WEEK 7 ASSIGNMENT (due Wednesday, March 10): Group Write

The Group Write: A 6pp (minimum) well-proofread piece of collaborative writing that offers a close description and meta-analysis of your project work, making sure to include discussion that considers the design, research, editing and final development phases of the project as well as your self-critique of its structure and efficacy.

Please make sure your descriptive analysis work covers all of the Group Write assignment criteria listed on the Project Guidelines sheet for this unit. You may use (altered versions of) any of the individual project narrative writing work each of you submitted to the course the previous week as you feel is appropriate in this group write effort.  

The Group Write assignment is due as a doc/docx attachment via the iLearn portal for our class.

The Group Write is worth 20 points and is due before class on the date listed above.

Please review the Error Patterns Primer and the Proofreading Notes sheets (available on our course page) before you submit your final versions so as to make sure you're eliminating all of the most common student writing error patterns from your writing work before it gets to me.

WEEK 6 ASSIGNMENT (Due Wednesday, March 3): Argument pitch & Prezi presentation

The Pitch: A 10-minute Prezi supported group presentation identifying and solving a real or imagined real-world problem with a proposal, service or product, or combination thereof. Group participants should demonstrate mastery of the principles of fact-based argument set within a Rogerian framework and cast in a business or professional setting. Project materials may include text, image, physical props, and/or video or audio content.

The Project work is worth 20 points and is due before class on the date listed above, via the iLearn portal for our class. Late, short, or ineffectively proofread work will not be accepted for credit.

A physical link to your completed Prezi should be emailed directly to me before you present on the day of presentation.

WEEK 5 ASSIGNMENT (due Wednesday, February 24):Project Work Narrative Activity Description

Create a 1-page (double-spaced) well-proofread narrative describing and justifying how the research or project work you've done so far as an individual group member contributes to and fits in with your project and the larger project goals articulated by your group thus far in the project design process.

As part of your descriptive narrative, describe the given research or project work itself, and include if you wish any web links or imagery/tables/slides, etc. you think are relevant or helpful to your description work. Also, be sure to spend some time explaining how your particular research and project work will help to support a fact-based argument (and presentation) as it's defined in Chapter 8 of Everything's an Argument.

The purpose of this assignment is for you to be able to clearly articulate (to yourself, to me, and for your group) what your given project work is and exactly how you think it's going to fit the needs of the project while making sure to further the goals and patterns of a standard fact-based claim made within a Rogerian framework.

This assignment is worth 10 points and is due before class on the date listed above, via the iLearn portal for our class. Late, short, or ineffectively proofread work will not be accepted for credit.

Please review the Error Patterns Primer and the Proofreading Notes sheets (available on our course page) before you submit your final version so as to make sure you're eliminating all of the most common student writing error patterns from your writing work before it gets to me.

WEEK 2 ASSIGNMENT (due Wednesday, February 3): Argument Analysis

Write a short, well-supported analysis of the types of argument used in a reading selection of your choice. The single source you use should be addressing some aspect of your own metier (e.g. accounting, marketing, economics, etc.) in either academic analysis or editorial fashion.

Examples of legitimate source sites might be The Wall Street Journal, Marketplace, site pages associated with your textbooks in your other SFSU courses, etc. Your close textual analysis of the argumentative strategies and overall success and effectiveness of your chosen reading selection must be a minimum of 2 full pages of 12 point double-spaced text.

Please use academic language that has been carefully and repeatedly edited and proofread to eliminate ALL sentence errors - poorly proofread work will be returned ungraded for revision.

Your goal is to produce two pages of clear, concise explanation and analysis (which means you'll need to include your evaluation of how well or not well your chosen piece argues and communicates) of your chosen source on the basis of what types of argument strategy it contains and utilizes in its speech. Please be sure to provide detailed description and analysis of your selection along with convincing textual support that illustrates your arguments and observations.

