Syllabus

NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS COLLEGE

COURSE SYLLABUS

 

 

Course Title: 

Business Correspondence and Communication

Course Prefix & Number:  

POFT2312

Section Number:  

400

Semester/Year: 

SP19

Semester Credit Hours: 

3

Lecture Hours: 

48

Lab Hours: 

0

Course Description (NCTC Catalog): 

Development of writing and presentation skills to produce effective business communications. 

Course Prerequisite(s): None

Required or Recommended Course Materials:

 

 

MindTap 1 term (6months) Instant Access Code: Includes: Essentials of Business Communication text book, 11th Edition by Mary Ellen Guffey, MindTap Course Resources, and Aplia Learning Program.  ISBN-13: 9781305699199

 

All POFT2312 Course materials/books can purchased at the NCTC

Bookstore or directly online through CengageBrain.com  

             

 

INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION

Name of Instructor:

Teresa Laman

Campus/Office Location:

Corinth Campus, Room 313

Telephone Number:

940-498-6263

E-mail Address:

tlaman@nctc.edu

 

OFFICE HOURS

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

By Appt

11 am - 2 pm

11 am - 4  pm

11 am - 2 pm

  By Appt Only

5-6 pm Online

5-6 pm Online

5-6 pm Online

5-6 pm Online

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES (From Academic Course Guide Manual/Workforce Education Course Manual/NCTC Catalog

At the successful completion of this course the student will be able to:

LO1

Create effective business documents

LO2

Evaluate business documents

LO3

Apply ethical communication practices

 

GRADING CRITERIA

# of Graded

Course Elements

Graded Course Elements

Percentage or Point Values

23

Written Assignments

30%

8

Communication Workshop Group Activities

20%

14

Chapter Quizzes

20%

4

Exams ( 3 Section Exams, 1 Comprehensive Final)

30%

 

COURSE SUBJECT OUTLINE (Major Assignments, Due Dates, and Grading Criteria)

Communicating in the Digital-Age Workplace

Understand how communication and critical thinking skills fuel career success and understand significant workplace changes including rapidly changing communication technology, anytime-anywhere availability, global competition, flattened management layers, and an increased use of teams.

January 26

Planning Business Messages

Understand that business message should be purposeful, persuasive, economical, and audience oriented.

February 3

Organizing and Drafting Business Messages

Organize information into strategic relationships. Improve writing by emphasizing important ideas, employing the active and passive voice effectively, using parallelism, and preventing dangling and misplaced modifiers. 

February 10

Revising Business Messages

Understand the review phase of the writing process

February 17

EXAM I: Business Writing Process in the Digital Age – DUE FEBRUARY 24

Short Workplace Messages and Digital Media

Understand the professional standards for the usage, structure, and format of e-mails and interoffice memos in the digital-era workplace.

February 24

Positive messages

Understand the channels through which typical positive messages travel in the digital era—e-mails, memos, and business letters, and explain how business letters should be formatted. 

March 3

2Negative Message

Describe the strategies and goals of business communicators in delivering bad news, including knowing when to use the direct and indirect patterns

March 10

Persuasive Messages

Understand interpersonal persuasion at work, and compose persuasive messages within organizations.

March 24

EXAM II: Workplace Communication – DUE MARCH 24

Informal Reports

Identify and Explain informational and analytical report functions, organizational strategies, and writing styles.

March  31

Proposals and Formal Reports

Understand the importance, purpose, and components of informal and formal proposals. Describe the steps in writing and editing formal business reports. 

April 7

Professionalism Business Etiquette, Ethics, Teamwork, and Meetings.

Understand professionalism, start developing business etiquette skills, and build an ethical mind-set—important qualities digital-age employers seek. 

April 14

Business Presentations

Explain how to organize the introduction, body, and conclusion as well as how to build audience rapport in a presentation.

April 21

EXAM III: Reports and Professionalism – DUE APRIL 21

The Job Search and Resumes in the Digital Age.

Prepare to search for a job in the digital age by understanding the changing job market, identifying your interests, assessing your qualifications, and exploring career opportunities.

April 28

Interviewing and Following Up

Explain the purposes and types of job interviews, including screening, one-on-one, panel, group, sequential, stress, and online interviews.

