Thursday, October
9, 2008
Office Hours. Unless
I announce otherwise, office hours from now on will be held every
Tuesday and Friday in the Balmer Cafe from 1-2 pm. If that doesn't
work for
you,
talk to me and we'll find some other time to meet.
Memo Punctilio
for Monday. Choose at least two sentences from the assignment
you prepared for class today that you think would would benefit
from the revision
techniques taught today in class. If you have passive sentences flip
them to active. If you have no passives but a concentration of 'to
be' sentences, revise those. Indicate which sentences you
have revised on the new draft by highlighting them--underline them
or use a different color so they pop out. I want to check them against
the original sentence.
Also, take another
look at your paragraphs. Are some too long and chunky? Look for ways
to break them down, and don't be shy about using lists.
PTO Extra
Credit.
The spirit of this exercise is not for you to get extra points but
for you to reinforce good usage by noticing troublesome words and
phrases that are both correctly and incorrectly used. Don't bring
a pile of them into me the last week; bring them to me as you find
them. Remember that they have to be either something O'Connor specifically
talks about or that I talk about in class. Typos don't count. Poorly
written sentences don't count unless they have a specific usuage
mistake O'Connor or I talk about.
Wednesday, October
8, 2008
Post Interview
Assignment. I want a memo addressed
to me reporting on your meeting. You should set it up using the direct
informational strategy we talked about in class Monday. I want a
developed description of two or three things that came up during
your conversation that you found most useful, and I want
you to treat those subjects as A-head subtopics. I need you to attach
a business card from the person you interviewed and a copy of the
thank you letter or note you wrote. The
due date is October 22.
Tuesday, October
7, 2008
Memo Punctilio. Due
Next Class: Final draft of the summary memo, the revised analysis
of the situation as we went over it in class, and the revised outline.
Regarding the analysis, remember
you're not analyzing the article.
You're
analyzing
the situation as if you were the person in the case asked by his
or her boss to summarize it. What are the issues you need to deal
with? What are the goals, primary and secondary? What is the audience--Scope,
Relationship, Need?
Key to the outline
is identifying at least two major subtopics, and showing you understand
what needs to go into the opening and close. See the model on p.
12 to see what the end product outline should look
like more
or
less
.
The draft should
be the outline with meat on it. You need to incorporate the formatting
ideas discussed in class, particularly the use A-heads and perhaps
B-heads
to identify
subtopics.
I also
expect you to incorporate some lists.
The draft should
use the full block style. See the assignment guidelines link to the
upper right for some other tips. Make sure you put your name in the
upper right hand corner and the time your class meets.
Thursday, October
2, 2008
Assignment One
is up in the column to the right if you didn't get it in class.
Also check out the Guidelines link for info about how to set things
up in your assignments.
Analysis
Hints for Monday: Use the format I put up on the board
and just fill in the blanks.
- When you are trying
to define the issues, look at them in this case as being arranged
concentrically,
with some issues more at the periphery influencing the most
important issue in the center.
- When defining objective think about them in two categories: reactive--what
you have to do at a minimum to put out the metaphorical fires--and
proactive--what possibilities are there to go beyond the status
quo ante.
- When defining the
audience, the most important
element is to define the need, because what you choose
to include in your summary should be determined by its usefulness
in
meeting
your boss's need.
Outline
hints: You need to have at least two major subtopic
headings structuring the body of your outline. These subtopics
should be equal in importance. The biggest challenge in this
part of the assignment is envision how you will make this document
into a useful tool. I'll have more to say about that on Monday.
Remember, your
goal in this assignment is to create a document that will be more
useful or helpful for your boss than the original article.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Information Interview
Tips: First, figure out who you want to meet with. I'm pretty flexible
about who you choose, but ideally it should
be somebody doing something now that you can see yourself doing
some time in the future. It won't be that useful for an accounting
major to meet, for instance, with a research biologist. Here's the
link to the Husky
Career Network if you want to start there.
Second, when you
contact the person you select, establish your credibility by identifying
yourself as a junior in the UW Business School accounting program.
Tell them how you got their name, and that you want to talk to people
with established careers in accounting--or whatever--to get a better
understanding about what the career possibilities are in the field
and to ask his or her advice about how to shape your education and
training before enter the job market. Ask for about a half hour of
his or her time at their convenience. If they can't do it, can they
suggest someone who they think would be willing to do it.
Third, go into the
interview with clear objectives and have a strategy. Be prepared
with open-ended questions that will stimulate your interviewee's
thinking. Get them to talk about their own experience and insights.
Ask them
for
advice about specific issues that concern you. Be adapatible
and go with the flow in the interview. Don't go on and on about
yourself. This is not about you, so only talk about yourself in response
to questions your interviewee
asks you.
Fourth, ask for
a referral for another information interview at the end. When you
get home, take notes about what you learned, and write a thank you
note.
I'll have more to
say about what you need to write for me next week.
Saturday, September
27, 2008
Here's the video
for last night's debate:
In your evaluation
of the debate, pay particular attention to body language and tone
issues--what we'll be talking about in this class as 'style'. A lot
of post-debate analysis focussed on that, and many think that the
debate
was won
and lost
on that level.
Who do you think won on style?
Ordinarily, a debate
is won on points scored on the basis of who makes the most attacks
that go without effective rebuttal. It's like a boxing
match in that respect--who gets the most hits? In a debate like this
it's not a matter of who's
right on the facts--most people don't know what the facts are--it's a matter
of who got the most net hits. Who do you think won on points?
Wednesday, September
24, 2008
First Assignment:
Watch at least the first hour of the debate Friday evening, and
use the Debate Evaluation form linked in the column to the right
to score
the effectiveness
of each
candidate
as a communicator.
This
exercise requires that you put aside your political preferences,
and even what you know already about each candidate, and try to look
at
each candidate as if you were seeing him for the first time. We'll
discuss your evaluations in class Monday.
The debate starts
at 6pm, and you can watch it live on PBS (channel 9) or the cable
news channels. If you
can't
watch
live and don't have Tivo or DVR to record it, I'll put up a YouTube of the debate
on this website
when it becomes available.
***
Resumes: We
will be doing a workshop on resume building and other job finding
skills
Monday.
If you have a resume, bring it to class. If you don't have one, slap
a rough draft together that you can develop further based onsuggestions
made in class. You might want to look ahead in the coursepak to the
materials presented on pp. 77ff.
Friday, September
12, 2008
Welcome to Business
Communications for Fall Quarter 2008. I'll be using this space
as the quarter progresses
to summarize and emphasize points that
I make in class. Check in at least once a week to make sure you're
up to speed.
Check out the various links in the panels to the right and left. Some
of these will be more relevant later in the course, but it won't hurt
to familiarize yourself with what's on the site now. The assignment
links will be activated the class day I introduce the assignment. Even
if you miss class, you should know what the assignment is.