reflection

Guffey, Mary Ellen and Loewy, Dana (2019). Essentials of Business Communication 11e, Boston, MA, Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-1-337-38649-4 or 978-1-337-38661-6 (loose leaf). Please bring your textbook to every class, as we will frequently use it in the classroom.

Note that you do not need to purchase the bundled Premium Website. You may purchase any version of the text, including new, used, loose-leaf, digital or rental, as long as it is the 11th edition.

II. Grades and Weighting

Self-Introductions	5%		Letter grades:
3 Quizzes (5% each)	15%		A = 95 to 100
Individual Presentation	15%		A- = 90 to < 95
Feedback	5%		B+ = 87 to < 90
Resume	15%		B = 83 to < 87
Cover Letter	15%		B- = 80 to < 83
Peer Review	5%		C+ = 77 to < 80
Self-Reflection	10%		C = 73 to < 77
Peer Review	5%		C- = 70 to < 73
Writing Office	5%		D+ = 67 to < 70
Participation	5%
Total	100%

Please remember that I don’t give you grades; you earn them. I will help in any way I can to facilitate your understanding of the material but the responsibility is yours to attend class regularly, complete the reading assignments, participate fully, and complete projects on time.

CSUSB College of Business and Public Administration

Department of Management Spring 2018

If midway through our class you’re concerned with the grade that you are earning, contact me immediately, and I’ll work with you to develop a plan to improve your performance for the remainder of the class. I won’t however “round up”, “bump up” or otherwise award a grade that you haven’t earned.

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III. Goals and Objectives

College Learning Goals

1. Specific Disciplinary Knowledge and Skills: Each student should obtain required specialized management knowledge and skills for the creation of value through integrated operations and distribution of goods, services and information.

2. Written Communication: Each student can effectively present information in writing.

3. Oral Communication: Each student can effectively present information orally.

4. Problem Solving: Each student can apply knowledge in new and unfamiliar circumstances and devise solutions to cope with unforeseen events.

5. Global Context: Each student understands varied cultural perspectives and global environments

6. Ethical Reasoning: Each student can recognize/analyze problems and choose/defend resolutions for practical business situations.

7. Information Technology: Each student can use information technology to support the structure and processes of the organization and decision making.

Course Learning Objective

A. Knowledge: Exhibit memory of learned materials by recalling facts, terms, basic concepts and answers.

B. Comprehension: Demonstrate understanding of facts and ideas by organizing, comparing, translating, interpreting, giving descriptions, and stating the main ideas.

C. Application: Solve problems in new situations by applying acquired knowledge, facts, techniques and rules in a different way.

D. Analysis: Examine and break information into parts by identifying motives or causes; as well as making inferences and find evidence to support generalizations.

E. Synthesis: Compile information together in a different way by combining elements in a new pattern or proposing alternative solutions.

F. Evaluation: Present and defend opinions by making judgments about information, validity of ideas or quality of work based on a set of criteria.

Course Requirements

IV. Assignments

Self-introduction Video (5 points total)

During the first week of class, you’ll post a brief (approximately 30 second) self-introduction video using GoReact. You’ll then review your classmates’ self-introductions and provide them with feedback.

Exams (15 Points Total)

These three exams will consist of T/F and multiple-choice questions and are designed to check your understanding of the assigned reading material and lectures. Please note that all assigned readings are “fair game”, whether or not they have been covered in class lectures. Please make sure that you attend classes, read and understand all assigned readings prior to attempting.

The exams will be taken on Blackboard and will be time-limited. You may use your notes or text, but may not communicate or collaborate with other students when taking the exam.

Individual Informative Presentation (15 Points)

For this assignment you’ll individually deliver via GoReact a brief informative presentation related to the topic of public speaking and oral communications. The purpose of this assignment is to give you experience presenting to the class, while augmenting our study of public speaking.

You may select any topic within this broad description, and your material may be drawn from a single source, such as an article, or from multiple sources. Some examples of topics that would fall within this definition might include:

·

· Leading a successful video conference

· Being a productive video participant

· How to overcome fear of public speaking

· How to remember main points of a speech

· How to dress and look professional

· How to use your hands effectively

· Where to find ideas for a speech

· Using PowerPoint effectively

· Remember names of people in your audience

· Types of visual aids, and when to use each

· How to run a successful meeting

· How to project confidence

· How to establish credibility

· Speaking to an international audience

·

Selecting a unique and interesting topic will enhance your talk. While you are free to be creative in selecting topics for this paper, please ensure that the information you are presenting is from a credible source. For instance, while articles from Inc., Forbes, Entrepreneur, or Harvard are probably credible, information from sites like lifehack.org, or howstuffworks.com might not be.

Please use the discussion thread provided in Blackboard to reserve your topic and source material, as each student must present unique information. If you have any question about the appropriateness of your planned topic, please contact me prior to preparing your talk.

Your presentation will be limited to 5 minutes, not including Q&A, and must incorporate presentation software such as PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Prezi and must take into account the best practices in planning, preparing, creating slides, and delivering your presentation as discussed in class and in the readings. Please ensure that your presentation is engaging, and will keep the audience’s interest.

Please adhere to the assigned date for your presentation. If you are aware of a conflict with your assigned presentation date, please arrange for an alternative date, no less than 24 hours in advance of your assigned date.

Failure to present on your assigned date (unless arrangements have been made with me in advance) will result in a “0” for this assignment, with no opportunity to make up the assignment for partial credit at a later date.

Presentation Feedback (5 Points Total)

Every week – with the exception of the week in which you are presenting – you’ll review your classmates’ presentations on GoReact and provide them with feedback on GoReact and also via a rubric. Your instructor will provide more information on this requirement.

Resume (15 Points) and Cover Letter (15 Points)

For both the resume and cover letter, you’ll start by finding a job posting (e.g., on Indeed) that:

· requires a college degree in your field, is of interest to you, and

· has an adequate description of requirements / skills required to allow customization. (Note that many employment agency or government job postings do not meet this standard.)

For these assignments, you’ll first develop a draft which will be shared with your peers for feedback. Follow the format of examples in the book (Figures 13.11 through 13.14 for resume, or Figures 13.16 and 13.17 for cover letter). Your final draft will be submitted to Blackboard for grading after peer feedback has been incorporated. Your job posting must be included with each deliverable.

Both your resume and cover letter must be customized to reflect the job posting that you selected. When submitting your final draft for grading, please include a brief, separate note explaining how you’ve customized for the particular job to which you are applying.

Final Written Self-Reflection Report (10 Points)

At the end of the quarter, you’ll post to Blackboard an approximately 500-word, single-spaced written report outlining the concepts from the course which you’ve found most meaningful and describing how you anticipate incorporating these new concepts into your professional, academic or personal communications. Please submit as a single-spaced, informal informational report in an email format.

This submittal will be graded considering both the content as well as the quality of the writing. I’ll consider use of writing conventions (grammar, spelling, and sentence construction), the presentation and organization of your ideas, compliance with the specifications of the assignment, and the incorporation of all of the business writing best practices that we’ll discuss in this course.