Instructor: Katie Zabrowski Fall 2014

ENGL 4000
Business and Professional Writing
Course Objectives:
Use writing to explore personal and professional values | Practice writing in a professional setting |
Learn to adapt your writing for different circumstances | Become a more perceptive editor |
Consider your professional interests and goals
Information
Meeting
Times
Mondays, Wednesdays,
and Fridays
9:00-9:50 am
Meeting
Place
Des Peres Hall
Room 212
Office
Hours
Adorjan 209
Wednesday, 10-11:30am;
by appointment
Instructor Katie Zabrowski
mzabrow1@slu.edu
Contact
Email is the best way to
contact me outside of
class. I respond within 24
hours M-F and within 48
hours over the weekend.

Your professional life
whatever form it takes will
involve writing.
In addition to communicating clearly and effectively in on-the-job
situations including:
crafting application materials, communicating your abilities
and goals, coordinating projects and deadlines, working
collaboratively, scheduling meetings, taking notes, reporting
your work progress, drawing plans, building things, and so on,
you will also be articulating, always and everywhere, the values of
your employer and, perhaps most importantly, your individual
personal and professional values.
This course engages many types of writing and communication within
the context of a sustained work project that spans the entire length of
the course. From within a simulated work environment, we will
explore together the rhetorical nature of professional communication
and attune ourselves to the strategic enactment of rhetorical principles
toward more active, effective, and ethical professional lives.


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Instructor: Katie Zabrowski Fall 2014
Course Plan
Our course will be organized into segments, each with a
particular focus. A brief outline and description of the segments
follows:
Our Rhetorical Perspective
(Whats rhetoric got to do with it?)
Working Together
(co-working; personal time management and reporting)
Getting the Work
(job ads; searching for jobs; resumes, CVs, and
applications; professional correspondence; writing
proposals)
Making and Extending the Work
(reaching the goals youve set for yourself; writing diverse
documents; networking; public relations)
Presenting the Work
(formal presentations; web portfolios; framing your
experience)
Required Course Materials:
Text: Successful Writing at Work,
ISBN: 9781285052564

Access to:
canvas.instructure.com

Any additional readings, as
provided
Course Components
Professionalism: 40%
(short and in-class assignments, participation,
attendance, preparedness)
Group Presentation: 10%
Final Professional Portfolio: 50%
Major Due Dates:
Assignment 1, Rebranding Proposal: Sept. 15
Assignment 2, Managerial Documents: Oct. 1
Assignment 3, Job-Seeker Documents: Oct. 15
Assignment 4, Collaborative Rebranding Report: Dec. 1
Final Portfolios: Dec. 15


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Instructor: Katie Zabrowski Fall 2014
Assignments
In this course you will be responsible for both weekly and long-
term assignments. Much of the long-term assignments will be
collaborative, whereas weekly assignments will focus more
on your individual work.
Weekly Networking/Work Logs.
Each Friday by the end of business (5pm)
beginning August 29 and ending November 21 you
will email me a report detailing either your
networking efforts or the work you completed that
week. These weekly reports must adhere to the
correspondence etiquette outlined during the first
week of the course and described separately in this
document. (Grade Category: Professionalism)
Weekly In-Class Writing.
Some class sessions will begin with a reflective
writing exercise that will prompt you to consider
some aspect of your professional life and identity.
While these will not be graded individually, they will
form part of your professional portfolio to be
completed and submitted to me in the final week of
the course. (Grade Category: Portfolio)
Final Professional Portfolio.
Your final professional portfolio will be a collection
of your work and a web portfolio (an about me page,
a resume, sample professional documents, and other
information you deem important for your particular
profession).
(Grade Category: Portfolio)
Collaboration.
Each week we will be working together on a
sustained, course-long project. Your effective
collaboration will be recorded in your weekly work
logs and also observed by your peers.
(Grade Category: Professionalism)

Final Performance Review.

