English 420Y - Business Writing Online

After reading through the table of contents and chapter 12 and other parts of the book I think that there are plenty of things I will learn through this class. I expect the substance of this course to be very informative, especially about writing new types of documents I've never heard of before. Just in reading through chapter 12 I've realized there are things such as a white paper and recommendation reports. I've never even heard of either of these but there is a good chance I will have to write some of them in career. I expect to learn a lot more about documents I've heard of as well.

After going through the table of contents, I find some interesting material for me from the Thomson Handbook. Since I am a foreign student having Spanish as a first language, Part 11, Grammar for Multilingual Writers, seems very interesting. It surprises me that this section is included in the book, and this is what I am most looking forward to in the class. I have not practiced writing papers in English in a long time, so I am motivated to get practice in order to improve my overall writing skills.

What I really thought was good about the reading was it’s focus on several different types of documents one would see in a professional setting. At first I thought the whole article was going to be concerned which just resumes and cover letters, which is good to know but is something I have been exposed to before as opposed to the other types of documents. It was also good to see what types of documents exist in the professional world, beyond the resume and the memo. I’m in a field that is not stereotypical in the sense that I do not deal with customers or clients.

After reading the material in the book, I think this course will be very beneficial. I expect to have to create a cover letter and resume using the guidelines listed on pages 224 through 231. The use of examples will be very helpful to me. Being mostly a visual learner, having an example of what a proper cover letter and resume looks like will be of much benefit to me. I also expect to learn how to write other documents properly, such as a memo, a white paper, a case analysis, and a recommendation report.

I think the content covered in the text is very important for effective professional writing. As future employees for various companies, we should all be very comfortable with the material. It is important that we are not only familiar with the text , but we should be very comfortable in applying the knowledge we gain from the text and I think that can be obtained from a lot of practice and also effective feedback and critique.

After reading the assigned reading, it has given me a better understand of what to expect for this course. The book covers many areas that will beneficial to my writing skills. The main areas that I am interested in the section that focuses on resumes. This will be helpful to update my resume and also help to correct errors I may have made. The book is going to cover many areas including mainly analyzing different types of documents that are common in the business world. The book will help me also prepare a better cover letter which can help me to obtain a job that I want.

When I finished the reading in the Thompson Handbook, I had a better understanding of what is required to do well in this course and in my professional career. The book gives very useful examples on how to write a proper cover letter and resume. The list of questions on page 221 were helpful in clarifying what a prospective employer expects to see. I have written cover letters and resumes in other classes; but, it was never a detailed, in-depth process. I feel like the handbook will give clear guidelines to insure my resume will be noticed and considered.

I think that this course will provide a good base for learning professional writing styles. Up until now I have not had educational practice with this. Most of the writing I have done for class has been for different purposes. Since I have not had much practice I assume that there could be some things I could do to improve. Business writing is made up of many different aspects from the beginning of just getting in the door with a cover letter and resume, and then composing memos, email and other documents. It will be great to be to quickly identify rhetorical situations to communicate better.

From reviewing the text, it appears that we are going to be challenged to really think and analyze our writing. I think that this will allow us to fundamentally understand what it is that we are trying to communicate through our writing and will help us to notice the flaws and weak points that we have. By analyzing these weak points we can grow as writers and learn how to become more proficient with our writing skills. Which will ultimately allow us to effectively communicate through memos, emails, letters, and other professional documents that we will be required to compose in the future.

Based upon the reading from The Thomson Handbook, I believe that this course will be very beneficial to me in the present and in the future. Working with resumes and cover letters will help me obtain my dream career as well as internships over the next few summers. I also expect to learn more about professional writing documents such as the memo, the case analysis, and the white paper mentioned in pages 232-236 in The Thomson Handbook.