What challenges do you anticipate that this process of writing with and for an audience can help you address as you grapple with your own ideas and launch? Prepare a pitch of under 3 minutes of your Case Study. If you choose to use slides no more than 5 , they must be sent to the Team site by March 1, Tuesday before class.

Building a First Draft of the Final Presentation, Researching, Stitching, Maintaining topic focus, and other considerations for a realistic assessment of feasibility, scope, scalability, timeline, budget. Draft Executive Summary 2 pages , initial not complete first drafts of Business Plan or Proposal components: Mission Statement, unique business model, strategy and relationships, brainstorming oral presentations, Powerpoint presentation options, other visual aids, marketing concerns, operational details, and financial plans.

Every student should upload an initial pages of draft material for small group workshops. I will pair students in advance and ask that you begin the process of sending constructive comments on line into specific workshop folders. We will have meetings small group meetings in the chat rooms and also come together as a class on Blackboard Collaborate. I will continue to give you direct and extensive feedback on all stages of composition. Building a case for Need, Solvency, Governance, and Sustainability one page , or.

Communicating leadership and innovation in oral and written grant proposals and with venture capitalists. Peer Review of Fundraising Proposal: Upload the Complete Written Presentation draft with cover letter of revision goals. Revise final presentation drafts and compose critical responses and self-assessments. Sign up for conferences: Guests Experts will assist but will not grade final presentations. Final Powerpoint presentations, compose critical responses, and revision. Guest Authors and Venture Fund Managers.

Final Powerpoint presentations, compose critical responses, and work on your own writing and revision. Guest Authors and Entrepreneurs. Continue communicating effectively to achieve your goals with strength and clarity! The syllabus page shows a table-oriented view of the course schedule, and the basics of course grading. You can add any other comments, notes, or thoughts you have about the course structure, course policies or anything else. Business Rhetoric Syllabus tailored to Spring Course Focus This course helps business professionals and students improve their writing for effective written and oral communications so they will be better equipped to accomplish their educational and professional goals.

A Guide for Harvard Students: An academic Dictionary college-edition, not pocket-size Jane K. Graham, Can Do Writing: Writing with Precision Selections on Canvas: You must have access to a computer, an e-mail account, and speaker headphones to participate. All assignments must be typed, proofread, and free of mechanical errors, so you should allow ample time for editing and revision prior to submitting any materials to me and uploading to our class site. This course requires your responsible attendance consistency and punctuality and full participation. During the semester, you will complete a series of short writing assignments, letters, memos, reports, and relevant reading assignments, the latter of which will build on your advancing expertise.

In the second third of the semester, you will be writing a couple of analytical reports leading up to your own business proposals from internal and external perspectives. You will be composing two papers: This assignment will engage you in the process of negotiation and consideration of multiple stakeholders, evaluations, problem-solving, and decision-making.

The second paper will be an internal self-critique analysis of your in-process formulation and drafting of your project proposal, business plan, or organization. I will provide a structured series of questions that will help you think deeply and critically about the drafting of your project, the necessary research and refinements to your methodology, and the varied aspects of tone, narrative, data, branding, marketing, and any additional formulations that are specific to your project and its target audience and goals.

This paper will give you an opportunity to witness and engage in how substantive thinking becomes genuinely advanced and sophisticated as you create a situation where your thoughts come alive off the pages you compose as you systematically and dialectically respond to the process of a purposeful, persuasive design intended to activate change in the reader or audience for your proposal.

This process gives you a solid platform for the success of your final project. As a capstone to the final third of the semester, you will write a persuasive business proposal for venture capital or foundation support with an Executive Summary and a budget plan pages. In class online , we will have essential grammar and rhetorical exercises to hone your skills.

We will conduct several small group, or team, writing exercises. It is the policy of the Harvard Extension School Writing Program that students who miss more than two class meetings risk being failed.