Long-Term Collaborative Project.
During the early weeks of the course, each student
will research a brand of their choosing and create a
proposal for how that brand might be redesigned in
order to have some effect on their business (ex: how
might we revise Nikes Just do it slogan and how
would changing it affect Nikes image, customers,
products, etc.?). Together we will vote upon and
choose proposals to pursue together in teams for the
remainder of the semester. Working together, teams
will create a design plan for the rebranding (including
who we will need to hire and to do what), create a
schedule and note other particulars for its
implementation, and analyze projected effects for the
company. Work on this project will result in, but will
not be limited to, the production of the following
documents that correspond to the courses four major
assignments:

- Formal Rebranding Proposal

- Managerial Documents (job ads and announcement
letter; interview questions)

- Job-Seeker Documents (cover letters in response to
job ads, resumes, interview answers)

- Final, Collaborative Long-Form Rebranding Report
Collaboration: not the
work of one, but of
many.


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Instructor: Katie Zabrowski Fall 2014
Notes on Correspondence Etiquette & The Final Portfolio
All correspondence you exchange with me and your peers should
adhere to professional guidelines discussed in our textbook and in
class. All emails, for instance, should have the following
characteristics:
- an informative and concise subject heading
- a proper greeting and conclusion
- appropriate language, punctuation, formality, and brevity
- leaving little room for ambiguity (clarity)
- Cc-ing (and not Cc-ing or (not) replying all to appropriate
parties
- describing any attachments
- call to action and date by which action is required (if necessary)
Correspondence Log.
To remain aware of and committed to professional correspondence
practices, you will include in your final portfolio a
Correspondence Log that contains all emails youve exchanged with
me and with your peers in the process of collaboration throughout the
course. The purpose of the Correspondence Log is to help you
practice professional communication at all times as well as to exercise
the habit of recording and organizing communication as it pertains to
and impacts collaborative work.


FINAL PORTFOLIO CONTENTS
- ALL weekly work logs
- ALL in-class writing pieces
- Correspondence Log
- Networking Report
- All documents produced for course projects: (initial re-branding
proposal, job ads, cover letters, interview questions, interview answers,
content representative of your contribution to the final proposal)
- Professional Web Portfolio (About Me page, Resume/CV, writing
samples/other relevant documents)
A Note on Making
Your Work Public
We are, all of us, public citizens.
Our selves and our work in this
course and beyond are made even
more public as we distribute each
widely through the use of online
media and social networking. This fact
at once asks us to consider carefully
and seriously the content we share and
suggests an opportunity for us to
respond in a particular way to the
affordances and constraints of social
technologies.
This course asks you to create a
professional portfolio in the form of a
website. Requiring you to share your
work and your developing professional
identity with a wide audience is an
ethically precarious matter. Posting
your work online means, for instance,
that future employers might access it.
For this reason, I ask that you consider
all the work you produce in this course
as effectively shaping your public
professional identity. This is not meant
to be scary, but rather to push us to
produce quality content that we are
proud to share and that we believe
represents the professionals we are
becoming. If you are uncomfortable
sharing your work publicly, you have
the right and ability to password
protect your website. Please discuss
this with me.
In addition to pushing us to do our
best work, creating a public
professional portfolio bolsters our
online presence and gives us an early
start at producing application
materials we might likely use in the
future.


