EXPOSITORY WRITING E-34

BUSINESS RHETORIC
Expo E-34 (14577) Tom Akbari
Fall 2015 [email protected]
Wednesdays 3:00-5:00 PM ET via online web conference
https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/4380

DESCRIPTION
What constitutes good business rhetoric? When should I use words? When should I use a
chart or a picture? How do I combine pictures and words? How big can be my claims? In this
course, you’ll consider audience, occasion, genre, medium, purpose, aesthetics, and ethics in the
rhetoric and discourse of business. Our objective is a sequence of study to introduce and develop
writing and critical reading skills applicable to a variety of business contexts, including short and
long forms of written, digital, visual, and oral business communication. All along we’ll cultivate
our sense of the social nature of such communication, its instrumental objectives, and the
relations between words, numbers, images, and speech at its heart.
Course work will center on several distinct projects. You will begin by close reading and
analyzing significant and successful examples of business discourse. Then you’ll turn to your
own writing for specific audiences in several key business genres, including proposals, reference
documents and reports, and cover letters and other forms of business correspondence, deploying
strategies you cultivate within the classroom’s workshop setting. You will pursue your own
business interests in each unit. You are encouraged to link, as directly as you wish, your work in
this course to your own professional experience.
This course fosters skills in preliminary writing, drafting, revision, peer review, and
research into business literature. It offers sustained practice in the construction of precise
sentences, coherent paragraphs, and well-ordered documents. It considers the strategic use of
visual elements in the presentation of quantitative and conceptual information. You will engage
complexity in terms, concepts, and judgments; exercise self-critique; and write with concision
and flair.
Student writing will always be socially engaged, and the conception of how social
engagement works in business discourse will be central to the course. You’ll read and comment
on the work of others, expanding the social and collaborative dimensions of your work. In your
business communication you’ll develop an authoritative voice that speaks precisely and
persuasively to its audience.

PRINTED TEXTS (available at the Harvard Coop, 617.499-2000, and online)

• Business Communication. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2003. ISBN 1-
59139-113-5 (Print or e-book)

ONLINE TEXTS (available through the course website)

• Course readings from the business literature, specified in each assignment description
• Harvard Guide to Using Sources (HGUS) (http://usingsources.fas.harvard.edu)
• Bedford/St. Martin’s Research and Documentation Guide,
(http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/rewriting2e/#526483__933235__)
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• Oxford English Dictionary (http://www.oed.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/)

• Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl)

• Purdue OWL Grammar Guide (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/1/5/)
• Harvard Library dedicated Business Rhetoric Research Guide
(http://guides.library.harvard.edu/buscomm)
• Other selected readings and reference material to be distributed online.

OPTIONAL TEXTS
• Richard Lanham, Revising Business Prose. 4th ed. Longman, 1999. ISBN 978-
0205309443. Langham discusses what he calls the "official style" of bureaucratic writing
that he says plagues business writing.

• Joseph Williams, Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace. 11th ed. Longman, 2013. ISBN
978-0321898685. Williams discusses the common conditions that bleed writing of force and
meaning and corrects them.

STRUCTURE
Expository Writing E-34 will guide you through the preparation of four original and
compelling projects. The first (5 pages) entails close, analytical reading of a successful business
text of your choice. The second (2 pages) is a reference document on a topic of your choice; this
project will include a separate cover document (1 page). The third (8 pages) is a proposal and
cover document (1 page) on a topic of your choice. The fourth (10 minutes) is an oral
presentation based on the proposal.
In the course of each of these projects, our class will consider the comparative
efficaciousness of print or digital forms of communication, including social media, and you will
be encouraged to experiment with such forms.
Preparation of these projects includes the writing of first drafts; the revision and peer
review of these drafts, including evaluative letters and memos; and then the submission of final
drafts. Before beginning a draft, you'll complete a short preliminary exercise to build specific
writing skills and to address the special conceptual demands of each unit. These exercises will be
“published” online so that we can all exchange our written ideas with a broad readership. After
submitting a rough draft, you’ll meet in conference with the instructor to talk pointedly about
your writing and the revision necessary to a final draft. You’ll also confer with fellow students
on your writing in “revision club,” which includes written evaluation of your fellow students’
work.
Our course will function as a seminar. In a seminar, you must be socially engaged in
every way. Lectures, if any, are infrequent and you should come to each class prepared to discuss
and write on the day's reading and topic. You are expected to offer thoughtful comments on the
work of your peers.
All written work for assignments should be carefully proofread. Grammar and
punctuation will be addressed as an integral part of the writing process, not separately. If you
have special concerns with grammar and punctuation, please seek personal help from me and
tutors at the Harvard Writing Center (information on the Center is below). Grammar references
are also available through the course website.
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Please feel free to talk to me about any difficulties or concerns you may have. And let me
know what you think is going well. Remember, your teachers are here to help.

