st. scholastica eng 3364 and mgt 3150
management communications: written

spring semester 2010

3150 section 002 and 3364 section 003

MWF, 1:00-2:05 p.m., Tower 3414

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helpful writing stuff

syllabus   individual-needs report   daily writing   resume and cover letter

 web-site proposal   reflection essay   tentative calendar

syllabus
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Chris Godsey
 cgodsey@css.edu
Tower 4143
218.310.8048
meetings upon request

DESCRIPTION

This course is about learning to write clearly and credibly for professional audiences and purposes. Clarity and credibility are difficult to achieve. They're also universal needs in all writing tasks. You know both more and less about them than you realize. 

By the end of the semester you will not be a writing expert. If you decide to, you will know much more than you do now, and you will have started to trust your ability to make writing decisions. That's what "good," effective writers do: they work hard to make careful decisions.

TEXTS THAT MIGHT BE HELPFUL


• The Elements of Style
• Essentials of English Grammar
• Any credible English dictionary
COURSE GOALS

Growth in:

• familiarity with writing as a thoughtful process (and not just a single session of misery);

• understanding of how and why a writer's audience and purpose should control every decision the writer makes;

• confidence in making writing decisions;

• reading-comprehension ability;

• ability to write with detail, credibility, conciseness, and clarity;

• knowledge of how, where, and why to seek and use feedback.

Knowledge that writing effectively means:

• constantly considering what an audience and message require;

• eliminating needless words;

• trusting your own voice and using it clearly;

• getting feedback from people who will challenge and help you clarify your own voice;

• providing rich, concise detail;

• organizing information effectively.

Grammar and punctuation aren't mentioned in those goals. Rules about them are undeniably important, but lots of people who know those rules also suck as writers, and lots of scary-good writers have to look up or ask questions about the rules. If you concentrate on clarity and credibility, you'll achieve solid grammar and punctuation. 

A few random thoughts at the outset, so you know where I'm coming from:

I don't know everything about writing. Many of you are probably smarter than me. I know more about writing, and I have more experiences with it, than you do. 

My job is to challenge you toward confident and competent writing decisions. Taking ownership of decisions can be uncomfortable for those of us who have grown up being taught how to seek easy answers and arbitrary approval. We're not taught how to process ambiguity, how to value true learning over obeying or memorizing, or how to be independent thinkers. We're taught to be passive instead of active--to be controlled by our academic education instead to control it.

All that is understandable and strangely comfortable, but unfortunate.

Being forced to make decisions in this class might leave you feeling annoyed, angry, and insecure every now and then. That's OK. It's all part of the process, and you're in a safe place.

Writing is not one thing. It's many things--e-mails, research papers, Web sites, PowerPoint presentations, grocery lists, letters, memos, various sorts of reports, SOAP notes, class notes, letters to your sweetie, blogs, newspaper articles, and a lot of other stuff--and they're all about using words to communicate in real situations.

Whether you want to or not, you need to write and comprhend others' writing in your life and work. If you hate writing and reading, or are indifferent toward them, the best thing you can do is learn to do them effectively, with minimal discomfort. If you love or are curious about them, you owe them and yourself the respect of learning how to do them competently.

That's why what you do in this course matters: it's about learning and developing real skills--using assignments and exercises to develop knowledge and experirence--not just writing some pointless papers to get a grade.

I'm serious about all that. I couldn't get up every morning and teach if I couldn't credibly explain to myself and to you how this class actually means something both in college and, more importantly, in the real world. If you need or want a more detailed explanation of any of that stuff, just holler.

ASSIGNMENTS (click on any of these titles for more details)

1. Individual-needs report

2. Daily informal writing

3. Resume and cover letter or personal statement

4. Web-site proposal

5. Semester-reflection essay

SEMESTER GRADES 

A Receive credit for all assignments and all daily writing.

B Receive credit for all assignments and 85 percent of daily writing.

C Receive credit for all assignments and 75 percent of daily writing.

D Receive credit for all assignments and 65 percent of daily writing.

F Get less credit than a D requires.

Any assignment or daily writing that you and I agree does what is asked of it will get credit. You may submit drafts for feedback before due dates. You may revise an assignment as many times as necessary after a due date. All revisions are due by Friday, 23 April (week 13).

Daily writing can be made up retroactively only if I know of your absence in advance, or if you let me know about an emergency or other situation as quickly as possible after a class period. 

One missing assignment drops the semester grade one full letter. Two missing assignments is two full letters. And so on.

COURSE POLICIES

All these policies are based on a fundamental concept: this is your education, and you should be actively responsible for it instead of allowing other people to dictate how it goes.

