Instructor: Teresa Gill Cirillo Email: tgc1016@temple.edu
Office location: Speakman 106
Office Hours: MWF: 10:00 a.m. – noon, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Course Objective
What you’ll learn: Immediately useful and relevant business communication skills, with a focus on the following:
Effective tools to ‘edit’ your own writing: Ways to write clearly, concisely, and correctly
Best strategies for targeting a business, ‘results-oriented’ audience in business documents, websites, and correspondence
Best strategies to enhance your presentation skills
Best strategies to enhance critical thinking and analytical skills — the engines of good writing
You’ll gain skills crucial to your academic and career success. As one Business Roundtable executive put it, “In most cases, writing ability could be your ticket in ... or it could be your ticket out [of a job].”
The Fox School understands that our graduates must meet the highest standards in these skills, and this course will be a demanding one. Be prepared.
Course Materials
Most of your readings and materials will be provided for you on Blackboard, but we do have a series of highly recommended texts and websites for reference, especially for your grammar quizzes.
Recommended texts and free online resources
The Business Writer’s Handbook by Alred, Brusaw, and Oliu (Ninth Edition). This is a wonderful compendium of information for business writers—grammar, formatting of documents, report writing, etc. (Available at Temple bookstore)
Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing by Mignon Fogarty. This is a delightful, fun and easy way to learn good writing skills in one easy softcover book.
Grammar Girl also has a wonderful website: http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/
The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. This is still “the” book on writing style, wonderfully written and clear. Copies are available at the library.
Edit Yourself: A Manual for Everyone Who