ONLINE WEB CONFERENCE

Our course meets as an “online web conference” at the appointed moment each week. It
uses web software called Blackboard Collaborate v. 12.5
(http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Collaborate/Overview.aspx).
To join the class, please follow the weblink to our Collaborate classroom on the web, a
link that will be provided by the Extension School in an email with detailed instructions
approximately one week before class begins. This link and a link to an archive of recorded class
sessions will also be available exclusively to enrolled students logging in to our course webpage.
Discussion is at the heart of our online class. As “moderator,” the instructor will lead
discussion. You must come to each class prepared to discuss and write on the day's reading.
Because we are meeting online, you will participate by speaking to the class via microphone and
by typing questions and responses into the “chat” box of the software. You may present material
on the “whiteboard” of the classroom. We will employ video functions as well. You are also
expected to offer thoughtful written and oral comments on the work of your peers.

LEARNING GOALS
Work in this class is aimed at the following goals (work earning a grade above C will
surpass these goals). A student should

• Understand writing in different business genres;

• Understand and participate in oral and written business discourse;
• Understand the importance of audience and context;
• Arrange business documents, including textual, visual, and quantitative elements, in
strategic ways;
• Write with appropriate style;
• Follow appropriate grammar, spelling, syntactical, and citation conventions;
• Display confidence and facility with the processes of revision;
• Offer written reflection on her or his writing;
• Offer specific, collaborative, and constructive evaluation to fellow students.

ASSIGNMENTS AND EVALUATION

The evaluation of papers is aligned with the learning goals. You will receive a letter of
evaluation for each final draft, which comes on a form that lists specific learning goals tailored
for each unit and reports a letter grade. You will also evaluate fellow students during “revision
club.” Thus, your work in the course will receive evaluative feedback from the instructor and
from fellow students in its draft stages and a grade and evaluation from the instructor in its final
form.

• Unit 1. Academic Audience: Analyzing Business Discourse 15 percent

• Unit 2. Business Audience I: Reference Document and Cover Document 30 percent
• Unit 3. Business Audience II: Proposal and Cover Document 40 percent
• Unit 4. Business And Public Audience: Oral Presentation 05 percent
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• Online writing, class participation, Revision Club 10 percent

Letter grades are assigned carefully to written work:

• A and A- indicate excellent writing

• B+, B, and B- indicate good writing
• C+, C, and C- indicate satisfactory writing
• D+, D, and D- indicate poor writing
• E indicates failed writing or missing work

Letter grades have the following values: A=4.0, A-=3.7, B+=3.3, B=3.0, B-=2.7, C+=2.3,
C=2.0, C-=1.7. In determining a course grade, each unit’s grade value is weighted following the
scheme above, and the four values are summed up. The course grade is determined by where this
sum falls on the following range: A=3.85-4.0, A-=3.50-3.84, B+=3.15-3.49, B=2.85-3.14, B-
=2.50-2.84, C+=2.15-2.49, C=1.85-2.14, C-=1.5-1.84.
Please feel free to talk to me about any difficulties or concerns you may have. And let me
know what you think is going well.

EXPECTATIONS FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS

Our class mixes undergraduate and graduate students. Graduate students are expected to
draw as deeply as they can on their experience in business and aim their work at existing and
specific business conditions. Their work will be composed and evaluated with the prospects for
its success under these business conditions in mind. Specific considerations for such possibilities
are offered on each assignment description. Graduate students will collaborate with each other
during class activities and may be called upon to take leading roles in class discussion and other
activities.