Unexcused Late Work

Might not be accepted.

Plagiarism

Cheating is easy. It's also a stupid waste of your time and money. If you do it and get caught, you will fail the course.

Attendance

I don't take roll, but remember:

• you're always accountable for what's discussed in class

• you can't possibly take much from this opportunity without participating in it

• college is about learing to make your own decisions, and learning how to take ownership of consequences, instead of always being told what to do

Pay attention to your official CSS e-mail account--check it at least once a day.

Participation

Constant involvement from everyone isn't required, but everyone should be engaged and observe the Ethic of Reciprocity.

Leave your phones, iPods, other electronic devices, newspapers and magazines, books and materials for other classes, and anything else not directly related to this class in your bag, in your pocket, or under your desk. If your laptop will distract you from what we're talking about, leave it packed, too.

Respect everyone else in the room. If someone is talking, we're all expected to pay attention.

Special Needs

People who have or incur any disability (either permanent or temporary) that might affect their ability to perform in this class are encouraged to inform the instructor. Adaptation of methods, materials, or testing may be made as required to provide for equitable participation.

Questions? E-mail me at cgodsey@css.edu 

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individual-needs report

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ASSIGNMENT

First, chat about writing (and anything else that comes up) with at least three people you're not related to, and who have graduated with a degree you're seeking, or who are doing a job you're curious about.

Then, write a report that shows your academic and professional peers what you learned during those conversations, and that shows what those conversations suggest about how you all should prepare for the post-college world. 

PURPOSES
• Learning about your possible career field
• Practicing writing and thinking 
• Thinking about how to handle your business
• Providing valuable information for your peers
• Helping me and you see where you are and what you need

AUDIENCE
Your peers--people whose academic and professional interests are similar to yours.

(When I say that your peers are your audience, what I mean is that you should write this report as if you're actually going to give it to your peers to read. It's your job to provide content that's interesting and useful to that relatively diverse group. I will help you determine whether you've addressed that audience effectively, but I am not your audience. As a teacher, I choose to function like an editor: I give assignments, and I'm not trying to teach you how to write to my tastes and opinions, but with your assigned audience and purpose in mind. Holler if that doesn't make sense.)

EXPECTATIONS
1. Interview at least two of the three required people in person

1.5 You can interview family members, but you still need to chat with and report on at least three non-family members

2. Follow the assignment directions

3. Provide your audience with clear, precise detail (see the note a few lines below)

4. Word choice, syntax, grammar, punctuation, source references, and other components that convey your information clearly and credibly

5. Get mailing addresses for all people you chat with

Here's an example of what I mean by "detail":

This excerpt is not detailed:

Kaija told me some really interesting things about the writing required in her job. I now know what I need to do.

This one is detailed:

Kaija told me that as director of UMD's climbing program, she writes every day, in multiple ways, and that anyone who goes into outdoor recreation should expect to do the same thing. "I write at least 15 or 20 e-mails every day," she said. "I send messages to climbing-gear sales reps, student employees, my bosses, speakers and demonstrators coming on to campus, and other people. I have to be credible and clear in every message, but I also can't be too stiff." She said she also wrote and constantly edits the indoor-climbing-wall employee training manual, course and program descriptions, syllabi, and occasional articles for climbing magazines. I had no idea she would do so much writing; I thought that a climbing instructor would just climb and teach climbing. I'm hoping to run a college canoe and kayak program, but I assume I and other people seeking similar careers will need to do the same sorts of writing that she does, which means we'll also need to learn a lot about who we'd be writing to, what they'd expect, and how we can make sure to sound clear and credible. We should probably have a lot of these conversations and ask a lot of these questions, about writing and other aspects of such jobs.

That's a pretty clunky example--it could be a lot more concise and clear--but see how it shows a bunch of information instead of just saying that the information exists, but not sharing any of it?

If your audience is reading a report about what they should expect about writing in jobs they're curious about, what will they want and expect?

What questions can you ask, in interviews, to elicit useful responses?

How can you prepare well enough that even if you're nervous, you don't come off as a tool to the people you chat with?

What questions do you have?

DUE DATE
Monday, 15 February

Questions? E-mail me at cgodsey@css.edu 


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daily writing

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ASSIGNMENT

At the end of many class sessions, you'll be asked to write a brief, informal, and detailed response to some sort of question or discussion prompt; sometimes the request will be identical to other days; sometimes it will be slightly or significantly different.

PURPOSES
• Communication between you and me
• Writing and thinking practice for you
• Reflection oppportunities for you

AUDIENCE
I am always the daily writing audience.

