Important Announcement: Class Canceled Today (Thurs, 5/19)

I hope this finds you all well.  I am contacting you with highly unusual news for this time of the quarter—class today (Thursday, 5/19) is canceled.  I apologize for the last minute nature of this announcement; unfortunately, that tends to be the nature of canceled classes.  I am emailing in hopes that the message will reach you before you head out and over to the classroom…

In lieu of class, there are a number of important notes.  Please read each carefully…

• The special event on Friday is still required, as is the assignment (which is due on Tuesday).  I am anticipating being there, so I will see you there.  To remind you, the event is the Business Writing Awards (featuring a valuable keynote speaker) at 3 pm sharp on Friday in Theater/Dance 1701.
• The rough draft of your section(s) of the business plan is still due on Tuesday—please bring it to class, and be prepared to workshop. In addition, we will complete an important exercise designed to create your Executive Summary.
• I am still available via email for any questions at all as your work on your sections.  Much like we did for the resume week, please insert an asterisk (*) into the subject line of your email to give it priority.
• The agenda for today’s class will now be folded into next week and onto the blog as necessary. 

Please use today to work on your section of the plan and email me with any questions.  Again, I apologize to have to cancel class—I greatly appreciate your understanding.

KEY for resume/cover letter abbreviations

As you will see, the notes on your resumes and cover letters will be filled with short abbreviations and other markings.  To make sense of them, please refer to the following list...

AWK=This, while perhaps grammatically correct, sounds awkward
CONCISE=This phrase can be tighter
TH=The cover letter needs a "thesis statement"
WC=This isn't the best word choice here
R=Repetitive wording/phrasing
P=Needs punctation here
AV=Needs to be phrased with an action verb
HS=No high school
VT=Watch verb tense
VA=Vague
A horizontal line=add space here
A vertical line=cut to another line
B=Use bolding here
NP=Start new paragraph
AL=Watch alignment
NR=Not relevant

Other marking that might appear should be self-explanatory.

Citations, Footnotes, Endnotes, etc.

As discussed in class (Thursday, 5/12), here is the guide to citing sources for the Business Plan.  Please use it as a reference and follow it closely!

Download here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/jolmj5

Cover Letter/Resume Assignment Due Tuesday

As mentioned in class, your resume/cover letter assignment is due at the beginning of class on Tuesday.  Please bring a hard copy of both documents (stapled together).  I will be collecting the assignment at the beginning of class--if you are late, the assignment is considered late.

Thanks!

Please post your job interview tips here

As discussed in Thursday's class, please post links to articles, sites, and other resources that have good information about job interviews here...

Thanks!

Upcoming Classes

As you have seen, there are a number of resume resources posted below... as a heads up, here's where we'll be going in the coming week.

Tuesday: I'll go over the powerpoint, discussing resumes and cover letters.  In addition, I'll answer any questions about both types of documents.

Thursday:  Bring a rough draft of your resume and cover letter for a workshop.

In addition to this work, we will continue our business plan work, so you can expect 15 minutes of each class for group time.

Thanks!

Resume Resources

Some of this won't be explained until Tuesday of next week, but just to get rolling, here are a bunch of resume resources...

For the resume projects, I'd like to provide some samples for reference. The best ones I've found are http://www.quintcareers.com/resume_samples.html -- look at all of the "New Graduate" samples. However, feel free to check out http://www.susanireland.com/resumeindex.htm and http://www.resume-resource.com/exstu3.html as well. Remember that there are different ways to create an effective resume--just make sure you follow the suggestions we discussed in class.

Also, here's a great link for information on action verbs:

http://www.quintcareers.com/action_skills.html

And, here is a good example of a cover letter: http://jobsearch.about.com/od/coverlettersamples/a/recentgrad.htm

Post today's research assignment here

As you know from class today, you have an in-class research exercise.  Please locate three credible sources that help with your section(s) of the BP.  Then, here--in the comments below--please list the following information:

1.  Your name and team
2.  The name/author/etc. of one of your sources
3.  Where you found it, and how you found it
4.  Why is it useful?  What information might you use?

This is due by 9 pm on Wednesday.  Thanks!

Please print for Tuesday

On Tuesday, we will tackle a few general writing/research topics (and on Thursday, we will start our Resume work in earnest).  Please print this powerpoint and bring it to class--you can download it here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/u674eu

Practice Conciseness

As we discussed in class, being concise is really important--it helps us be clear in our messages.  Here's a great exercise to help you practice...

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/wordy_quiz.htm

Formal Letter Format

This site is a good guide for formal letter format, which you need for the "Bad News Letter" due Tuesday: http://businessletterformat.org/

Please print handout for Thursday

Hi Everyone--

I just emailed a PDF of tomorrow's powerpoint, which I would like you to print and bring to class.  If you did not receive that email, please contact me right away, and I will send it to you.

Thanks!

Section Checklists (handout packet)

In class today (Tuesday), we will discuss the various sections of the business plan.  To help with those, I have attached a PDF of checklists for a number of the sections.  There is no need to print this out for today's class, but they are there for future reference.

Download here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/0jk2mi

Memo Format

We have now discussed the most common form of business writing--the email.  However, it is helpful to also know the format of the memo...

Please check out this sample: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/590/04/

This will relate to your homework, as well!

Welcome to the Blog!

As mentioned in class, we will use this blog to provide readings, exercises, information, and more.  Please bookmark it, and check back frequently--it is always a good idea to check for updates the day before a class, for example.

In addition to posts, there are some noteworthy links to the right, generally about surface issues.

So, keep an eye on this site--by the middle of next week, for example, there will be a big handout for your business plan use!