BLOGGIES
As you think about the set of readings in each unit and begin to consider your project
itself, you’ll do some of your early thinking in writing. This writing you’ll share with the class,
extending our in-class discussions and propelling yourself into the writing project.
This preliminary writing will take the form of a required blog entry, or bloggy. The
purpose of these bloggies is to give you writing that will serve your rough draft. Each of our unit
assignments will detail what these bloggies can do (under the heading “Bloggy 1” etc.). Post
your bloggies by 9 PM on the days they’re due. Our blog may also serve as a forum for ideas of
all sorts, especially those, of whatever nature, pertinent to the class (events or talks or exhibits of
interest, for example, or websites, books, or other materials). If you have concerns about this
technology, please discuss them with the instructor, and, if you desire, the class. Our course blog
is only open and visible to students enrolled in the class.

HOW TO USE THE COURSE BLOG

You can link to our blog by going to the course website
<https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/4380> and logging in with your Harvard ID and PIN. Click
on the “Blog” link, click on “Open in New Tab,” click on “+New>Post” in the new page, and
type into the large box directly. Enter a title in the small box above. Click “Publish” when done.
You can also paste into the message box text created by some other program. Please don’t offer
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your bloggy as an attachment (this requires the extra step of downloading your work for
reading). You are always welcome to post to the curse blog questions, remarks, and
announcements you think are useful to the class.
Please send your first bloggy by Monday, 7 September, 9 PM. In this first, introductory
bloggy, Bloggy 1.1, briefly tell us where you’re from and what is your business. Or tell us
whatever you think we should know as we start the class. Always offer a good title for your posts
(we’ll discuss titles during the term, of course).

REVISION CLUB
Revision Club is an essential element of our course. In it, you’ll exchange your writing in
rough draft form with two other students. You’ll read your partners’ papers carefully and
critically and offer written comments in margins and in a letter that fully articulates your critical
assessment. In these comments you’ll note specific strengths and suggest specific moments to
strengthen. In class, you’ll also meet with your two partners to discuss your findings in person.
This kind of rich and direct critical communication may in fact be the most vital element
of the course. In it, you’ll practice the kind of oral and written exchange that is the hallmark of
professional life. Offering constructive, collaborative critique to a fellow professional is a skill to
be practiced. To be frank, it is often done poorly; doing it well can distinguish you immediately
at the workplace as someone who can work well with and lead others.

POLICIES
• Students will receive comments on rough and final drafts; only final drafts are graded.
• Drafts are due at the beginning of class on their due date, or precisely at the time
specified on non-class days. Online writing is due at 9 PM on specified dates.
• Students must submit electronically rough and final drafts of all assignments, meeting all
due dates, to pass the course. If drafts and due dates are missed, students are eligible to be
excluded from the course and failed.
• Students must participate fully in Revision Club, carefully reading papers, offering
marginal comments and letters summarizing their thoughts to their fellow Revision
Clubmates, and discussing these matters in class.
• Good attendance is essential to the course, which follows a sequence. Students who miss
more than two classes without excuse of religious holiday or documented illness may be
excluded from class and failed. Tardiness on two occasions by more than ten minutes
constitutes an absence. After the first unexcused absence, a student will receive a warning
letter from the instructor. Business meetings or business trips or other forms of travel are
unexcused absences.

WRITING CENTER
The Extension School has a Writing Center that supports students on campus and on-line.
If you’re taking a distance education course, you may request a Skype conference or an e-mail
conference with a member of the Writing Center staff by sending a message to
[email protected]. Please see
http://www.extension.harvard.edu/resources/writing-center for full information. The services of
the Writing Center are free and highly recommended.
Students are also encouraged to consult the various guides to writing available at the
Writing Center website.
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ACADEMIC HONESTY
Below is Harvard Extension School’s statement on academic honesty, stated in its
Handbook for Students. It applies to our work.

Plagiarism is the theft of someone else’s ideas and work. Whether a student
copies verbatim or simply rephrases the ideas of another without properly
acknowledging the source, the theft is the same. A computer program written as
part of the student’s academic work is, like a paper, expected to be the student’s
original work and subject to the same standards of representation. In the
preparation of work submitted to meet course requirements, whether a draft or
final version of a paper, project, assignment, computer program, or take-home
examination, students must take great care to distinguish their own ideas and
language from information derived from sources. Sources include published
primary and secondary materials, the Internet, and information and opinions
gained directly from other people. Whenever ideas or facts are derived from a
student’s reading or research, the sources must be properly cited.

