The purpose of this course is to enable students to communicate effectively in professional business contexts.
Course Objectives: This course will cover—
Mechanics—basic grammar and sentence structure, and basic business vocabulary.
Business Writing—standard letter formats, memos and summary/report, with attention to style, audience, and purpose.
Personal and professional presentations in a variety of business contexts—use of telephone, negotiating, teamwork, interviews etc.
Critical analysis skills—analyzing passages to gain an insight into misleading, manipulative communication, as opposed to more effective ways of conveying information. Identifying main points and supporting evidence.
Implementation
Lectures, discussions, in-class assignments, role playing, and group and individual assignments and presentations
Start Date: January 20, 2021
End Date: March 25, 2021
Duration: 8 weeks, at 4 hours each week, totally 32 teaching hours and 16 hours tutorial, totalling 48 hours
Instructional days: Tuesdays and Thursdays
Time: 2 hrs. on instructional days, 5:30 to 7:30 pm
Suggested tutorial: Weekly group or individual tutorials by appointment as needed.
Course Grade
Students will be graded on the basis of mastery of content on a continuous-assessment basis, for a total of 70% of final grade. The remaining 30% of final grade will comprise a group project involving a written critique of an advertisement of students’ choice, at 10%. Students will make a related presentation on the final day of the course, for 20% of the final grade.
Text: Barron’s Business English, Fifth Edition.
Student course evaluation
Student course evaluation is performed in accordance with guidance issued by the University College.
MODULE 1: Commencing, January 20/Ending February 4
Course Content Outline
Week I
Jan. 20: Introduction
Course outline and approach
Students’ role and responsibilities
Achieving “buy in” with customers, peers, and supervisors
Brief intro to the physiology of processing information
The persuasion cycle
The core rules for persuasion
Basics of office protocol
Phone protocols and meeting procedures
use of phone/role play:
checking & clarifying information;
diffusing situations;
notetaking/follow through;
confidentiality
Use of English
Vocabulary building
Identifying subject and verbs
Subject-verb agreement
Week II
Jan. 26/28
Meeting procedures/role play
Preparing for meetings
Conducting and contributing to efficient meetings, and
Putting results to productive use
Practicum: Core Rule 1 for persuasion
Assignment: practise Core Rule 1 and report.
Handling a company’s correspondence
In-house correspondence
Composing business letters and email communication
Different types of business letters
“Request” and “Reply” letters
“Complaints, Claims, and Adjustment” letters
“Sales and Public Relations” & “Social and Business” letters
Assignment 1: Draft a standard business letter
Practicum: Core Rule 2 for persuasion
Assignment 2: Practise Core Rule 2 and report
Use of English
Vocabulary building
Verb forms
Choosing appropriate tenses
Week III
Feb. 2-4
Composing
Achieving authenticity in report writing
Plagiarism
Basics of summarising
Identifying essential ideas and lines of thought
Reports and news articles
Informal and formal reports
Numerical reports
Practicum: Core Rule 3 for persuasion
Assignment: Practise Core Rule 3 and report.
Practicum: Core Rule 4 for persuasion practicum
Assignment: Practise Core Rule 4 and report.
Use of English
Vocabulary building
Sentence completers
MODULE 2 Commencing February 16/Ending February 25
