ENG315 All Assignments (Except wk 3) Latest 2017 March

Assignment 2: Block Business Letter

Due Week 4 and worth 150 points

Choose one of the professional scenarios provided (cannot be the same scenario chosen for Assignment 1). Write a Block Business Letter (in the form of the posted example from Week 4) from the perspective of the company management. It should provide bad news and follow the guidelines outlined in Chapter 7: Delivering Bad-News Messages in BCOM7 (pages 110-128).

The message should take the block business letter form from the posted example; however, you will submit your assignment to the online course shell.

The block business letter must adhere to the following requirements:

1. Content:
   1. Address the communication issue from the scenario.
   2. Provide bad-news from the company to the recipient.
   3. Concentrate on the facts of the situation and use either the inductive or deductive approach.
   4. Assume your recipient has previously requested a review of the situation via email, letter, or personal meeting with management.
2. Format:
   1. Include the proper introductory elements (sender’s address, date, recipient’s address).
   2. Provide an appropriate and professional greeting / salutation.
   3. Single space paragraphs and double space between paragraphs.
   4. Limit the letter to one-page in length.
3. Clarity / Mechanics:
   1. Focus on clarity, writing mechanics, and professional language/style requirements.
   2. Run spell/grammar check before submitting.

Your assignment must:

• Be typed, single-spaced within paragraphs/elements and double spaced between the paragraphs/elements, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

Submitting your assignment:

• Submit your assignment through the online course shell only.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Use writing process strategies to develop brief business documents, such as routine messages, bad news messages, and persuasive/sales messages.
• Support ideas or claims in body paragraphs with clear details, examples, and explanations.
• Organize ideas logically by using transitional words, phrases, and sentences.
• Use sentence variety and effective word choice in written communication.
• Write clearly and concisely using proper writing mechanics.

Assignment 3: PowerPoint Presentation

Due Week 6 and worth 150 points

Develop a PowerPoint presentation (10-16 slides in length). The content should focus on some aspect of social media use in the workplace. Potential examples include the importance of companies embracing social media, advertising through social media, policies involving social media, proper professional communication through social media platforms, or any number of other angles.

The presentation must be submitted in .PPT or .PPTX format. Any other submission formats will be returned ungraded.

The PowerPoint presentation must adhere to the following requirements:

1. Content:
   1. Address some aspect of social media in the workplace.
   2. Organize the presentation in a clear, logical manner.
   3. Provide between 10-16 total slides.
   4. Assume your target audience is familiar with the concept of social media overall.
2. Format:
   1. Follow the design requirements from Chapter 12-3 (pages 208-211) in BCOM7.
   2. Format the PowerPoint presentation with headings on each slide, and two to three (2-3) relevant graphics (photographs, graphs, clip art, etc.) throughout the presentation (not per slide), ensuring that the presentation is visually appealing and readable from 18 feet away.
   3. Open with an engaging introduction (including one title slide and one introduction slide).
   4. For the body of your presentation, cover the main points of your subject. Create slides that reinforce and illustrate your main ideas.
   5. For your single closing slide, finish with a memorable wrap-up statement that refocuses on the purpose of your presentation.
   6. Slides should cite any relevant outside sources using footnotes on relevant slides OR in APA format (in-text citations on slides and an included References page at the end of the presentation). Choose one method or the other (do not mix both).
3. Clarity / Mechanics:
   1. Focus on clarity, writing mechanics, and professional language/style requirements.
   2. Run spell/grammar check before submitting.

Your assignment must:

• Be completed in PowerPoint (using either .PPT or .PPTX format). Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

Submitting your assignment:

• Submit your assignment through the online course shell only.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Use writing process strategies to develop brief business documents, such as routine messages, bad news messages, and persuasive/sales messages.
• Support ideas or claims in body paragraphs with clear details, examples, and explanations.
• Organize ideas logically by using transitional words, phrases, and sentences.
• Use sentence variety and effective word choice in written communication.
• Write clearly and concisely using proper writing mechanics.

Professional Experience #4

Due at the end of Week 7 (not eligible for late policy unless an approved documented exception)

Follow the link below to the OneDrive folder titled "Week 7." Note the “Available Outlines” and “Completed Outlines” folders, as well as the sample outline document provided.

This week’s Professional Experience will involve three steps.

First, you will create an outline (see below for guidelines) for your Week 8 presentation based on Week 6’s PowerPoint presentation (a video preview is available under the Week 7 tab in Blackboard). Use the provided Presentation Outline Sample posted in OneDrive for this step. Download the Presentation Outline Sample document to your desktop, saving it as Your_Name_Presentation_Outline. Leave the "Comments" column blank. After you have completed your presentation outline, upload it to the "Available Outlines" folder on OneDrive.

Second, you will choose another student’s outline from the “Available Outlines” folder to review. Download the student's outline to your desktop. Do not remove the student's name from the file name! Just add your initials to the end of the file name. For example, if I chose Jane Doe's presentation to review, I would save it to my desktop as Jane_Doe_Presentation_Outline_RC. In that document provide comments, suggestions for improvement, and point out strong elements of the presentation outline in the Comments column.

Finally, submit that same file with your comments to Blackboard (Not OneDrive!) to the Week 7 Professional Experience #4 link. That will prompt me to grade your assignment.

I will periodically move submissions with student comments to the “Completed Outlines” folder, where you can look to find your fellow students’ critiques of your outlines when they are finished.

