Business Writing Across the Core

Writing to Think

June 8, 2009

Background The BWAC program grew out of our discussions of the

writing assessment last spring

Decision was made to focus on where we could have value added

Decision was made to spread the work load and engage all the faculty

Decision was made to focus on five documents each assigned in two core classes

Decision was made to focus on advancing critical thinking of fundamental business concepts through writing

Expectations for faculty teaching a BWAC course

Describe the BWAC program to studentsExplain the scope of the program

Emphasize the relevance of business writing in their professional career

Highlight the difference in the five documents

Assign the document at least onceShorter documents may be assign more than once

Identify good and bad samples of student writing Share your experience with faculty at fall

assessment retreat

Clarification The BWAC committee provides the document template The template is a starting point Individual instructors are encouraged to augment the template to

capture the complexity and diversity of individual classes Everyone teaching in the same BWAC core class assigns the same

document, but not necessarily the same assignment Each document is assigned twice, in a lower level class and in an

upper class—the document template remains the same the content of the assignment becomes more sophisticate

Individual faculty decide on the grading weight for the assignment Individual faculty decide on method of grading-no imposed rubrics Not a writing intensive class No expectation of grading-revising-resubmitting Not teaching grammar

What do we want to accomplish today

Provide information and motivation for syllabi revision for this fall

Sort through any issues Hear your ideas Focus on things to think about when crafting assignment Provide examples and suggestions Breakout into document groups

Generate ideas for content—faculty and adjunctsDiscuss any issues

Things to think about when crafting the assignment

1. Design a good assignmentSpecific

In-writingNever underestimate the students ability to understand broad concepts nor

overestimate their knowledge of specific facts

2. Clarify grading criteria/Decide on how you are going to provide feedback

Comments vs. Rubric3. Devote some class time to discussing

the assignment and content ideas

4. Have students submit something early in a preliminary fashion if applicable

5. Consider having students peer review before handing in to instructor

Response or advice

Give peer reviewers a concrete way to record their reactions

6. Recommend that students utilize the writing center

7. Provide the writing center with your assignment description and grading scheme

Letters

• Cover letter• Letter to the editor• Customer letter of

complaint• Collection letter• Business bad news

• Break the class into two groups and have one group write a complaint letter and the other a response letter

• Have students write a complaint letter with frustration and emotion and a second with professionalism

Memo

• Request information or action

• Provide information of answer a question

• Propose a course of action

• Offer a solution to a problem

• Break the class into two groups and have them write about the same content but to different audiences—superiors and co-workers

• Show examples of different types of memos from your email

Executive Summary

• Business Plan• Business sheet• Group presentation• Group project• Simulation• Research paper• Commission report

• Summary is not an abstract

• Length of summary is proportional to original work

• Never start with “The purpose of this report…”

• Write it like it was a telegram to your boss who is reporting to his boss

Proposal

• Small business proposal• Grant proposal• Sales proposal• Funding proposal• Technology proposal• Production proposal

• Solicited or unsolicited• Internal or external• Specify the format• Identify method of

rhetoricComparisons of projects

Degree of importance

Sequence of implementation

Categories of issues

• Identify critical reader whose job it is to reject proposal

Business Case

• Integration of acquisition• Organizational

restructuring• Moving into ecommerce• Marketing natural

products• Promoting eco-tourism• Marketing luxury

fragrances

• Creation of scenarioTextbook or online

Recent news storiesCampus eventsDevelopments in professional field

• Identify business problem or issue

Believable scenarioRaises a thought provoking

issueCan not be answered with a

trite answerEasily applicable analytical

toolProblem demands a concrete solution

Getting started with content driven assignments

1. What are the course topics?

2. What liberal arts thinking skills

are the most important to me?

3. Based on previous student’s experience, what is the concept that students had the most difficulty with?

4. What is my unique stamp? What do I want them to remember about my class?

Ideas from Breakout GroupsLetter BADM 115

Content Variations

1 Social Responsibility Letter to editor or stakeholder

2 Sexual harassment lawsuit

Case dismissed—letter to company and letter to individual

3 Misleading news article on product recall

Letter to editor

Letter BADM 301 INFO 315

CONTENT VARIATIONS and PROCESS

1 Write a pitch letter to the board of directors asking for funding

2 Letter to the editor

Memo-ECON 101

Content Variations

1 The effect of elasticity of demand on total revenue

Explain the concept to non-economist

2 Cross price elasticity of demand Have students identify substitutes and complements for a product

3 Tax incidence Propose a new excise tax and analyze effect

4 Market structure Analyze the level of competition for a new market entrant

5 Goal of the firm Memos to two organizations one a firm and the other a nonprofit organization.

6 Rent Control Memo to housing authority analyzing a change in rent control.

Memo—Corporate Finance

Content Variation and Process

1 Personal finance- time value of money retirement calculations

Write a memo to a client explaining the client’s investment options

2 Ethics—falsifying a mortgage application

Write a memo to a bank manager identifying the fraud.

3 Financial statement analysis—ratios, corporate weaknesses

Write a memo to an investor making a comparison between a large cap and a small cap company.

4 Agency theory Write a memo from a regulator identifying a principal agent problem.

Executive SummaryAccounting and International

BusinessContent Variations and Process

ACCT 222

Balance sheet assessment

Have students write an executive summary of a balance sheet analysis

IBUS International business issues

Have students write an executive summary for an existing research paper.

Proposal—Information Systems and Management

Content Variations and Process

INFO

224

Propose a new enterprise wide system

or

New Software

Response to a RFP

MGMT

370

Consulting proposal—propose a solution to a production problem

Stagger assignments over semester, have different groups do new topics e.g. quality , just in time, make vs. buy, inventory control

Case AnalysisMarketing and ManagementContent

MKT 290

Ethics or sustainability Select a focused case so that students do not have to go into all elements.

Stagger assignment.

MGMT 302

Traditional integrated business cases Use existing cases that are part of the course assignments.