BUS 100 W Section 01

Management Communication & Writing

Instructor Paul Beehler, Ph.D.
Office: 2002 HMNSS
Phone: (951) 827-1964

Quarter: Winter 2014

Lecture time: 8:10 9:30 A.M
Classroom: MSE (Material Science
Engineering) 104

Course Website: http://ilearn.ucr.edu/

E-mail pbeehler@hotmail.com

Office Hours: T/R 11:10 a.m. - 12:30

p.m. and early morning by
appointment.

SoBA Mission Statement

Our mission is to develop diverse leaders, propel research-based innovation and promote the
sustainable growth of Inland Southern California within the global economy. We harness the
powerful resources of UC and our location at the nexus of commerce to create a laboratory for
education, research, and productive partnerships across economic enterprises.
The strategic activities that propel our mission include:
Conducting basic and applied research in management that explores and informs the
creation, development and management of growth;
Providing degree programs that prepare our students to be effective managers and
responsible community leaders with a deep understanding of the dynamics of growth
in both a regional and global context;
Partnering with business and community leaders through a shared commitment to
exemplary growth; and
Delivering educational programs to executives and the public at large that respond
to the needs of our local, state, national, and international communities.

Course Description
This course will teach writing for businesses and the theory beyond business communication and
its practice in the work place. Additionally, this course will place a strong emphasis on writing
in numerous genres. Likewise, careful and thoughtful reading that lends itself to discussion will
be an integral component of the course. Topics include written and oral presentations and nonverbal communication. Furthermore, the current business trends which are pointing out the
increasing significance of cross-cultural communication, team work and technology are covered
in depth.

Students will receive detailed feedback on their written and oral assignments and will be able to
use seminars the University Writing Program (UWP) offers to improve their skills.

Course/Learning objective
Specifically, by the end of this class you should be able to:

Understand the importance of effective communications in conducting business and to

your own professional success;

Explore and understand how business writing helps managers achieve their goals;

Gain a general understanding of various forms of business correspondence including

letters, memos, and reports;

Form correct sentences and to write clear paragraphs intended for business readers and
written to address business problems;

Write and present short business reports;

Understand the proper use of visuals and their placement within reports;

Learn the appropriate methods of working in a global digitally interconnected, and

culturally diverse work environment;

Exercise critical thought most especially through the medium of evaluation;

Learn some interviewing techniques and job hunting strategies.

Prerequisite
Upper-class standing and satisfaction of the English 1A and 1B requirement

Course Materials and Seminars

Writing Seminars
The University Writing Program (UWP) will offer three to four writing
seminars during this course. These seminars are intended to provide you with
guidance about your writing and answer your questions. Additional details
will be announced in lecture.
Dates

Location

Who should attend

TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD
Absences at the
participation.

University Writing Program (UWP)

Everyone (mandatory)
University Writing Program (UWP)
Everyone (mandatory)
University Writing Program (UWP)
Everyone (mandatory)
University Writing Program (UWP)
Everyone (mandatory)
seminars will be penalized ten points per seminar as

Textbooks

1) Revising Business Prose.ISBN-10: 0205309445 | ISBN-13: 9780205309443 | 4th Edition by Richard Lanham. This text should be available
both on-line and at the bookstore.
2) Business Communication ISBN-10: 0073403164 (M 2nd edition) by Flately and Rentz
which is published by McGraw Hill and should be available both at the bookstore and online.
3) A twelve week subscription (hard copy) to The Economist. As soon as possible, go to the
following link: https://subscriptions.economist.com/SLG/index.php#step1 . Once you are
at the link, you must make certain you select the student subscription tab for correct pricing.
VERY IMPORTANT REMINDER: You will need to cancel your subscription after twelve
weeks, or the subscription will automatically renew.
4) The Prince (Penguin Classics) by Niccolo Machiavelli. ISBN 9780140449150.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please note that all citations and references in the Machiavelli
must correspond to the Penguin Classics text assigned for the course. You should
subscribe to The Economist as soon as possible for the twelve week period. You will
need access to your own hard copy of The Economist, but (and this suggestion is highly
recommended) you may wish to purchase (for an additional six dollars) digital access.
The total purchase, then, should be around thirty dollars.