Link to Professional Experience #4 (Week 7)

Outline Guidelines

Create an outline of your presentation using the provided Presentation_Outline_SAMPLE document. Focus on short bullet points and key things that you want to say in either your audio or video recording for Week 8.

Commenting Guidelines

When commenting on a fellow student’s outline, please use the “Comments” field of the provided Excel example.

Your comments should be a mixture of celebrating strong points, pointing out areas for improvements, and general comments.

In order to receive credit for completing this task you must:

• Upload your presentation outline file to the “Available Presentations” folder

• Choose and comment on another student's presentation using the "Comments" field in Microsoft Word/Excel

• Submit the completed outline to the Professional Experience #4 link in Blackboard

This is a pass/fail assignment. All elements must be completed (simulating the workplace where incomplete work is unacceptable) for credit. You cannot receive partial credit.

Assignment 4: Presentation Recording

Due Week 8 and worth 200 points

You must have access to audio/video recording equipment (a microphone/webcam, camcorder with digital file capabilities, or cell phone with a high quality camera/microphone) to complete this assignment.

Present the PowerPoint presentation designed in Assignment 3. As a reminder, the content should focus on some aspect of social media use in the workplace. Potential examples include the importance of companies embracing social media, advertising through social media, policies involving social media, proper professional communication through social media platforms, or any number of other angles.

The presentation must be submitted using one of the following methods:

1. Recorded live narration of the PowerPoint slides.
2. A video recording of the student presenting the presentation (submitted in an appropriate video format like .mov / .mp4 and uploaded to the OneDrive).
3. A scheduled live presentation to the instructor (subject to schedule availability).

The PowerPoint presentation must adhere to the following requirements:

1. Content:
   1. Address some aspect of social media in the workplace.
   2. Present in a clear, logical manner.
   3. Include the PowerPoint presentation from Assignment 3.
   4. Be appropriately paced and total time should not exceed ten minutes in length.
   5. Assume your target audience is familiar with the concept of social media overall.
2. Delivery:
   1. Follow the professional presentation requirements from Chapter 12 (pages 202-224) inBCOM7.
   2. Clearly deliver the presentation content (audio).
   3. Appropriate professional attire (if using video option) or high resolution if using narrated PowerPoint option.
3. Clarity / Mechanics:
   1. Focus on clarity, writing mechanics, and professional language/style requirements.
   2. Run spell/grammar check before submitting.

Your assignment must:

• Be completed in PowerPoint (using either .PPT or .PPTX format) [for narrated PowerPoint option]. Uploaded video file (either .mov or mp4 file) or functioning YouTube link [for video option]. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

Submitting your assignment:

• Submit your assignment through the online course shell only.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Use writing process strategies to develop brief business documents, such as routine messages, bad news messages, and persuasive/sales messages.
• Support ideas or claims in body paragraphs with clear details, examples, and explanations.
• Organize ideas logically by using transitional words, phrases, and sentences.
• Use sentence variety and effective word choice in written communication.
• Write clearly and concisely using proper writing mechanics.

Professional Experience #5

Due at the end of Week 9 (not eligible for late policy unless an approved documented exception)

Your Professional Experience assignment is to develop a promotional message. This can be an email, letter, info graphic, image, or any other relevant material that answers the following question:

• Why should students take a Professional Communications course?

In order to receive credit for completing this task you must:

• Create a self-contained one-page document

• Upload it to the OneDrive folder

• Effectively answer the presented question

This is a pass/fail assignment. All elements must be completed (simulating the workplace where incomplete work is unacceptable) for credit. You cannot receive partial credit.

Link to OneDrive

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

Plan, create, and evaluate professional documents.

Write clearly, coherently, and persuasively using proper grammar and mechanics, and formatting appropriate to the situation.

Deliver professional information to various audiences using appropriate tone, style, and format.

Learn communication fundamentals and execute various professional tasks in a collaborative manner.

Analyze professional communication examples to assist in revision.

Assignment 5: Professional Cover Letter

Due Week 10 and worth 180 points

Completing this assignment will help you name and identify the skills and abilities that will move your career forward.

Find a specific job posting open posted online within the last 9 months. You will develop a Job Application Cover Letter (as though you were applying to that position) that highlights and emphasizes why you are the most suitable candidate.

Complete the cover letter on page 1 of the submission and then include a link to the job posting on page 2 (a copy and paste of the link is acceptable and the link must work). To compose the letter, use the general writing guidelines on pp. 277-278 in the text for structural and content guidance. Note: An example can be found on p. 250, Figure 13.8.

The message should take the form of a business letter; however, you will submit your assignment to the online course shell.

The job letter / application message must adhere to the following requirements:

1. Content
   1. Highlight relevant background and job history information specific to the opening.
   2. Emphasize significant qualifications and exclude nonessential ideas.
2. Format
   1. Follow proper letter formatting techniques per block business letter format.
   2. Use an appropriate and professional greeting and closing.
3. Style
   1. Use professional language.
   2. Paragraphs effectively developed and efficient. Note: Six (6) or seven (7) lines when possible.
4. Mechanics
   1. Ensure there are no grammar or spelling errors.
   2. Eliminate wordiness and unclear sentence construction.

Your assignment must be typed, single-spaced paragraphs and double spaced between the paragraphs, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Use writing process strategies to develop brief business documents, such as routine messages, bad news messages, and persuasive / sales messages.
• Support ideas or claims in body paragraphs with clear details, examples, and explanations.
• Organize ideas logically by using transitional words, phrases, and sentences.
• Use sentence variety and effective word choice in written communication.
• Write clearly and concisely using proper writing mechanics.