Use standard MLA in-text and works cited list citation practices to properly attribute your source(s). You'll find links to online MLA style guides in the "MLA & Works Cited Lists" section on the Resources tab above.The sections from Chapter 1 of Everything's an Argument that will be particulary useful to you here are those that will help you describe, in your chosen selection:

• the purposes of argument (e.g. to inform, to convince, to persuade, to explore, to decide, to pray)

• the occasions for argument (e.g. forensic, deliberative, epideictic)

• the kinds of argument (factual, definition, evaluative and causal, proposal)

• the target audience(s) of a given set of arguments

• the audience appeals used to talk to them (e.g. pathos, logos, ethos)

Identify those components in your chosen piece to help you analyze the argumentative success and effectiveness - or not - of your chosen selection. You'll need to be asking appropriately critical questions of the text as you seek to analyze its rhetorical structure for this assignment. Again, remember that your primary task is to determine what kind(s) of argument you see being used in your chosen selection, why you think so and what textual evidence you can show us to prove it, how well or not well you think those arguments are being deployed, and why.

Here are a few critical questions you should be asking of your chosen reading selection as you begin to try and understand its argumentative structure: 

Who is arguing? 

What purpose(s) is the writer(s) trying to achieve?

To whom are (they) directing their arguments?

Does the writer's intended audience determine which arguments he/she leans on the most heavily?

Does the logic match the evidence?

Is the writing clear, are the ideas well developed and well supported?

Per the modes of argumentation you see being used in the piece, are they being used effectively? Why (or why not)?

Please review this Sample Argument Analysis to see what I'm looking for in the assignment.

This assignment is worth 20 points and is due as its own document attachment before class on the date listed above via the iLearn portal for our class. Late, short, or ineffectively proofread work will not be accepted for credit.

Please review this File Formatting Guidelines sheet before you submit your work to me in order to be sure that you are saving the file in the correct format and naming it appropriately - I will not be able to accept files that are incorrectly formatted or titled.

• Group Proposal Abstract

In a succinct 1 page (minimum) of well-proofread, single spaced writing, describe and outline your upcoming final project proposal. In your abstract, you'll need to specifically explain what kind of proposal you'll be submitting and how/why that proposal type best matches the business-related problem you've isolated and the solution(s) you propose to address (it).

This means that your abstract should also offer brief or summarized versions of the statement of purpose, problem identification and project proposal narrative detailing (e.g. budgets, timelines, mission statements, outcomes tracking and analysis, etc.) that will reappear in expanded form in the final proposal piece.

The purpose of this assignment is for you to be able to clearly and unambiguously articulate (for yourself and for me) exactly what your proposal is as a way of better focusing your final proposal work now during the drafting process.

Please include a few lines at the bottom of the abstract to a brief description of who in your group is taking responsibility for which parts of the proposal project writing.

Each group will submit only one proposal abstract. Please make sure the full name of each group participant is listed at the top of the abstract.

This assignment is due as its own document attachment before class begins via the iLearn portal for our course.

• Project Proposal 

The assignment is to produce a short project proposal, a minimum of 4 pages in length, single spaced throughout all narrative sections, that’s business-appropriate and related to your (group’s) chosen area of professional focus at the college.

You will choose the specific proposal type (e.g. internal or external; sales, grant, RFP, solicited or unsolicited, etc.) and use readily available (on our GregTeach course page and through your own Web research) proposal templates and models to construct your proposal structure. But the writing itself must be your own and all relevant data and support researched and attributed using APA style guides.

Please note: "Wraparound" documents like an abstract, cover letters, cover pages, tables of contents, and appendices are required but not included in the minimum 4 pages of proposal narrative required for the assignment.

Additional requirements:

Proposals must be written in response to a specific RFP that you will research online or elsewhere and include separately with your proposal submission.

Unsolicited or "cold" proposals must be modeled after an existing actual cold proposal for a comparable product or service that you will research online or elsewhere and include separately with your proposal submission.

RFPs must be modeled after an existing actual RFP that you will research online or elsewhere and include separately with your proposal submission.