Other material

Please make sure that you bring a Scantron and appropriate marking pens to the midterm.
You will need a bluebook for the final exam.

Grading Policy
First Major Assignment (250-500 words)
Second Major Assignment (1,750-2,000 words)
Third Major Assignment (1,000-1,250 words)
Fourth Major Assignment (1,750-2,000 words)
Quizzes (ten unannounced and in lecture)

50 points
100 points
150 points
300 points
50 points

Midterm Exam
Discussion Section's Participation
Oral Presentations (two presentations)
Final Exam

50 points
50 points
50 points
200 points

Your letter grade is determined using the scale below:

Letter
Grade
Points

A-

B+

B-

C+

C-

D+

D-

>930

900930

880899

830879

800829

780799

730779

700729

680699

630680

600629

F
<600

Grades will be posted throughout the term on iLearn. If you find any problem with your score, you
must inform the instructor within one week from the time this score is posted. No reviews of paper
four or the final exam will take place. For the other assignments, after one week, scores will not be
reviewed.
In the case of score dispute, the entire exam or assignment will be reviewed, not just the question(s)
in dispute. The score could go up, down, or remain the same.

Assignments and due dates:

A) Papers
You will submit four papers of one to seven pages through SafeAssign on designated days as
noted in the schedule. Your teaching assistants may require hard copies to be submitted in either
lecture or in their own discussion sections. The first paper can be as short as one page, informally
formatted as an email. The subsequent papers will increase in length and complexity. The
formatting for paper two will be discussed in lecture, and the format for paper three will be up to
the discretion of your individual teaching assistant. Please keep in mind that all word count
expectations EXCLUDE title pages, references, appendixes, and visual aids. Papers must be free
from grammatical errors, fully cited, MLA formatted (for the final paper), and fully presented in
a professional manner. The use of cover page is recommended for the second and possibly third
paper.
Papers two and three must have at least three outside sources in addition to any material cited
from the textbooks. These sources must be cited (in text citations) using the MLA style. A
Works Cited page must be included for papers two, three, and four. For papers two and three,
you may include the Works Cited page as an appendix.
Use of headings and sub-sections, where appropriate, is strongly recommended.
Each paper will discuss and/or apply a managerial communication topic or concept with the
exception of the final paper. The final paper will be interpretive in nature and will require the
application of higher level critical reading skills and analysis to provide an interpretation and
application of a philosophy as it relates to the world of business. Papers one through three will
use the models presented in the texts and considered in discussion sections as well as lecture.

The following rubric gleaned (and slightly modified for Business 100) from the University
Writing Program will be used to grade your paper:
A Essay Outstanding:
An A essay answers the demands of the assignment exceptionally. It has a clear and
developed thesis (except for paper one), one that is fully and comprehensively appropriate to the
demands of the particular assignment. The thesis may be implied in the sense that it presents a
report or provides an evaluation. In addition, an A essay displays particularly clear and
creative insights and analysis; it displays few or no mechanical flaws; skillfully incorporates
and considers credible research when expected; it demonstrates complex, varied word choice
that is appropriate to the demands of the essay; it displays a command of sentence variety and
organization; it may contain stylistic and professional devices that illuminate the material.
B Essay Very Good:
A B essay answers the demands of the assignment effectively. It has a clear recognizable and
developed thesis, one that is appropriate to the demands of the particular assignment (with the
exception of assignment one). The thesis may be implied in the sense that it presents a report or
provides an evaluation. In addition, it displays effective insights (possibly acknowledging
multiple perspectives), contains close reading and analysis, considers outside sources when
appropriate, has few or no major mechanical flaws, and has an organization and tone appropriate
to the material.
C Essay Competent:
A C essay is one which manages to convey information to the reader competently. There is a
thesis, although it may be somewhat underdeveloped (again, with the exception of assignment
one). The thesis may be implied in the sense that it presents a report or provides an evaluation.
The C essay has adequately logical organization; it contains coherent and complete sentences
and appropriately fulfills the assignment; and it does not have so many mechanical flaws that
legibility suffers. ESSAYS WITH FEW OR NO GRAMMAR FLAWS CAN STILL RECEIVE
A C.
D Essay Shows Potential
A D essay is one that is appropriate to the assignment at times, but lacks overall focus or
coherence. Usually the thesis is not effectively conveyed or developed (with the exception of
assignment one). It may have several major grammatical errors that mar the understandability of
the essay. Grammatical errors present in the essay that have been specifically considered in
lecture will carry special weight in the grading. Although it is not a passing grade, a D paper
shows potential and gestures toward fulfilling the assignment.
F Essay Clearly Inadequate
An F essay has such significant flaws in organization, content, or mechanics that the meaning
is seriously impaired. It has no clear thesis (or implied thesis). It demonstrates an inappropriate
or incoherent response to the text.

