Introduction

English 420 teaches students the rhetorical principles and writing practices necessary for producing effective business letters, memos, reports, and collaborative projects in professional contexts. The curriculum is informed by current research in rhetoric and professional writing and is guided by the needs and practices of business, industry, and society at large, as well as by the expectations of Purdue students and programs. All sections of English 420 are offered in networked computer classrooms to ensure that students taking the course are prepared for the writing environment of the 21st-century workplace. The course teaches the rhetorical principles that help students shape their business writing ethically, for multiple audiences, in a variety of professional situations.

Course Goals

Writing in Context

Analyze professional cultures, social contexts, and audiences to determine how they shape the various purposes and forms of workplace writing, such as, persuasion,organizational communication, and public discourse, with an emphasis on writing for general audiences and decision makers understanding the ethical dimensions of workplace communication.

Writing Process

Develop and understand various strategies for planning, researching, drafting, revising, and editing documents that respond effectively and ethically to professional situations and audiences.

Collaboration

Learn and apply strategies for successful collaboration, such as working and communicating online with colleagues, setting and achieving project goals, and responding constructively to peers; work working as part of a writing team and/or with a client organization.

Research

Understand and use various research methods to produce professional documents analyzing professional contexts assessing and using information resources using primary research methods such as interviews, observations, focus groups, and surveys to collect data working ethically with research participants.

Technology

Select technologies appropriate to the generic conventions of various types of workplace communication, including email, memos, letters, reports, online documents, and white papers.

Document Design

Learn the generic conventions of the design of workplace documents including understanding and implementing various principles of format and layout interpreting and arguing with visual information.

Grading

  • Reading Quizzes: 10%
  • Writing Assignments: 10%
  • Employment Project: 20%
  • Analytic Report: 20%
  • Client Project: 30%
  • Final Exam: 10%

All major assignments will be graded on the standard letter-grade scale: A=100-90 B=89-80 C=79-70 D=69-60 F=59 or below.

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