ENGL 422           3 Credit Hours

Business Writing

This information is for second semester 2017/2018 academic year

Teacher responsible

Ms. Mary Keleve

Availability

This course is available open to all visiting students but only as a second semester course.

Course Content

ENGL 422 is designed for you to be able to write business documents with freshness and originality in thinking. Old-fashioned, formal and stilted unfriendly letters do not usually get far. They rather tend to provoke unenthusiastic response or negative reactions from readers. Even when the language of the document is right but impersonal, impolite or subservient in style, the message will be hampered.

Therefore, the course is crafted not to focus on just what is said but also how it is said. In other words, you will learn to write to achieve the following ends:

• Give information and facts concisely and in writing letters, master how to maintain respect to the reader by keeping your language polite and courteous; avoid over-familiarity and yet be able to engage with the reader at a personal level as an equal, mature and intelligent person.

Teaching

Tuesday, 1:30-3:20pm for 13 weeks

The course will be delivered mainly through lectures and power point presentations. Lectures will be interactive to engage students in order to achieve maximum students’ participation as possible.

Formative Coursework

Over the semester you will work on the different kinds of letters and memos that will be taught e.g. enquiry, response transmittal, claim, and adjustment letters. Other business documents such as minutes of meetings, reports and CVs will be written and submitted for grading. Peer review will be used to help you improve your draft. You must complete each assignment by the date stipulated and only the final version of each submission will be graded.

NB: That absenting yourself from class will not be accepted as an excuse for not turning in your paper for grading on time. You will be in danger of being disqualified in the final examination if you are absent from class for three times.

Indicative reading

Technical Writing by Lannon John. (1982) (Balme Library)

Technical Writing: Process and Product by Sharon J. Gerson and Steven M. Gerson (2000) (Balme Library)

Technical Writing: A Practical Approach by William S.P (1991) (Balme Library)

Essentials of Business Communication by Mary Ellen Guffey (1995) (Balme Library)

OTHERS

Handbook of Technical Writing. 8^th Edition by Gerald J. Alfred et al.

Technical Writing Today 2^nd Edition by Richard Johnson Sheehan (2006)

Technical Communication (Today 3^rd Ed.)  Johnson-Sheehan 2010

Grading Scale: