jennifer veltsos
rhetoric & professional communication
431 ross hall
iowa state university
ames, iowa 50010
veltsos (at) iastate.edu
sample course materials: business communication
course description
English 302 helps students understand the theory, principles, and processes of effective written communication typically encountered in business and the professions. Students will have an extensive writing practice in standard letter and memo forms, short proposals, application letters, résumés, reports, and document design of professional materials. The course will culminate in a professional writing portfolio that students can later use in job interviews to demonstrate their skill as communicators. Like many other composition courses at Iowa State University, this course focuses on the confluence of WOVE (written, oral, visual, and electronic) communication.
m-Provise is an imaginary company that I have chosen to use to simulate actual professional writing situations. I hope that the metaphor of m-Provise will help students think about the way professional writers really work: writing for an audience, often unseen, while reporting to a supervisor (a secondary audience) and trying to meet the communication needs of executives and co-workers within the company as well (yet another audience).
job application unit
Pat
Wants a Job
(Class Activity: Revising a Master Resume into a Job Application Resume)
sample activities
quiz: using visuals to represent data
textbooks
Harty, Steven. Strategies for Business and Technical Communication Fifth Edition. Pearson Longman. 2004.
Alred, Gerald J., Charles T. Brusaw, and Walter E. Oliu. The Business Writer's Companion Fourth Edition. Bedford-St. Martin's. 2005.
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