General Course
Overview and Goals
What does "Professional Communication" mean? In a course focused on
Business Writing, professional communication
is concerned with the language practices used in professional settings.
All settings where humans conduct themselves
with other humans tend to function through language and practices based
on common understandings. These practices
are specialized at various levels—for example, certain industries share
common communication practices, but even
individual companies within an industry might have even more specialized
practices for internal communication.
Because there is no one way to communicate, but only communication practices
that are appropriate for doing certain
things at certain times, it would be impossible for a "business writing"
course to teach you all of the possible ways
you might need to communicate once you enter a profession. Regardless
of the specifics of professional
communication strategies, there are several important things you can
learn that will enable you to understand
professional communication, the technologies that shape and facilitate
such communication, the effect of certain
communication practices in actions, and, ideally, make appropriate
choices for your own professional communication.
Therefore, this course will focus on the analysis and practice of professional
communication to achieve the following:
Texts
Texts will be available online, either as various webpages or electronic
reserves. Texts are listed with assignments. To access the texts, you can
go through the main profcomm webpage at the list of "readings"
and use the password provided in class.
Policies
This course will be held almost entirely "online." However, because
it is a "distance education" course of sorts, it is NOT a "correspondence"
course. You will be expected to attend class meetings online when scheduled,
and you will be expected to participate in those online classes. The technology
we have chosen to conduct the class enables a high level of interaction.
Because we will not be meeting physically, it is especially important that
you interact with me and your colleagues electronically. More about your
participation and expected attendance at scheduled times will be explained
in the calendar and with specific assignments. We will also set "protocols"
for interacting in the online environment.
Basically, I ask that you come to class, do the readings, participate
in the discussions, invest yourself in the activities, work well with your
group, and have a generally pleasant time in the course. Nonetheless, in
as much as we
are in an institution of higher learning and I am held responsible
for asking you to adhere to some more specific
guidelines, you'll want to take the link and read through the "Policies"
of the composition program (or my version of
them).
Technologies
and Resources
This will be a computer intensive course.
That means that in order for you to be successful in this class, you will need to be able to gain access to a computer lab. After our initial "in-person" meeting on January 10 in CCIT 319, you will be signing on to a course environment remotely, and not meeting with me in a classroom. We will discuss this at length--both in terms of logistics and my rationale for conducting this course in that fashion.
To learn about the technologies we will be using for the course, please read the "Workplace Instructions."
Please read the Guidelines and Protocols I have developed as a starting point for the course.
Assignments
You will be completing the following assignments this
semester. There are links to each assignment in many places, and you will access
to them over the course of the semester to plan ahead. Please consult the course
calendar for specific dates and activities for these assignments.
The Center is an organization that looks broadly at technology use in the professions to determine how technology is being used for communication and determines what are the implications of the technology for communication. Ultimately, The Center makes recommendations for specific technology uses according to team members' expertise and interest and the results of well conducted, thorough research.
As a member of a Center team, you will be applying your own industry/trade/professional expertise and interests to analysis and recommendations. There are no initial limitations to how such a project might go—the shape and results of the project will depend on the team you work with and the instructor's approval. There is a process for all Center projects to be undertaken, however, and you will be expected to follow the developed guidelines described and developed throughout the course.
Each unit of the course is worth 25% of your grade. The individual assignments will be averaged at the end of each unit and you will get a unit total.
Please consult the course calendar for detailed information on major assignments and daily activities.
Instructor Contact Information