Telling Stories. Here's a link to a blog that's worth reading from time to time. This particular entry relates to what I've been saying about telling stories as a way to sell people on your ideas.
I some of you might be interested in a piece I wrote about it earlier this year. You can find it here.
Here's another piece I wrote about business and the community connection.
Here's one on the fusion culture and retrieval.
More on blogs--culture of participation.
Friday, July 22, 2005
Dr. Reed Letter. Key words are Problem/Solution. Key to understanding Problem development is motivation. Key to understanding Solution is benefits, primary and secondary. The first thing I will look at is whether you work effectively with the problem solution/strategy. In class I spelled out very clearly approach I think you should take. You're free to do it anyway you want, but make sure develop the problem sufficiently and that you present the benefits effectively when when you develop the solution.
I started the discussion of persuasion with a sales letter because you need to start thinking about persuasion as something different from argumentation. There is a place for argumentation, but in the business world 95% of the time persuasion is about motivating action. That's why the problem/solution dynamic is so important to learn how to work with.
You'll also be graded on your fluency and sentence style. If you go to The Writing Center in Lewis Hall, the peer tutors there can help you out with that.
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Business Plan. You should spend the weekend thinking about what you want to do if your group hasn't finalized your new-business idea yet. You will have to chose something by Tues.
Once again, it doesn't matter to me what your business is about. It can be simple or complex. You should aim to find something that most of the people in the group feel some enthusiasm about--and that you can decide on quickly. Try not to dither on endlessly. Don't get too hung up in the problems that any idea inevitably has--you'll find a way to work it out. Make a decision and go for it.
But I should add that you shouldn't set things up so it's too easy for investors to decide. We in the audience should all feel a degree of skepticism when we first hear about your business. It will then be your job to overcome our skepticism by presenting skillfully.
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Blogging in the Workplace. Michael Constans in the one o'clock class has raised some questions about whether I shouldn't talk more in class about how blogging in the work place has become a BCMU issue. So when I cam across this article about employees at a Florida newspaper being suspended for their blogs, I thought it might be intersesting conversation topic to address here--if I was set up to do it, which I'm not.
But Michael has inspired me to consider using this space on the course website in the future to address issues that don't pertain necessarily to the nuts and bolts of business communications. In the meanwhile, check out what goes on here from time to time. I'll be trying to make current events, so to speak, in the workworld of CMU more of a focus in this space. And maybe someday I'll even have some way to facilitate a comments and discussion tool. I'm looking into it now.
So if you come across any interesting articles or any information that relates to what we're talking about in class or to CMU issues in the workplace, send it to me. I'll make a judgment about whether it's something to share and discuss in this space. I'll have more to say about the New Times blog controversy in the next couple of days.
Monday, July 18, 2005
Persuasion. Key words are Problem/Solution. Key to understanding Problem development is motivation. Key to understanding Solution is benefits, primary and secondary.
I started the discussion of persuasion with a sales letter because you need to start thinking about persuasion as something different from argumentation. There is a place for argumentation, but in the business world 95% of the time persuasion is about motivating action. That's why the problem/solution dynamic is so important to learn how to work with.
The Assignment. You will be graded first on whether you can show me that you understand how to work with the persuasive strategy as I have outlined and discussed it in class. I'll have more to say about the assignment on Wed/Thurs, and it's important that you be there to hear what I have to say. It's also important that you bring a rough draft or the discussion will just wash over you because you won't really understand the issues if you don't grapple with them.
You'll also be graded on your fluency and sentence style. If you go to The Writing Center in Lewis Hall, the peer tutors there can help you out with that.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Fourth of July Holdiay. No class Thursday. But class next Tuesday.
First Assignment. Due next Tuesday: An analysis of the situation as it's presented in the case. 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?
The second part due Tuesday is the outline for the draft. don't do a draft for Tuesday. Focus on the outline. Key to the outline is identifying at least two major subtopics. See the model on p. 11 to see what the end product outline should more or less look like.
The final draft will be due Thursday, but I will have several more things to tell you about Tuesday what should go into it and how it should be formatted.
Monday, June 27, 2005
Better Late than Never. The first assignment is up in the column on the right. You might also read through the guidelines sheet, which will probably answer most of your questions about form.
Last week we introduced the four problem solving steps and focused particularly on the first, Analysis. This week we'll finish with Analysis when we talk about Defining the Audience Tuesday, and then we'll move onto Strategy.
The first assignment will give you an opportunity to practice the analysis steps we worked on in class last week, but it is primarily an organizational and packaging challenge. I'll explain more clearly what I mean by that in class.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Welcome to BCMU 301/302 for Summer Quarter 2005. 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.