ENGL 420: Business Writing

The only reading this week that was really relevant to what my group is doing is the one about giving oral presentations. Specifically, the informal presentations. Our group has a fairly good working relationship with the client, and I would say that it is relatively informal. There is no need to dress up whenever we meet, so the informal presentations section will help out a lot. The first section of informal oral presentations was about understanding your audience. Even though it is a presentation, this section helped me understand that it is ok to interact with your audience.

This week, there was only one reading from PWONline. In general, all of the sections for this reading deal with ethical and moral problems associated with writing and the business world. In the first section that we were assigned to read, Copyright, Plagiarism and Fair Use of Others’ Writing, the general guide pretty much sums up everything that needs to happen when writing: “Give credit where credit is due.” In some cases this is very easy to do.

This week’s most prominent reading was “The Ten Rules of Effective Writing.” In class, our group was assigned rules 7 and 8.

This week, our group met with the client for the first time. It was a relatively informal meeting where we all sat down to discuss exactly what the project would entail. This summer, our client will be opening up a coffee shop. As a result, they will need training material for their new employees on how to safely handle food and keep the work place sanitary. As such, our group will be responsible for a few pages out of a their employee training handbook.

This week, the main reading assignment was “Proposals” from Pearson Education. The first section of this reading, The Rhetoric of Proposals, describes how a proposal is a document that is pretty much asking for something, which is usually money. In order for the proposal to seem credible and needed, you must convince the audience that there is a problem and that your idea will add value, is significant and is worth doing. When addressing the audience you should consider them to be skeptical.

For this project, the two potential clients that I can think of are any student organization on campus and the Purdue Aviation Technology department.

In regards to the student organizations, they are always interested in trying to expand and gain more members. Therefore, we could create some sort of media in an attempt to enhance their growth. All student organizations are non-profit and I doubt that any group would be against someone trying to help them.

For this week, there were only two readings: the Service Learning Project Description and Client Criteria. For the service learning project, I think that the instructions are very descriptive and straight forward. However, I think that the instructions are easier read than accomplished. Being who I am, I find this project a little daunting. I do not like asking people for things or approaching strangers. Therefore, it will be a lot outside of the box for me.

This week, our team finally finished the final copy of our white paper. As a whole, it took a great amount of effort to come together as a group in order to create a finished, polished product. Each individual had to put forth effort in order to create a quality product. Whether it was writing and grammar, or visual design, each group member played an essential role in the creation of this white paper.

This week, there were really no reading assignments. The only actual reading assignment was the peer review which we were assigned to fill out in class. However, I do feel that the peer review was more helpful in examining your own paper rather than other groups. In all reality, it is more likely that I filled out the peer review and the other group paid absolutely no attention to whatever I had to say. However, after reading the questions required for the peer review, I wass required to look at my own white paper.

This week, I found the most helpful reading to be the white paper example that we discussed in class. Right off the bat, you immediately get a sense of whether or not you are going to like the paper. Just the overall look and design of the paper give you a sense of how well put together it is. Similar to eating, if it does not look good, odds are you are not going to like it. While the Global Warming White Paper does not have a title page, however there probably is one that just didn’t make it into the online version, you get the feeling that a lot of time was put into its creation.