Students are also expected to read and understand the “Avoiding Plagiarism” chapter of
the Harvard Guide to Using Sources (http://usingsources.fas.harvard.edu).
Useful further information is available at the Extension School’s “Plagiarism and the
Proper Use of Sources webpage at http://www.extension.harvard.edu/resources/career-academic-
resource-center/plagiarism-proper-use-sources. Note the links to two online tutorials on source
use. Students are expected to complete these tutorials.
Please send an email to the instructor ([email protected]), reporting your score,
when you have completed the tutorials. Please complete the tutorials by 16 September.
SCHEDULE (may change)
Readings are listed on the day they are first to be discussed. (BC= Business
Communication.) Due dates and times are listed in bold type. Schedules will also be included in
each unit’s assignment description; these unit schedules supersede this syllabus.

Unit 1. Academic Audience: Analyzing Business Discourse

Week 1
Wednesday, 2 September. Introduction. What makes good business rhetoric and
communication? Good business writing? How to think about audience, occasion, medium,
genre, and message. Close reading and rhetorical and discourse analysis. Orientation to the
functions of our online course. Introduction to online research resources. Writing exercise.
Syllabus, Unit 1 assignments, questionnaire issued. Introduction to Unit 1.

Week 2
Monday, 7 September. Questionnaire due; mail as attachment to [email protected].
Bloggy 1.1—first, introductory bloggy—due, 9 PM.

Wednesday, 9 September. Business discourse in action. Close reading. Choose possible

business writing specimens for Unit 1 writing and upload to Group File Exchange.
Reading: Business Communication (BC) Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4. Florian Schneider, “How to Do
a Discourse Analysis” (online; link in Unit 1 Assignment description). Harvard Guide to
Using Sources: Introduction, Why Use Sources?, Integrating Sources, Citing Sources.
Workshop: close reading (observe, judge). Supplementary materials (TBA).

Friday, 11 September. Bloggy 1.2 due, 9 PM.

Week 3
Wednesday, 16 September. Rough Draft of Analysis of Business Discourse due (upload to
Group File Exchange). Workshop on student drafts: close reading, use of quotations.

Unit 2. Business Audience I: Reference and Cover Documents

Week 4
Wednesday, 23 September. Final Draft of Analysis of Business Discourse due (upload to
Group File Exchange). Introduction to Unit 2. Close reading: model reference documents.

Week 5
Wednesday, 30 September. Workshop on library research and business resources, led by
reference librarians. Reading: Model Reference Documents. BC Chapters 5, 9; Appendices
A, B, and especially C; supplementary materials (TBA). From Harvard Guide to Using
Sources: Locating Sources, Evaluating Sources, Avoiding Plagiarism.

Friday, 2 October. Bloggy 2 due, 9 PM.

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Week 6
Wednesday, 7 October. Rough Draft, Reference and Cover Documents due (upload to
Group File Exchange). Sample reference documents. Individual Conferences.

Week 7
Wednesday, 14 October. Revision Club. Reading: Review BC Chapter 4. Individual
Conferences. Workshop on student work, with volunteer’s examples: batching knowledge;
engaging quantitative, descriptive, conceptual knowledge.

Unit 3. Business Audience II: Proposal and Cover Documents

Week 8
Wednesday, 21 October. Final draft, Reference and Cover Document due (upload to
Group File Exchange). Introduction to Unit 3.

Week 9
Wednesday, 28 October. Reading: Model proposals and supplementary materials (TBA).
Review BC Chapter 1-5, 9.

Friday, 30 October. Bloggy 3 due, 9 PM.

Week 10
Wednesday, 4 November. Rough Draft 3.1 of Proposal due (upload to Group File
Exchange). Revision Club. Workshop on student drafts.

Week 11
Wednesday, 11 November. Rough Draft 3.2 of Proposal and Cover Letter due (upload to
Group File Exchange). Individual conferences.

Week 12
Wednesday, 18 November. Revision Club. Individual conferences. Introduction to Unit 4.
Reading: BC Chapters 6, 7, 8.

Unit 4. Business and Public Audience: The Oral Presentation

Week 13
Wednesday, 2 December. Oral Presentations: Set 1.

Week 14
Wednesday, 9 December. Oral Presentations: Set 2.

Week 15
Wednesday, 16 December. Last class! Final Draft of Proposal and Cover Letter due
(upload to Group File Exchange). TBA: return of final evaluations.