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Instructor: Katie Zabrowski Fall 2014
Absence Policy
The structure of this course situates us all as true
co-workers, meaning that what we do during class
meetings relies on our working together. Working
together relies on everyones consistent attendance
and engaged participation. Your commitment to
these two facets of attendance will be reflected
positively in the professionalism component of
your course grade.
You are allowed only 3 absences without penalty.
Any absences beyond these 3 absences will result in
a full-letter drop in your final grade (i.e. if you earn a
B in the course but miss four classes, your final grade
will be a C; miss five classes and the final grade will
be a D, and so on).
Tardiness
Please do not arrive late to class. Punctuality will be
both expected and respected in your professional life
as it is also in this course. Consistent tardiness will be
reflected in your final grade.
Late Work
No late work will be accepted. *
Deadlines are a constant reality of professional life,
and your commitment to meeting them is a reflection
of you and the value you place in your work.
Practicing this timeliness is as central to this course
as the content we produce in that time.
*Should you encounter any circumstance that
prevents you from meeting a deadline(s), please
speak with me in advance. It may be that we have to
make special arrangements. I cannot, however,
excuse late work if you do not speak with me first.
Class Cancellation Policy
Should class need to be cancelled for any reason, I
will send an email to each of you as soon as possible.
Class cancellation will NOT be announced by a note
left in the classroom, or by any other method.
Decorum.
Because we will be writing, reading, and working
with our digital files during most class meetings,
students are encouraged to bring laptops, tablets, or
other mobile devices with them each day. It is not a
requirement that every student own one of these
devices. Laptops are available for checkout in the
Computer Assisted Instruction Lab in Des Peres Hall
Room 216. While we will work with these
technologies often, it is important that we be mindful
of our focus and attention. Please work with these
devices wisely, and for class purposes only. When we
are not using our computers or other mobile devices
such as during class discussion or presentations -
please close the lids or power down.
Writing Help
I am always available to discuss your writing and
your progress in the course with you. I encourage
you to email me with any questions or concerns and
meet with me during office hours or a time that
works for you. I will do all that I can to meet with
you when your schedule permits.
I will provide you with feedback on your writing
throughout the course, but you are welcome and
encouraged to seek independent help by way of one-
on-one consultations with Writing Services.
Saint Louis University supports three undergraduate
Writing Services centers:
Student Success Center, BSC 331
Pius XII Library, Room 320-8
Student Success Center-Medical Center,
Nursing Building, Room 114
International Student Resources
Writing help is also available at the English
Language Center, where tutors are specialized to
work with second-language concerns. For more
information please visit !!!"#$%"&'%()*+*,,")-$.


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Instructor: Katie Zabrowski Fall 2014
Academic Integrity
The University is a community of learning whose
effectiveness requires an environment of mutual
trust and integrity, such as would be expected at a
Jesuit, Catholic institution. As members of this
community, students, faculty, and staff members
share the responsibility to maintain this
environment. Academic dishonesty violates it.
Although not all forms of academic dishonesty can
be listed here, it can be said in general that
soliciting, receiving, or providing any unauthorized
assistance in the completion of any work submitted
toward academic credit is dishonest. It not only
violates the mutual trust necessary between faculty
and students but also undermines the validity of
the Universitys evaluation of students and takes
unfair advantage of fellow students. Further, it is
the responsibility of any student who observes
dishonest conduct to call it to the attention of a
faculty member or administrator.
Several Internet sites offer students access to the
essays of other students for research purposes.
These sites require a student to upload a paper of
their own to gain access. All students should know
that if another student plagiarizes using their essay,
the original author is liable for a Class B offense:
collusion. Such an offense can result in expulsion
from the University.
Student Learning, Disability Statement
In recognition that people learn in a variety of
ways and that learning is influenced by multiple
factors (e.g. prior experience, study skills, learning
disability), resources to support student success are
available on campus. Students who think they
might benefit from these resources can find out
more about:
- Course-level support (e.g. faculty
member, departmental resources, etc.)
by asking your instructor
- University-level support (e.g.
tutoring/writing services, Disability
Services) by visiting the
Student Success Center (BSC 331) or by
visiting www.slu.edu/success.
Students who believe that, due to a disability, they
could benefit from academic accommodations are
encouraged to contact Disability Services at
314.977.8885 or visit the Student Success Center.
Confidentiality will be observed in all inquiries.
Course instructors support student accommodation
requests when an approved letter from Disability
Services has been received and when students
discuss these accommodations with the instructor
after receipt of the approved letter.


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Instructor: Katie Zabrowski Fall 2014
Assignment 1: Short Rebranding Proposal

This course's first major project will impact how we spend our time during the remaining weeks of the
semester. For this assignment, you will choose a brand or company that you believe could benefit from a
new marketing strategy. To that end, consider this project as made of two parts: the assessment and the
proposal. You are tasked with both assessing a current brand's effectiveness and then proposing how it
might be improved upon. Choosing the brand and articulating why it needs a new strategy and how that
strategy will affect the brand and its customers moving forward will involve several steps:

1) Identify the brand's current marketing strategy and describe both its positive effects and why it needs
improvement. This will include accounting for what makes up the brand - visuals (logos), tag lines,
community alliances and outreach, company standards (ethics), etc.
2) Identify the brand's major audience(s) and how they and their needs might be changing
3) Describe the current market in which you find this brand operating. That is, in order to propose
changes we must first account for the larger landscape in which we are operating.