Late work: Essays turned in late that is anytime after the essays are due via SafeAssign -- will
be penalized ten points per day. Quizzes cannot be made up for any reason.
Typing: All take home essays are to be typed and submitted to SafeAssign. Essays not typed
will be penalized ten points. Essays not adhering to the required formatting specifications will
be penalized ten points. All essays except for essay one are expected to have a works cited
page, and all in-text citation must be noted within any essay that is turned in.
Plagiarism: The final draft of an assignment is to be submitted to SafeAssign through
Blackboard. Your TA may require hard copies of the assignments to be turned in either during
lecture or during discussion sections. Work not submitted to SafeAssign will not be evaluated.
Any student who turns in an assignment that was submitted for another course or was even
partially written by someone else will receive a failing grade (either in the course or on the
assignment this is determined at the instructors discretion) and be referred to the Student
Conduct and Academic Integrity Program (SCAIP) for disciplinary action. Please note that
proper in text citations are required on all assignments in addition to a works cited page.
Plagiarism can occur in any number of ways: directly quoting published authors (print or digital)
without proper citation, using your own previously generated material without citation,
paraphrasing without proper citation, and cutting and pasting from electronic sites without proper
citation. Additionally, using material from unpublished sources without proper citation is also
plagiarism. Purchasing papers or relying extensively on peer editors is also considered
plagiarism.
Attendance of Writing Seminars: You are required to attend all writing seminars offered through
the University Writing Program. Failure to attend the writing seminar will result in a ten point
penalty per assignment.
W Designation: This course has a W designation, so significant attention will be paid to
writing and the quality of writing. Successful completion of the course with a C grade or
higher will fulfill the expectation of English 1C.
B) Oral Presentations
You must make an oral presentation once you submit assignment two. A second oral
presentation will be required summing up assignment three, and you will deliver this
presentation after you submit your final draft. The oral presentations will be delivered over an
electronic medium. Your presentations should be between three to five minutes. It is
recommended that you dress professionally for your presentation and use appropriate visuals
(e.g. PowerPoint).
C) Exams
In addition to the written and oral assignments, you will have a midterm and a final. The final
exam will be an essay exam that focuses on the concept of evaluation in The Economist. The
fifty point midterm will be multiple choice and will take place on Thursday, February 27th. The
midterm will not take the entire class period and will occur after a lecture that has been prepared
for that day. Your 200 point final exam is essay based and will take place on March 15th from 3
p.m. - 6 p.m.

Make up exams are only allowed for documented cases of medical and/or legal (military, court
summons and the like) hardship. If you have a personal reason to miss the exam such as a
wedding or a funeral or other non-school related reasons, you may take a makeup exam after
instructors approval with a 10% automatic penalty applied to your grade.
C) Class Participation
Your TAs will assign up to fifty points based on your attendance and class participation. The
assignment of these points is entirely up to the judgment of your TAs. However, attendance in
the discussion sections and the writing seminars is mandatory and does not on its own constitute
an A in participation.

