Business Writing Online at Purdue University:
From the Purdue English Department Website: “Workplace writing in networked environments for management contexts. Emphasizes organizational context, project planning, document management, ethics, research, team writing. Typical genres include management memos, reports, letters, e-mail, resumes (print and online), oral presentations.”
Course Design:
Instructors of ENGL 420-DIST implement writing projects and activities to prepare students for business, professional, and managerial writing contexts in an asynchronous online environment. Students engage in both individual and team project work over an eight week summer semester to practice business and professional writing contexts, focusing first on personal professional personas and expanding out to background research, informational reports, and design projects. I taught the first version of this course in the Summer of 2019 and taught a redesigned version of the course in the Summer of 2020 that accounted for the circumstances of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Course Description:
From the Syllabus (available below): The purpose of this class is to develop your understanding of workplace writing and to help you develop writing practices that will add to your success in the workplace. This includes thinking about the rhetorical nature of communication, the value of genre and professional expectations, the importance of ethical workplace habits and communication and the role of research, design, composition and presentation in your workplace writing lives. Over the course of the semester you will think seriously about how good writing is a process of problem setting, and consider how solid writing practices are integral to your professional development.
Much of this class focuses on how we talk about producing and evaluating successful business communication in a variety of contexts. Taking this class online presents a unique set of challenges—it also makes clear the importance of developing an effective professional ethos that translates in writing and on the screen. Modern business communication is heavily moderated through a screen and relies not only on text, but on visual presentation. We will think of our classroom as a virtual office, and find effective ways to collaborate and give each other feedback as we go.
Summer 2020
Syllabus for Summer of 2020: docx |PDF
Unit 1 Assignments:
Unit 2 Assignments:
Unit 3 Assignments:
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Summer 2019
Syllabus for Summer of 2019: docx | PDF
Unit 1 Assignments:
Unit 2 Assignments:
Unit 3 Assignments:
Lee W. Hibbard, Ph.D. 