May 5

FINAL COMPREHENSIVE EXAM – According to Final Exam Schedule

 

 

ATTENDANCE POLICY

Regular and punctual attendance is expected of all students in all classes for which they have registered.  All absences are considered to be unauthorized unless the student is absent due to illness or emergencies as determined by the instructor.  It is the student responsibility to provide documentation as to the emergency for approval and judgement by the faculty member.  Approved college sponsored activities are the only absences for which a student should not be held liable and only when provided by a college official ahead of the absence.  Valid reasons for absence, however, do not relieve the student of the responsibility for making up required work.  Students will not be allowed to make up an examination missed due to absence unless they have reasons acceptable to the instructor.  A student who is compelled to be absent when a test is given should petition the instructor, in advance if possible, for permission to postpone the exam.  Student will be dropped from a class by the Registrar upon recommendation of the instructor who feels the student has been justifiably absent or tardy a sufficient number of times to preclude meeting the course’s objectives.    Persistent, unjustified absences from classes or laboratories will be considered sufficient cause for College officials to drop a student from the rolls of the College. From Board Policy FC (LOCAL)

Last day to withdraw from a course with a “W” is April 4, 2019.

 

COURSE ATTENDANCE POLICY:

 

In lieu of classroom attendance, the following will constitute the course attendance policy:  Each student is expected to log in at least three times a week and complete weekly assignments to constitute regular attendance. Failure to log in for two successive weeks will be cause for concern and grounds to be dropped from the course. (Please note: A monitoring tool is available to the instructor. It monitors student log- in, providing dates, times and length of time online. This tool will be used to determine if students are logging in on a weekly basis.) Each week you will be asked to certify the work you completed, this too will be used to determine your attendance.

 

This online course requires dedication and effort on your part. You must set aside time each week to do your assignments. You should expect to spend 10 to 12 hours each week on this course. This may sound like a lot of time, but if you were taking this course in a traditional classroom, you would be in the classroom four hours a week with an additional nine to twelve hours spent on homework.  It is very easy to fall behind, once the due date has passed, you will no longer be able to submit your assignments and quizzes will not be available. 

 

Course Success Tip: Stay current in your work, log in often, check announcements for any special notices, and keep your personal information (email and phone number) up-to-date.

 

OTHER PERTINENT INFORMATION

 

 

DISABILITY SERVICES (Office for Students with Disabilities)

The Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) provides support services for students with disabilities, students enrolled in technical areas of study, and students who are classified as special populations (i.e. single parents). 

Support services for students with disabilities might include appropriate and reasonable accommodations, or they may be in the form of personal counseling, academic counseling, career counseling, etc.  Furthermore, OSD Counselors work with students to encourage selfadvocacy and promote empowerment. The Counselors also provides resource information, disability-related information, and adaptive technology for students who qualify. 

If you feel you have needs for services that the institution provides, please reach out to either Wayne Smith (940) 498-6207 or Yvonne Sandman (940) 668-4321.  Alternative students may stop by Room 170 in Corinth or Room 110 in Gainesville.

 

CORE CURRICULUM FOUNDATIONAL COMPONENT AREA (For classes in the Core)________       

  • Communication          
  • Mathematics                         o         Government/Political Science
  • Life and Physical Science       o         Social and Behavioral Sciences
  • Language, Philosophy & Culture       o         Component Area Option
  • Creative Arts  
  • American History

REQUIRED CORE OBJECTIVES (For classes in the Core)

  • Critical Thinking          o 
  • Communication          o 
  • Empirical and Quantitative    o 

 

COURSE TYPE

Teamwork 

Personal Responsibility 

Social Responsibility

  • Academic General Education Course (from ACGM but not in NCTC Core)
  • Academic NCTC Core Curriculum Course 

x         WECM Course

 

STUDENT HANDBOOK

Students are expected to follow all rules and regulations found in the 2018 – 2019 student handbook and published online.

 

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY

Scholastic dishonesty shall include, but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, academic falsification, intellectual property dishonesty, academic dishonesty facilitation and collusion.  Faculty members may document and bring charges against a student who is engaged in or is suspected to be engaged in academic dishonesty.  See Student Handbook, “Student Rights & Responsibilities: Student Conduct Policy.  

 

Consequences for academic dishonesty may include:

  1. Academic Reprimand – A verbal or written notice warning to the student that academic misconduct has occurred.
  2. Assigning a failing grade (no credit) on the specific assignments, projects, papers, programs, labs, or examinations.

 

QUESTIONS, CONCERNS, or COMPLAINTS

Name of Chair/Coordinator: 

Dr. Cherly Furdge, Division Chair

Office Location:

Corinth Campus, Room 239

Telephone Number:

940-498-6238

E-mail Address:

cfurdge@nctc.edu

Name of Instructional Dean: 

Debbie Huffman

Office Location:

Gainesville, CTC2106

Telephone Number:

940-668-3357

E-mail Address:

dhuffman@nctc.edu

 

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