In addition to all of the internal narrative description, your proposal should include the following additions at the beginning of the document:

• Cover page
• Table of contents
  
• Cover letter / letter of Interest / letter of introduction / proposal abstract
  

Appendices of tables, charts, imagery, an APA reference list, etc. should be included in the proposal packet but are also not counted as part of the minimum 4 full pages of single spaced narrative description as the body of your proposal. (Cover sheets, tables of contents and opening letters of introduction are also not included in the minimum 4-page text requirement.)

Please see the separate sheet (that contains this same assignment description) on your main 714 GregTeach page for a list of the additional major components you should be covering in your own proposal document. 

This assignment is due BEFORE class this week via the iLearn portal for our class. Each group will submit only one full proposal. Please make sure the full name of each group participant is included on the cover page of your proposal.

Please review the Error Patterns Primer and the Proofreading Notes sheets (available on our course page) before you submit your final versions so as to make sure you're eliminating all of the most common student writing error patterns from your writing work before it gets to me.

• EA Chaps 7 & 9 Definition-based Toulmin Argument - In-course Essay Midterm:

In an essay of at least 700 words (minimum) of well-proofread writing, present a definition-based persuasive labeled with at least one each of the 8 Toulmin stages (Claim, Reasoning, Qualifier, Warrant, Backing, Evidence, Rebuttal, Response).

This is a timed exam: you will type this essay in your own word processing application and then copy/paste it into the submission window within iLearn that is set to count down from 2 1/2 hours once you click to begin the exam.   

Please see the sample student definition essay on our main 714 course page  for an example of how you should be labeling your essay with the individual components of the Toulmin model once you've written it.       

700 words is roughly equivalent to 2 full pages of double-spaced 12-point text, but please be sure to use the word count tool in your application to ensure you're hitting the 700-word requirement for the assignment. Essays that come in under 700 words will not be accepted for credit.

You won't be graded on essay formatting (spacing, tabbing, margins, etc.) as those are not uniform or easy to control within the text window you'll be using for this exam. Just worry about the writing work itself and the minimum word count as that's what I'll be evaluating.   

You must label each Toulmin stage of your argument at least once in the body of your essay by placing the relevant stage term in parentheses immediately after you've completed the corresponding stage of argument construction. Essays that are not correctly labeled with at least one instance of each of the 8 stages of the Toulmin model will not be accepted for credit. 

Be sure to log-in at least 3 hours before the assignment deadline expires so that you'll have time to create your essay within the 2 1/2 hour timeframe and submit it before it's due. Late submissions of this assignment will not be accepted nor will any revision opportunities be offered. 

Because you have 2 1/2 hours to create a 2-page essay, the minimum expectation is that you will have ample time to plan, write and proofread an essay that is completely error-free at the sentence and paragraph level and that displays a mastery of definition-based argumentation strategy and aspects of the Toulmin model.    

The Final Exam Trigger:            

Essays that do not display competency in those areas listed above will not pass. This in turn will trigger the final exam requirement for you: The final exam, administered as another online exam during finals week, will be a timed essay assignment just like this one, but it will only be required for students who do not pass this midterm exam.

The upshot here is that I want you to show me your ability to build and sustain a coherent, well-supported and well-developed argument, properly structured and labeled and also error-free. If you can do that here, you will be exempted from having to take the final exam; if you don't show clear mastery here, you'll be required to take the final exam and pass it in order to pass the course overall.           

Again, you will have 2 1/2 full hours for the exam once you click the Attempt Quiz Now button in iLearn. Once you begin, the test window cannot be closed or paused; if you stop the test or close the test window before completing the exam, your work will be lost and you will lose your opportunity to retake the test. You must click the Submit button whenever you finish and within the allotted time: closing the test or allowing the time to run out without submitting will cause your work to be lost and you will lose your opportunity to retake the test.

Please note that I do not have the ability to recover partial, lost, or unsaved work from the system. I recommend saving a copy of your work onto your machine to forward to me in case of a test tool failure in iLearn.

Please note: If you are faced with having to email me a backup copy of your work, it must be sent to me within 5 minutes of having closed or completed your test-taking period or it will not be accepted for credit.             