All of this information should be organized into a proposal report designed in such a way as to reflect the
type of market in which you and your chosen brand are participating. Doing so will require your attention
to details such as phrasing, visual design, and organization.

At minimum, your proposals should include the following sections:

Executive Summary. This is a short summary of your overall proposal. In just a few sentences, the
summary should describe the brand, the problem it is facing, and your idea(s) for improvement.
Statement on the State of the Brand. This longer, more detailed section will be an "assessment" of the
brand and its current marketing strategies. How are they working? How are they not? Who are they
appealing to? Who should they be appealing to instead of or in addition to who they already are? What
challenges are they facing? How has their history affected their current practice? If they are a relatively
new brand, how does their newness position them uniquely?
Proposal. This section will detail your idea(s) for rebranding. It might be helpful to divide this section into
subsections, to include but not be limited to the following:
- Statement of the Problem
- Statement of the Proposed Solution
- Tasks and Tools (steps, resources, materials, timeline, people, etc. required to rebrand)
- Statement of Novelty (Why is this proposal needed? Why will it work? Why is it better than other ideas
that have been or could be suggested?)
A successful proposal will contain all of the above information while also formatting it thoughtfully. The
proposal should showcase obvious attention to detail, with colors, fonts, images, and other materials
clearly organized in a way specific to the proposal and its target audience. In addition to visual appeal,
the formatting should work to organized complex information into smaller, powerful pieces of
information.
*Find a proposal report example here (Links to an external site.).*
Deliverables (2).
- The Short Rebranding Proposal Report (submitted as a .pdf)
- Brief In-Class Presentation and Presentation Script



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Instructor: Katie Zabrowski Fall 2014
Assignment 2: Managerial Documents
As a consulting firm that helps other companies rebrand, we must also be aware of how we maintain the brand of
our company. That is, we want to maintain a professional presence and a reputation for success so that companies
will continue to choose us when they have rebranding needs. Assignment 2 is comprised of a diverse set of
managerial documents that we're producing as employees of our consulting firm. These documents are those that
would likely be composed by individuals dedicated to particular kinds of correspondence within a company
(think: corporate relations, corporate communications, public relations, etc.). That each of us will be writing a
version of each correspondence means that the assignment asks you to wear different hats. The job ad will
announce the need for new employees with certain skills and qualifications to support the new rebranding projects
our company is undertaking. Both the announcement letter and the press release will publicize these new
endeavors, and detail the choices to rebrand of companies of choice as well as the projected plans for doing so.

Find a description of each document below:

Job Ad. The job ad should include, but need not be limited to, the following information:
- Title and Description of Job (including type of appointment - short-term contract? Permanent? Renewable
contract dependent on success?)
- Detailed Summary of the Position's Tasks and Responsibilities
- Detailed Statement of the Position's Requirements
- Directions on How to Apply (what documents are required? cover letter? resume? a separate application form?
writing clips? other evidence of past work?), Who to Contact with Questions, Etc.

Publicity Documents. Now that we have chosen rebranding projects, we will need to publicize our work. Doing so,
and doing so for diverse audiences, requires us to make some important rhetorical decisions. How many details do
we want to give away at this moment, for instance? How many details would our clients prefer we give away or
not give away? Do we wish to use this opportunity to build hype for the brand? To create suspense? To attract new
customers? To reassure loyal customers? In order to write these two documents, it will be important to consider
the audience and aim of each genre.

PRESS RELEASES are brief, formal statements that companies share with media outlets. These media outlets
then share with other media, and this is one way that news spreads in the press about the internal workings of
companies. This is one point among many when a company has control over its publicity, because it manages the
information it shares and how/when it shares it. Consider the best strategy for sharing the right amount and kind
of information regarding the rebranding project at this point.

The ANNOUNCEMENT LETTER is a document we will aim at stakeholders in our consulting company. These
are people who have some sort of stake in the company - be it financial (i.e. shareholders) or personal (people who
are attached to the brands we're reworking or people who could be). This letter will be formal as well, and you will
need to decide the information it includes and how you frame it for your audience of stakeholders.