EXPECTATIONS
1. Obvious thought
2. Detail

These are informal reports, and I'll usually be asking you to write them on a moment's notice, which can be quite difficult, so I'm not expecting super-polished prose. But if I'm having trouble understanding your sentences, or if at the report's end I don't know more than I did at its beginning, I might chat with you about how and why to write with more detail and clarity.

Questions? E-mail me at cgodsey@css.edu 


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resume and cover letter
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ASSIGNMENT

Please complete one of the following options:

1. If your post-St. Scholastica plans include graduate school, write a resume and a personal statement in response to an actual school application. 

2. If you’re planning to work after leaving CSS, or if you’re currently looking for a job or an internship, write a resume and a cover letter based on an actual job posting.

•Do NOT make up any information about yourself 

•Don't make up a job

•Don't make up an academic program

•The whole idea is to work on pieces of writing that are relevant to your present and future. If you have no idea what you're doing now, let alone what you'll be doing later, don't worry about which assignment option to choose. Just choose one.

•If you’d like to modify the assignment to help you with some other kind of application, see me. The more real you can make this assignment the more gooder it will be.

•If you've already written a resume, cover letter, or personal statement, I guarantee it's not as strong as it can be. 

•If you've already been accepted to the school or got the job for which you wrote the existing materials, this work is still worth your time; skills like these are never complete or obsolete, but these types of writing can become outdated quickly, and you never know when opportunity will require you to represent yourself.

EXPECTATIONS

•Adherence to the resume, cover letter, and personal statement conventions outlined in the St. Scholastica Career Services Job Search Handbook or the UMD Career Services Handbook, OR the ability to credibly explain different style and content.

•Active, efficient organization and word choice; conciseness, clarity, and credibility are non-negotiable requirements.

•At least one off-campus, non-family feedback giver

•Actual application--or credible link to it--included with assigned materials

•All assigned materials submitted in sealed, addressed envelope

•More than in any other type of writing, it’s imperative in these types that your purpose and audience are met.

•All work must be word-processed and handed in on time. 

•Punctuation, grammar, and spelling that are clear and contextually appropriate.

Due Date

Monday, 29 March

Resume, Cover Letter, and Personal Statement Information

•UMD Career Services Handbook

•Personal statement example

•Personal statement example 2

•University of Minnesota College of Education & Human Development Student & Professional Services site

•Purdue University Online Writing Lab

•Rockport Institute: How to Write A Materpiece of A Resume

•Monster.com Resume Center

•JobStar Central

•Monster.com Ten Cover Letter Don'ts

•Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute cover letter info

•The Resume Guide (has cover letter info, too)

•www.collegegrad.com

•Accepted.com's Ten Statement Dos and Don'ts

•Perfect Personal Statements (this is the Web site for a book about statements, but there are some really cool reminders and examples on the site)

•Cal-Berkeley Career Center

What all resume, cover letter, and personal statement advice adds up to:

There are no concrete constants. Seek as much format advice, as many examples, and as much content feedback as possible; become an expert on the position you're seeking, the business or school offering it, the people who will read your writing, and the combination of expectations  they all create; and do not sell yourself short.

Questions? E-mail me at cgodsey@css.edu

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web-site proposal

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ASSIGNMENT

 Work in a group to create a Web-site proposal. Each group has two options:

1. Propose a site designed to help people who are already in, or are considering, a CSS major or program.

2. Recommend changes to an existing CSS Web site. Show and tell administrators, teachers, staff members, and any other relevant person what the site could do more effectively, what should stay the way it is, and how you came to those conclusions.

Each group will present its proposal to the class in week 14 or 15.

PURPOSES
Practicing multiple skills, developing multiple experiences:

• Finding, using, and writing based on, research 
• Developing individual and group ideas through reading and analysis
• Learning some cultural and media literacy
• Making writing decisions
• Writing and planning a presentation for an intended audience and purpose
• Taking ownership 
• Seeking and using feedback
• Challenging your comfort zone
• Empowering yourself through knowledge and fulfillment

There's more to it than can be stated here, but that list is a good start.

AUDIENCE
This gets tricky. You have multiple, equally challenging audiences. 

For this assignment, I will play the role of a Web-site project manager whose job at the end of the semester is to compare all the proposals and decide which one seems most credible and feasible.

As project manager, I am also available to answer questions any time. I'm looking for creative work, which means I'm giving rather loose directions (compared to what you might be used to), so you'll have a lot of decisions to make.