Your browser window will NOT be locked down once you start the exam, meaning you are free to access whatever materials you wish to help you with this assignment, either online or elsewhere on your machine as long as you do not close the test window. If you do use external source material in your work - which you are encouraged to do - please be sure to fully introduce the source in your writing and page or paragraph cite your sources with parenthetical references, as always. Properly attributing your sources is extremely important: un-cited source work will trigger a failing mark on the exam. You are not required to submit a reference or works cited list for this assignment.           

Please remember to review whatever previous commented writing you've gotten back from me to ensure that you're not repeating the same error patterns I've already called your attention to and which I'll be monitoring for again here.            

Please review the Error Patterns Primer and the Proofreading Notes sheets on our 714 course page and read your work aloud to yourself in a quiet place (this is a good method of catching errors your eye misses) before you submit your final version so as to make sure you're eliminating all of the most common student writing error patterns from your writing work before submitting it.            

The Exam Focus          

You will choose the parameters of your own argument, following the guidelines listed below.           

I have chosen to model this essay after the writing portion of the GMAT (or GRE) that you all encountered prior to taking this course because I, like that test, am trying to assess your ability to think critically with text and effectively communicate argument propositions in a coherent and sustained manner. (You can see this exam as an opportunity to avenge that earlier test result if you want to.) The instruction language is a modified version of the GMAT test language, as are the individual subject prompts that will be generated at random for each one of you separately once you begin the actual test. You will not all be responding to the same randomly selected subject prompt.           

I have copied the instruction language below for you to review now. You will not be able to see your actual subject prompt until you start the exam. Once you've gotten your subject prompt, you will be free to use only it to generate your essay response or to do some brief research online to gather additional ideas or source material to use in your essay writing. You are not required to cite any outside sources, but you may find the 2 1/2 hours you'll have to write the essay to be ample time to do a little bit of research with which you may fill out your body paragraphs with relevant specific support and illustration material to help you make your arguments.             

A note about the Toulmin labeling you'll do for the essay: don't worry so much about this while you write your essay. Any well constructed argument will already contain all of the principal components of the Toulmin model. Focus on your definition-based argument construction and support, then go back in and find each Toulmin component and label it. If you think too much about the Toulmin labeling while you write, you'll likely paralyze yourself by trying to build each Toulmin piece as you go, making the writing process way more difficult and overly complex than it needs to be. Focus on your argument and paragraph work, and do your Toulmin labeling and proofreading after.             

Your rhetorical tasks will be these:          

1. Identify and analyze significant flaws in the argument you're reading OR posit your own alternate position         
   
2. Develop and Support your critique or argument using relevant supporting reasons and/or examples                          
   
3. Demonstrate good sentence control (e.g. diction, syntax, and conventions of standard written English)
4. Demonstrate good paragraph control (e.g. topic sentence + textual or material support + analysis)           
   
5. Demonstrate mastery of definition-based argument speech and the Toulmin framework           

Test Instructions (you'll see this again once you start the exam and receive your own randomly generated subject topic):         

Respond to or critique this argument to help you arrive at your own alternate position on the topic(s) it addresses. If you choose to critique the argument here, you may want to discuss how well-reasoned it is and how well it uses specific evidence to support its contentions as a way of bolstering your own position(s). If you choose to respond to the argument with your own alternate argument, you may want to focus on the logical, ideological, moral, fiscal, political, etc. shortcomings of the argument you're responding to here.

Remember to base your own argument formulation on a definition-based warrant and/or reasoning, and remember to label the parts of your argument with the 8 stages of the Toulmin model (Claim, Reasoning, Qualifier, Warrant, Backing, Evidence, Rebuttal, Response). Please put those labels in parentheses after each part, and make your Toulmin labels all the same color that's different from your essay text, like this: (claim).

You will have 2 1/2 hours for this exam. Please make sure it's effectively proofread to eliminate all sentence-level errors before submission. Good luck.

• Definition-based argument discussion w/ Toulmin labeling

Create a 350-word (minimum) academic discussion in which you make a thesis argument that is definition-based and well supported with specific examples, reasoning, and defense of your position. I'm calling it a "discussion" because it is not meant to be a full essay, only a short piece of writing in which you're practicing the forms I'll be testing you on in a few weeks in the longer and more formal unit essay.

