.
• Second, to limit the amount of time teams spend debating about the best city to choose, I'm limiting your city options to just two: 1) London, England, or 2) Sydney, Australia.

By mid-day Tuesday, each group will have a discussion space and a chat room; group members will be listed on their discussion space. I’ve had groups with people in Hong Kong, France, Nevada, and California do this project quite successfully without ever having a face-to-face meeting. One of the keys to success is to appoint someone with good organization and people skills to be your project manager; the project manager's contribution to the project can/should be almost entirely managing the project (not writing or researching but keeping project goals in focus, distributing assignments, keeping track of the people actually doing the writing/researching.)

Pep Talk

To get everyone started, I'd like to offer some words of encouragement and some tips for this initial stage. You CAN manage this project without meeting face-toface, but that means you have to work smart right from the beginning. A good place to start is by reviewing the readings on Collaboration and applying those principles to your work group.

One of the most important things you can do is to establish some clear roles and responsbilities for team members early on; find out who the best project manager in your group is (not the best writer, not the hardest worker, the best manager) and make them your manager.

I want to emphasize that it is to your individual advantage to have your team do the bulk of your communication about this project through Web Campus because that establishes a clear record of your individual contributions. However, I've had teams that have done most of their communication via conference calls, texting, tweeting, Google Groups, whatever. While this is a team project, every person receives an individual grade. By “meeting” in your chat room or discussion space, or at least by posting meeting minutes consistently in your chat room or discussion space, your team creates a record of the work done. That helps me assess the quality of your work process and of each individual’s contributions.

It also helps keep your team moving forward: I cannot stress enough how very much keeping actual meeting minutes – time/date/location of th meeting, who was there, who was late, what topics were discussed, what action items were assigned to which individuals, what deadlines were set – will help you keep this project on course.

Helpful goal for this week: By the end of the day on Wednesday, you should know:

• Who every member of your team is, what their strengths/weaknesses are on this type of a project, what roles they are comfortable playing, and how each member plans to contribute to the project 
• How to contact every member of your group by email and telephone, and when during the week they are available by phone, email, or chat. 
• When during the week each team member usually has time to work on this class and how those availabilities match up with the work that needs to be done. 
• How and when you will hold team meetings – in the chat room? email only? conference calling? meeting on campus? 
• What each team members’ assignments are for the first part of this project – the Research Design Plan – and what the schedule is for completing the work. 

I’ll have more tomorrow.

Have a great day!

Dr. Staggers

Week 1 Friday

Hello,

Today is the end of the first week. You should have done quite a bit of preparation for the rest of the semester. The workload is heavy, but not unmanageable if you work steadily.

How to participate in Peer Review

See the instructions on the Peer Review space on the Discussion Board for specific how-to info on sharing drafts.

If you're participating in the peer review (which is optional), you should post a draft of your Introductory Memo by the end of the day on Sunday, and comment on at least two other drafts by Tuesday.

Tips for the Introductory Memo

A few hints about the Introductory Memo Project.

Keep in mind, first and foremost, that you must follow good memo format:

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.

Week 1 Wednesday

Hello,

It looks like the real fun has begun. I’m happy to see so many happy, smiling faces swarming through these modules.

IMPORTANT: Keep your eye on the WebCampus calendar.

Assignments, Quizzes, Exercises, and Modules

It has been my experience that people in this class get really hung up/freaked out about exercises and quizzes (which are worth 1 or 2 points each, respectively) and kind of lose track of the fact that all the quizzes and exercises are worth less than just one of the big writing assignments.

Budget your time and energy accordingly. Exercises are an opportunity to polish some basic skills; quizzes are a chance to see whether you got the big ideas from the readings that you’ll need so you can do well on the writing assignment.

Week 1 Tuesday

Hello,

I see that many of you have made your first forays into WebCampus. I hope that you have bought the textbook. There is no grace period. I expect work to begin immediately. We have a lot to do this semester.
You'll find all of the materials you need to complete our course are available from our Home Page. This week, you should start by reading the Course Introduction Module, then the Syllabus and Schedule, and then this instructor's message. After you've completed the Course Introduction Module, you should go on to complete the Introductory Memo module, which you'll find in the Projects folder.
Every module is set up the same way. All you need to do is click the link for the module, read the opening page, and work your way through the module beginning to end.

Every module is set up the same way. All you need to do is click the link for the module, read the opening page, and work your way through the module beginning to end.

Week 1 Monday

Hello,

Welcome to English 407A: Fundamentals of Business Writing. Complete materials for this course will be available on Monday, June 4, but the syllabus, schedule and Course Introduction module are available now.

This is the first of your daily messages. I’ll use these messages to remind you of deadlines, keep you on track, and answer questions that are relevant to the whole class.

As you will read in the syllabus, I will be at my computer every evening (Mon-Thursday) from 5-6 pm working on English 407A.

I will use this time to respond to your individual questions, update the WebCampus site, review/respond to your work, and keep track of your progress.