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Because Writing Program courses depend on sequential writing activities, peer workshops, and participatory class discussion, your consistent attendance is essential. Consistent lateness by more than twenty minutes will count as absences after the second time. Also, going in-and-out of sessions during our webconference class will not count as credit toward your full attendance in class. If you must miss a class, please let me know in advance; note that your assigned work is still due on time.

Because the writing course is a planned sequence of assignments that build upon each other, and because writing workshops affect the schedule of the entire class, you must complete all the assigned exercises to pass the course. You must also write them on schedule — not in the last few days of the term after you have fallen behind. Allow for mechanical failures; save hardcopies of all your work; I recommend you send all materials to the class site and my email accounts.

As we will be reviewing drafts in class, please send me all your work in advance for me to use in slides. I have created individualized portfolios for submission and for feedback. All students have access to these sites on our canvas Expo E 34 Spring site with delineated folders. Students should take great care to distinguish their own ideas and knowledge from information derived from sources.


  • Course assignments are not weighted.!
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The responsibility for learning the proper forms of citation lies with the individual student. Quotations must be placed properly within quotation marks and must be cited fully. In addition, all paraphrased material must be acknowledged completely. It is the incorporation of facts, ideas, or specific language that are not common knowledge, are taken from another source, and are not properly cited. Whether a student copies verbatim or simply rephrases the ideas of another without properly acknowledging the source, the theft is the same.

In the preparation of work submitted to meet course requirements, whether a draft or final version of a paper, project, assignment, or take-home examination, students must take great care to distinguish their own ideas and language from information derived from sources. Sources include published primary and secondary materials, the Internet, and information and opinions gained directly from other people.

Business writing is as serious an endeavor as expository or academic writing. Students who turn in all course work on time, demonstrate a solid understanding of the craft, and produce compelling work may earn top grades. Students who do not submit all required work will not pass. Students gain great fulfillment from their Harvard experience by meeting all requirements: Students may earn the following grades: A and A- grades represent work whose superior quality indicates a full mastery of the subject and, in the case of A, work of extraordinary distinction that communicates effectively with originality, elegance, and precision.

These grades identify serious problems with structure, mechanics, and sentence level clarity. E is a failing grade representing work that deserves no credit. E may also be assigned to students who do not submit required work in courses from which they have not officially withdrawn by the deadline. To foster an intellectual community in class, Business Rhetoric is structured as an online seminar. Such a vital, ongoing substantive conversation — about your writing and that of other scholars — comprises the heart of this course. In order to be effective as a seminar participant, you must complete reading and writing tasks with great care and demonstrate that you have done so.

Sharing ideas in written and oral form are marks of intellectual generosity and courage. Our seminar discussions will serve as worthwhile opportunities to practice the skills of public speaking—and listening—so crucial to success in the workplace. You will also learn effective negotiation methods in business and other areas of communication. The purpose of our private conferences is to address in detail some of the ways you can accomplish successful revisions of your drafts as you work them into more polished, focused, and compelling communications.

Come to conferences prepared. I am committed to discussing with you exactly how you can tailor the work assigned in this class to fit your professional needs. Please feel free to discuss your own work environment and job responsibilities; we can work together to customize your experience in this class. Absence for a conference without proper notice counts as a missed class. Format for Writing Assignments: All work must be typed and thoroughly proofread. Please upload your assignments in the following way: Go to our canvas folder marked Expos E 34 Spring Upload to the folder with your individually marked name, and please send me a copy of what you have uploaded.

Syllabus for Business Rhetoric

In your email to me, you may reflect on the challenges and lessons you noted in the process of creating your assignment. I will respond both in an email message and by uploading to the canvas Feedback Folder with your name. Please adhere to the following guidelines for any drafts and revisions for your longer submissions the page Executive Summary, budget, grant proposal or organizational project later in the course: I give tracked comments, editing suggestions in Feedback. For revisions, attach any pertinent pre-writing assignments, all drafts with my comments, and your one-page strategies of revision outline.

Number your pages starting on the second page.