It will get brief feedback from me before your exam so that you'll know whether or not you're effectively creating an actual definition-based argument and are correctly identifying the different parts of your argument per the Toulmin framework.

This short argument-based discussion has two different parts to it:

1. First, create your argument driven discussion.
2. Then, go back in and label its parts with at least one each of the 8 Toulmin stages (Claim, Reasoning, Qualifier, Warrant, Backing, Evidence, Rebuttal, Response). You will find models and samples on our main course page that show you how to do this. I have also included sample work below.

The argument you make may be about anything you wish it to be, and you may use whatever sources you wish to support and illustrate your work.

New! You may use respond to or critique one of the arguments on the "GMAT Sample Questions" sheet below if you wish (or you may make your own argument separate from these, either is fine). If you use one of these, please copy/paste it onto the top of your writing work so I'll know which one you're writing about.

• GMAT Sample Questions

Attribution & Works Cited List:

While you're not required to cite outside sources, if you do you must use standard MLA (not APA) in-text and works cited list citation practices to properly attribute those sources. You'll find links to online MLA style guides in the "MLA & Works Cited Lists" section on the Resources tab above.

Please remember to review any remarks I may have left on the works cited list after your Week 2 essay before you submit this essay and list, and remember also to use your Business Writer's Companion text as a resource to help you cite your sources in-text and create a correctly built works cited list.

Samples:

See this Sample Argument & Toulmin Labeling to see what kind of writing and labeling I'm looking for in this assignment.

Nuts & Bolts:

Please use academic language (3rd person, present tense) that has been carefully and repeatedly edited and proofread to eliminate ALL sentence errors - poorly proofread work will be returned ungraded for revision.

This assignment is worth 10 points and is due as its own document attachment before class on the date listed above via the iLearn portal for our class. Late, short, or ineffectively proofread work won't be accepted for credit.

Please review this File Formatting Guidelines sheet before you submit your work to me in order to be sure that you are saving the file in the correct format and naming it appropriately - I can't accept files that are incorrectly formatted or titled.

• Cover Letter (Final)
  

Write a new final or post a final version of a previously written cover letter draft as a document attachment here. Your letter should not be over one page in length, and it should be properly formatted to match the templates I've provided on our course page. 

I suggest, though it is not required, that you submit one of your own real cover letters so that my feedback will be the most beneficial to you. Please make sure that if you do so you have first deleted any private information from the cover letter that you do not wish to share with me (other students will not see any version of this letter, only me).

Review the reading assignments and supporting materials in the cover letter lesson on your course page at GregTeach to make sure you're formatting your letter correctly and following the right template guidelines. Please make sure that it's well proofread for sentence and formatting errors. 

Please note that these letters must be exhaustively proofread. There should be no errors in spelling, punctuation, wording and grammar, or formatting, large or small, of any kind in your final letter. 

A single error means your work doesn't pass and you get to do the work again for me. This assignment is required and you must receive a grade of 20/20 on it in order to pass the course. 

This assignment is due as its own document attachment via the iLearn portal for our class before class on the due date listed above.

Please review the Error Patterns Primer and the Proofreading Notes sheets (available on our course page) before you submit your final versions so as to make sure you're eliminating all of the most common student writing error patterns from your writing work before it gets to me.

• Cover Letter (Draft)

Write a new draft or post a draft version of one of your own previously written cover letters as a document attachment using the assignment tool in our class iLearn portal. Your letter should not be over one page in length, and it should be properly formatted to match the templates I've provided on our course page.

I suggest, though it is not required, that you submit one of your own past cover letters for an application or interview so that the feedback, critique and review work in class will be the most beneficial to you.

Please make sure that if you do so you have first deleted any private information from the cover letter that you do not wish to share with other students in class. Please also review the reading assignment and supporting materials in this week's lesson agenda to make sure you're formatting your letter correctly and following the right template guidelines. Finally, please make sure that it's well proofread for sentence errors.