Course Schedule
Outline and Purpose of Lectures
Lectures will cover the textbook in part. Assigned reading from the textbook that is not
considered in lecture is required and can be found on quizzes and/or the midterm. Outside
material and my own experience will be used to enhance and complement the text. Doing the
homework, writing the papers, participating in the discussions, and attending lectures are all
necessary components for passing the course. The reading schedule is front loaded. Richard
Lanhams book, Revising Business Prose, basically consists of examples of poorly written text
which are then revised. It is therefore important for you to finish that book fairly soon. The
Economist will be used exclusively in discussion sections, and your TA will assign specific
readings from the magazine for discussion and critical thought.
Meanwhile, The seminars will teach you writing techniques and your discussion sections will
discuss both the readings and the writing techniques.
Week One
Tuesday, January 7th: Introduction and Coordination
Homework: Chapters one and two in Revising Business Prose
Thursday, January 9th: Coordination, email, and Communication in the Workplace
Homework: read chapter one in Flatley and Rentz
Week Two
Tuesday, January 14th: Communication in the Workplace, subordination, and email
Homework: Chapter three in Revising Business Prose, read chapter two in Flatley and Rentz
Thursday, January 16th: Forms of business email and the semicolon
Homework: Read chapter four in Revising Business Prose
Week Three
Bring a blue book to discussion for the diagnostic
Tuesday, January 21st: Writing Reports and Evaluation;
Homework: Chapter five to the end of the book (including appendices) in Revising Business
Prose, Chapter eight in Flatley/Rentz, and begin essay one
ESSAY ONE SUBMITTED TO SAFEASSIGN BY NOON ON JANUARY 22ND (hard
copy may be required by TAS either in lecture or in section)
Thursday, January 23rd: guest lecturer DJ

Homework: Work on essay two and read chapters eight and three in Flatley and Rentz
Week Four
Tuesday, January 28th: Writing Reports and Evaluation, Using Visuals in Oral and Written
Communications
Homework: Work on essay two and read chapter nine in Flatley and Rentz
Thursday, January 30th: Writing Reports and Evaluation, Using Visuals in Oral and Written
Communications
Homework: work on essay two
Week Five
Tuesday, February 4th: Writing Reports and Evaluation (You Tube Poor Presentation)
Homework: Read chapter ten in Flatley and Rentz; work on essay two
ESSAY TWO MUST BE SUBMITTED TO SAFEASSIGN (TAS may require hard copies
turned in during lecture or section) BY NOON ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5TH
Thursday, February 6th: Communicating Orally (You Tube Strong Presentation);
Homework: Read chapter seven in Flatley and Rentz; begin essay three
Week Six
Tuesday, February 11th: Writing Proposals
Homework: work on essay three
Thursday, February 13th: Writing Proposals; Guest Lecture: JL
Homework: Work on essay three; chapter five in Flatley and Rentz
Week Seven
Tuesday, February 18th: Writing Good-News and Neutral Messages and modifiers;
Homework: Work on essay three
Thursday, February 20th: Passive and Active voice, Writing Good-News and Neutral Messages,
Writing Bad News Messages
Homework: Read chapter six in Flatley and Rentz, work on essay three (essay due during week
eight)
Week Eight
ESSAY THREE DUE TO SAFEASSIGN (TAS may require a hard copy to be turned in
during lecture) BY NOON ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24TH
Tuesday, February 25th: Writing Bad News Messages
Homework: Study for the midterm; work on essay four; read chapters one to seven in
Machiavelli
Thursday, February 27th: Midterm
Homework: Finish essay three, read chapters seven to twenty in Machiavelli
Week Nine
Tuesday, March 4th: Introduction to Machiavelli
Homework: Finish Machiavelli, work on essay four
Thursday, March 6th: Machiavelli
Homework: Work on essay four and read Chapter Four in Flatley and Rentz
Week Ten
Tuesday, March 11th: Style and Communicating in the Job Search

Homework: Work on essay four; review for final; read chapter eleven in Flatley and Rentz
Thursday, March 13th: Overview and review; Guest Speaker; ESSAY FOUR DUE TO
SAFEASSIGN (TAS may require a hard copy to be turned in during lecture) BY NOON
ON FRIDAY, MARCH 14TH
Final Exam: Saturday, March 15, 3 p.m. - 6 p.m.

Integrity Statement:
Academic Integrity relates to being honest in the completion of your academic coursework. Trust is
the central principle underlying academic integrity. AGSM needs to trust that ideas are your own.
This means that all your work should come solely from your effort. For example, you need to
complete your tests without external assistance. In addition, you may not present another students
work as your own. Moreover, you should not plagiarize, which is an un-credited use of someone
else's words or ideas. Overall, then, academic integrity means that AGSM students will display
honest scholarship.