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Make sure your last name is on every page. Put your title on the first page; a cover page will include a self-assessment of your work. Expanded writing exercise 3. Keep a hardcopy of all your work including pre-writing exercises. Analyze the appropriate content, format, and style for creating effective documents and communications HBS Business Communications, Chapters Adapt draft to different situations, audiences, and purposes: Written Comm canvas readings The general goal for this first section of the course is for students to develop an understanding of their relationship to their audience and text and to develop writing strategies accordingly.

Power Communication for Getting Ahead. I will upload to our Readings excerpts from foremost writers and practitioners in the following areas: Presentationzen on Design and Delivery web, digital vs. Wednesday, January 27 In class: Read Chapters 1 and 8 in Writing that Works. Wednesday, February 3 In-class: Wednesday, February 10 In-class: Memo and Letters strive for clarity in purpose and precision from the subject line onwards.

Course Summary:

Consider how CVs and Resumes differ from the cover letter? Wednesday, February 17 In-class: Wednesday, March 2 In class Assignment: Effective use of Quantitative Data and Analysis: Wednesday, March 9 In class Assignment: Sign up for Conferences. Wednesday, March 23 Assignment: It is clear borrowing a leaf from Albert Einstein the real genius is able to explain complex concepts in simple, clear concise English.

A tip I have resulted to using similar to the bone structure is, bullet points, put down a couple of these with key words or phrases that strike at the heart of the message and slowly link with conjunction words. Tends to help and stop me waffling on, also I am a fan of editing ruthlessly and killing unnecessary statements which we can be sentimentally attached to.

Thanks for your detailed comment. I have often heard it said that we should try to write the way we speak, only better. I think that's good advice for semi-formal pieces. The semi-formal style is what we use in most business relationships or work-related activities. So your emails, articles, reports, etc. I have written articles about improving your writing on this blog. Knowing what to improve on regarding your written communication is the first step to fixing the problem, so you're on the right track.

I agree that bullet points are particularly useful. Not only do they force you to be concise, they draw the reader to crucial pieces of information that would be lost when the reader scans or skims through the content which is the norm these days. As often as you can manage, they should not be longer than three lines of key information, e. The longer the bullet point, the less effective it actually becomes. Einstein was on to something when he challenged us to try to explain whatever idea to a six-year-old.

We know you have opinions. Kindly post your comments. We often hide behind verbosity to convey intelligence or to appear knowledgeable. We've all been guilty of using rambling, flowery language in attempts to inform, refute, or persuade but have we been effective in those circumstances?


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It is also very difficult to get right. Most professionals whom I coach recognise the need for brevity in business communication, even though many struggle with it. Nevertheless, conciseness can be achieved by consistently doing two things: You can't write anything meaningful until you truly understand your topic.

This point might sound obvious but is often overlooked. You can't get away with 'having an idea' of what you want to communicate. You have to know. So research your topic; find out details of the project; and be clear about the goal of the communication. Once you understand the purpose for that speech, official statement or report, you can proceed to the next obvious step: Write out the 'bones' of the communication in the simplest sentence s you can manage.

We also need to give solutions that will lead to profitability for the rest of the year. From the above, it is clear that the communication required must address two points: II The solutions to be implemented to ensure that surpluses are recorded in subsequent quarters. Next, either expand or tighten your 'bones' as required: This report will highlight the reasons for the deficits recorded in the company from September 1, to April 2, It will also recommend actions to be implemented to attain consistent profitability.

And that will be rationale for, or introduction to the report. Two sentences totalling 33 words, instead of a paragraph or two of fluff. Conciseness is invaluable in our daily business activities because of short attention spans and different activities competing for our time. As a bonus, note that you're more likely to influence people when you know your onions.

In my coaching sessions, I often give participants class exercises. One useful test is a paragraph of five lines, rife with clutter, which participants are told to "edit ruthlessly". Sessions quickly become interesting when different versions of the content emerge and the meanings are changed. I recommend audibly reading first to quickly detect grammatical errors before proceeding to editing your content.