These draft versions will receive automatic full credit as long as they're submitted on time, but they will not receive indivualized feedback from me as they're only meant to be first versions that you will further refine after class this week and then resubmit to me by the following week in iLearn.

It is of paramount importance that your cover letters out in the "real world" be absolutely free of any kind of error, large or small, so regarding your final versions that you will submit to me after this draft version: a single error of any kind in your final version will force me to fail the work and return it to you for revision before I can give the work credit or give you a passing mark in the course.

Please proofread your work carefully and repeatedly, now - or know that you'll be asked to do so later before I will pass it. There should be no errors in spelling, punctuation, wording and grammar, formatting or spacing, large or small of any kind in your final cover letter work. A single error likely means your work doesn't pass and you get to do the work again for me.

This assignment is due as its own document attachment via the iLearn portal for our class. It's worth 10 points and is due before class on the date listed above. Late, short, or ineffectively proofread work will not be accepted for credit.

Please review the Error Patterns Primer and the Proofreading Notes sheets (available on our course page) before you submit your final versions so as to make sure you're eliminating all of the most common student writing error patterns from your writing work before it gets to me.

• Journal Wiki:

Create a 300-word (minimum) Wiki Journal entry that makes an argument which is definition-based and is then labeled with at least one of each of the 8 Toulmin stages (Claim, Reasoning, Qualifier, Warrant, Backing, Evidence, Rebuttal, Response). Your argument may be about anything you wish it to be, and you may use sources to support your work but it is not required. If you do use source materials, please make sure they are correctly cited and attributed following MLA guidelines.

Note: You will need to create a hyperlink to your first Wiki page before you enter your Journal text.

Follow these steps:

1. Click on the Journal Wiki tool at the top of your iLearn portal page for our course
   
2. Scroll down and click Create Page
3. Type in the hyperlink title of your first journal page in the text box at the bottom of the page, like this:  [[Week 8 Wiki]]
   
4. Click Save at the bottom of the page
5. Refresh the page
   
6. Scroll down and click Create Page again. This time, you should see the Week 8 hyperlink you created in red italics. Click it. This will take you to a page where you can read and edit your new wiki page.
   
7. Click the Edit tab, then enter your actual journal material in the text box for that page
   
8. Click Save and you're done.

This assignment is worth 10 points and is due as its own online Wiki entry before class on the date listed above via the iLearn portal for our class. Late, short or insufficiently supported work will not be accepted for credit.

• Journal Wiki:

This is a recurring writing assignment in which you'll be composing informal journal responses on topics and readings of your choosing during weeks in which you do not have other outside writing assignments due for the class.

The purpose of this ongoing journaling assignment is twofold: to keep your "writing brain" active and practicing throughout the course and to create an instant drafting space for you try out writing strategies and lines of argument to help you in your other course assignments.

In order to receive credit for your journal work, each entry must:

• Be a minimum of 350 words

• Be a critical, evaluative response to the writing and/or ideas in at least one self-selected reading in your subject area at the College or drawn from your professional background or interests (online publications or print texts). Straight summary descriptions will not be accepted for credit.

Including a full APA or MLA formatted full list entry for each source you reference in your journal writing isn't necessary as long as you fully introduce your source(s) in the body of your writing and make sure to parenthetically site it correctly when you quote or paraphrase it

Journal entries will be checked for completion after each week they're due. I won't typically respond with detailed comments on your work - these journals are specifically designed to be informal draft spaces in which you can safely rehearse, without my intervention or critique, ideas and approaches you may later choose to deploy in other assignments for the class or in writing projects outside of our class. I will still be looking at them though to be sure you're flexing your argument muscles appropriately, and I will be offering some brief words of praise and encouragement when you do.

All assigned journals are required in order to pass the course - none may be skipped. Students who create journal entries that don't reference and critically respond to a specific cited text or are under the required minimum length of 350 words will be asked to revise and resubmit their work in order to pass the assignment and the course. 