Deliverables (4).
- Job Ad (audience: potential employees)
- Announcement Letter (audience: stakeholders)
- Press Release (audience: media outlets)
- Statement of Reflection - This will detail the choices you made in each of the documents, the strategies you chose
to employ, the effects you hope those strategies will have, and why.


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Instructor: Katie Zabrowski Fall 2014
Assignment 3: Job Seeker Documents

Assignment 3 places you in the position of a job-seeker. You will be applying for positions with the
rebranding project teams at our rebranding firm. For this assignment, you will craft two of the documents
commonly required of job-seekers: the resume and the cover letter.

The Resume and First Cover Letter.
The job ads our class produced for Assignment 2 will be made available to you, and I will assign you one
to which you will respond specifically. *You will send your resume and cover letter via email to the person
whose job ad you choose, and you will cc: me on that email.* Successful job ads will include the following.
- An email with a fitting subject line
- A formal email message describing the documents you have attached (cover letter, resume)
- A cover letter that expresses your interest in and qualifications for the position described in the job ad
- A thoughtfully-formatted and comprehensive resume
- The cover letter and resume attached as .pdf documents with appropriate file names

Second Cover Letter and Outside Job Ad.
You are asked also to write a second cover letter in response to a job available in the field in which you
aspire to work. In order to do this, you will search for and find a job you think you might like to have after
graduation. You will include the ad, as well as the email response and cover letter you would provide the
hiring manager of that particular job in an email to me (as if I were the person in charge of hiring for that
job). The requirements for this cover letter will be the same as the first, with the added requirement of
including a copy of the job ad to which you are responding. A successful second cover letter will include:
- An email with a fitting subject line
- A formal email message describing the documents you have attached (cover letter, resume)
- A cover letter that expresses your interest in and qualifications for the position described in the ad
- The cover letter as an attached .pdf document with an appropriate file name


Deliverables (6).
(3) Cover Letter, Resume, and Formal Email Response to Peer Job Ad
**Remember that the way you submit these documents is via cc-ing me in your email response to your
chosen job ad.**
(3) Cover Letter and Formal Email Response to a Job of Your Choosing and a Copy of that Job Ad for
My Reference **You will submit these in an email only to me**


Peer Review.
Built into this assignment is an opportunity to review one another's job-seeking materials. Each person will
receive a cover letter and resume from a peer in response to their job. In class on the day that the resumes
and cover letters are due, we will spend some time providing feedback to one another based on the
documents we've provided.




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Instructor: Katie Zabrowski Fall 2014

Assignment 4: Collaborative Rebranding Report
The fourth assignment is a collaborative, long-form rebranding proposal report. The assignment has two
principal aims: practice and product. The undertaking of this project asks us to skillfully practice the
writing and professional strategies weve discussed early in the course now within the context of a
collaborative project. The final version of the report is the 4th assignments deliverable, and it should have
the following qualities.

- Thoughtful Formatting
- Organization (title page, table of contents, executive summary, rebranding examples, conclusion,
appendix, accompanying media, etc.)
- Professional tone marked by clear writing and rhetorical awareness
- Citations when and where necessary
- Use of graphics
- Evidence/Research/Data
The process/practice portion of the assignment will be assessed according to the following qualifications:
- Consistent, professional work
- Creation of a work schedule with deadlines, and meeting of those deadlines
- Individual engagement with the project and with one another

Because much of the work on this project will be completed in class, I will provide feedback throughout
the process of crafting the report. Responding to that feedback, as well as peer feedback, will constitute
the revision portion of the 4th assignment. Revision for this assignment should be approached with the
same sincerity as that of your individual revisions on Assignments 1-3.

*A Note on Grading:

You will be assigned two grades for this project: group and contribution.

- The group grade will be the same for everyone. This will be determined by how successfully weve
fulfilled our ambitions for the project, as they are outlined above.

- The contribution grade may vary for individuals. Each student will provide a report via an online form
outlining his or her teammates contributions and professionalism. Assessment of contribution should be
based on quality rather than quantity, as much of our work is likely to emerge from the collective rather
than individual efforts alone.

Your assigned grade for assignment 4 will be the average of the group and contribution grade.