Part of my project-manager job is to assess how effectively each proposal meets its CSS audience and achieves its assigned purpose. What that means for you is that you need to be conscious of how I will assess the proposal, but you need to be more conscious of how well the proposal does what it's asked to do, and how well it reaches the CSS-specific audience you're designing it for--that's how I, as project manager, will gauge its degree of effectiveness.

As in every other professional-writing task, your main guides are clarity and credibility--you need to achieve your assigned purpose in ways that your assigned primary audience will understand, and that will allow that audience to take you seriously.

This is a very difficult assignment. You'll need to ask many questions. Don't hesitate.

EXPECTATIONS
Here's a super-basic start:

Detailed illustration of the home page's appearance and content, and of the general appearance and content details of all inside sections and pages.

Explanation of why those content and appearance decisions were made

Explanation of what information is still outstanding, and what questions and concerns you still have.

Details about what would need to happen for the site to become real.

Format, content, syntax, grammar, tone, style, voice, punctuation, source references, spelling, and all other characteristics that are appropriate to your message, your audiences, and your desire to be easily understood and taken credibly.

Since you will be using information from various sources, you will definitely need to decide where and how to most effectively let your audience know whose information you're using. Pay attention to anything you read for examples of how to create credibility by choosing effective types and numbers of sources.

If you come to class, handle your business outside of class, take yourself and this task seriously, and ask a lot of questions, you will wind up with a project that's cooler and more useful than you can imagine.

DUE DATE:

Week 14 (26, 28, and 30 April)
Week 15 (3, 5, and 7 May)

Questions? E-mail me at cgodsey@css.edu

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semester-reflection essay

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ASSIGNMENT

Please write an essay that reflects on (thinks about, ponders, mulls over, discusses, explores, expresses carefully considered thoughts about) at least these three things:

1. Your work in this course this semester
2. How that work relates to your past academic and life experiences
3. How it might influence your approach to future opportunities and expectations, academic and other

PURPOSE

To express and carefully examine your thoughts and feelings about what you were asked to do, what you did, what you didn't do, and what all that stuff suggests about how you approach your academic education and why you approach it that way.

AUDIENCE
Who seems like a relevant audience for such a piece of writing?

EXPECTATIONS
Basically:
•Detailed, careful thought and expression about your semester experience

Complicatedly:
•Base the essay on a direct statement that's specific and detailed instead of vague.
• For example: Instead of saying, "I both liked and disliked this class," try to say something more like, "This class was a lot of work, which I found frustrating and time-consuming, but it also helped me learn a lot, which was quite fulfilling."
•Unpack that statement.
• A suitcase is a single object made up of many smaller ones; all packed up, it's tough to see everything that's in it; once it's unpacked, though, all the contents become clear. That's a corny metaphor, but it can be effectively applied to sentences--once all the basic parts are unpacked and in plain sight, the sentence and its ideas have a better chance of making sense.

What do you mean by "a lot"? What about "work"? How and why was it frustrating? Time-consuming? How did the work "help" you? What did you "learn," and why, and how? What does "fulfilling" mean?

•Explore and discuss all those terms and conepts. What do they show and suggest about your past, present, and future participation in and perspective toward academic and other sorts of education, experience, obligation, opportunity, and anything else that comes to mind? 

The point is not to celebrate or excoriate yourself; it’s to honestly discuss yourself and your experiences.

DUE DATE

TBA

Questions? E-mail me at cgodsey@css.edu

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tentative calendar

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Weeks 1-4
*Identify people to interview for individual-needs report
*Draft query messages
*Come up with questions
*Practice interviewing
*Talk about what the report audience will need
*Practice writing the intro and using a plan for the rest of it
*Practice coming up with details and using quotes
*Do a lot of revision practice

Monday, 15 February
Individual-needs report due 

Weeks 5-9
*Generate information and ideas for resumes, cover letters, and personal statements
*Find out-of-class, non-family feedback givers
*Do all the work that goes along with finding, approaching, and thanking feedback givers
*Discuss each form by looking at examples, practicing revision, etc.
*Discuss how to find academic-program applications and job postings
15-19 March
Spring Break. 
Whoo.
Monday, 29 March
Resumes and cover letters or personal statements due 

Weeks 10-13
*What do you want to learn more about?
*What do you want to practice?
*Got any questions about the Web-site proposal?

Weeks 14 and 15
*Web-site-proposal presentations
*Class time for working on semester-reflection essays
Finals Week
Semester-reflection essay due date TBA

contact: chris.godsey@gmail.com | 310.8048 (before 9 p.m.) | meetings upon request