Note: Please remember to create a hyperlink to your first Wiki page before you enter your Journal text. To do that, do this: click the Journal Wiki tool at the top of your iLearn portal page for our course. Scroll down and click Create Page. Type in the hyperlink title of your first journal page in the text box at the bottom of the page, like this:

[[Week 3 Wiki]]

Click save at the bottom of the page. Refresh the page. Scroll down and click Create Page again. This time, you should see the Week 3 hyperlink you created in red italics. Click it. This will take you to a page where you can read and edit your new wiki page. Click the Edit tab, then enter your actual journal material in the text box for that page and click Save and you're done.

This assignment is worth 10 points and is due as its own online Wiki entry before class on the date listed above via the iLearn portal for our class. Late, short or insufficiently supported work will not be accepted for credit.

• The Business Letter 

Using the business letter resources I placed in the Week 11 module to help you, compose a one-page business letter. You will choose the subject of your letter (an aspect of business or office managagment would be a wise choice here). You'll also choose the imaginary perspective from which you'll speak (i.e. as a representative of a specific corporation or business entity). Finally, you'll choose the imaginary audience or recipients of your business letter (not me!) (e.g. a work group, a colleague, a prospective employee, another company, a vendor, a client, etc.).

Although you should be using the templates and sample links I've provided to help you with the form and format of your letter, the subject matter of your letter must be your own and it should be drawn from your other related studies at the college and/or real world experiences out in the business/professional world you already inhabit. Remember that effective letters are not only well proofread for clarity and correctness, they are also direct and specific and concise: there should be no "throw away" language in them.

Also, as letters typically follow a very specific form on the screen and/or paper, you must make the formatting of your work a primary focus: how well you format your letter will have everything to do with how effective it is as an artifact of "official" external communication. As such, the "formatting elements" - the visual organization and presentation of information on the page - are at least as important as the content of the letter itself and the proofreading of it.

In order to be considered for credit for this assignment, the body of your letter must be a minimum of 10 sentences and a maximum of 30 (not including the header and footer fields at the top and bottom of the letter). It may contain as few or as many paragraphs as you feel are necessary to effectively communicate the letter's stated subject, and it must be very well proofread to eliminate all sentence and paragraph errors.

This assignment is due as its own document attachment in class this week.

Please review the Error Patterns Primer and the Proofreading Notes sheets (available on our course page) before you submit your final versions so as to make sure you're eliminating all of the most common student writing error patterns from your work before it gets to me.

• The Business Memo

Using the business memo resources I placed in the Week 11 module to help you, compose a one-page business memo of your own. You will choose the subject of your memo (i.e. what aspect of business priorities or office managagment). You will choose the imaginary professional position from which you will be speaking (i.e. a specific position within a corporation or business). You will choose the imaginary audience or recipients of your memo (not me!) (e.g. a work group, a colleague, a superior, an employee, the company, etc.).

Although you should be using the templates and sample links I've provided to help you with the form and format of your memo, the subject matter of your memo must be your own and it should be drawn from your other related studies at the college and/or real world experiences out in the business/professional world you already inhabit. Remember that effective memos are not only well proofread for clarity and correctness, they are also direct and specific and concise: there should be no "throw away" language in them.

Also, as memos typically follow a very specific form on the screen and/or paper, you must make the formatting of your work a primary focus: how well you design your memo will have everything to do with how effective it is as an artifact of authentice intra-office communication. As such, "formatting elements" - the visual organization and presentation of information on the page - are at least as important as the content of the memo itself and the proofreading of it.

In order to be considered for credit for this assignment, the body of your memo must be a minimum of 10 sentences and a maximum of 30 (not including the header fields at the top of the memo). It may contain as few or as many paragraphs, lists, etc. you feel are necessary to effectively communicate the memo's stated subject, and it must be very well proofread to eliminate all sentence and paragraph errors.

This assignment is due as its own document attachment in class this week.

Please review the Error Patterns Primer and the Proofreading Notes sheets (available on our course page) before you submit your final versions so as to make sure you're eliminating all of the most common student writing error patterns from your work before it gets to me.

• Journal Wiki:

Please recall earlier in-class description of the Journal Wiki assignment for this week (a practice run at building fact-based arguments within a Rogerian framework).