I.

Course Description:
This course is designed to give final year students exposure to the content and format
of business reports in English with authentic terms of reference and data. In addition,
grounding in the techniques of writing as a process will be given together with
sufficient writing practice.
II. Objectives:
By the end of this course students will be able to write their own complete business
reports both from given and self-generated terms of reference.
III. Format and Procedures:
Necessary input will be achieved with text and teacher generated handouts. Grammar,
syntax and paragraphing mechanics will be reviewed/taught in appropriate pre-
teaching modules. Weekly assignments are designed to give writing practice.
IV. Course Requirements:
Students are required to attend class regularly (minimum 80%), participate actively
and submit assignments in a timely fashion.
Required student activities include:
Text: Reading and understanding, controlled and freer exercises
Writing: Brainstorming, preparing data=notes; cyclic improvement through drafting,
self, peer and teacher correction/feedback on content and clarity.
Internet: The internet will be used extensively for assignments.
Course readings:
(a) Business Reports in English Comfort, Revell and Stott
(b) Teacher generated handouts
V. Grading Procedures
(1) In-class
a. Participation 10%
b. Assignments 15%
c. Attendance 20%
(2) Final Project 30%
(3) Final Examination 25%
VI. Writing Labs
Reports are done during the lab portion of the class as well as for homework. The lab
portion consists of writing, questioning and getting feedback from the instructor and
peers. There are no formal lectures during this portion of the class but it is critical
both from the perspective of learning as well as grading that students attend the labs.
Attendance will be routinely taken and have an impact on individual marks for the
reports.

VIII. Course Schedule
Week 1: Introduction and overview of business report writing. Form work groups.
Week 2: Collecting information. Assessing relevance, audience, fact and opinion
Distinguishing fact from opinion. Being precise. Propositions and evidence. Terms of
reference
Week 3: Using graphs and statistics Interpreting graphs. Transferring information
from text to diagram. Referencing illustrations and representing numbers.
Week 4: Writing about graphs and numbers. Amount, difference, quantity and graph
description. Making a graph. Writing about a graph.
Week 5: Selecting and organizing material. Conciseness, Ordering, headings,
classifying. Writing notes, information sequence.
Week 6: Presenting findings. Organization, style. Ordering and reclassifying. Personal
and impersonal styles. Selecting information.
Week 7: Presenting findings continued Continuity and reference. Paragraphing.
Reported speech. Reporting information.
Week 8: Midterm examination period
Week 9: Concluding and recommending. Linking findings, conclusions and
recommendations. Interpreting findings. Writings recommendations
Week 10: Concluding and recommending continued. Degree, probability and
recommendation. Matching recommendations with conclusion. Writing conclusion.
Week 11: Summarizing Extracting main points, descriptive and evaluative
summarizing. Classifying information, simplifying Writing a summary.
Week 12: The writing process. Main steps in writing a report. Organization and
planning. Writing a short report.
Week 14: Writing labs. The longer business report. Data collection and first draft
Drafting.
Week 15: Writing labs. Formatting a business report. Revision and rewriting. Final
drafts due on assignment.
Week 16: Final examination period