English 420Y - Business Writing Online

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.

My initial concept of this class is greatly changing. I am a firm believer that what you put into something is what you get out of it. I am encouraged to put more than 100% into this class because it has such practical application to my life and career success. My inital question is what is the difference between technical writing and business writing? The glossery words seem more technical as where the reading assignment is more business discussing a resume and job search.

Writing plays a critical role in our everyday life. If writing didn’t exist our means of communication would suffer. After completing the first reading I expect this course to address the different means and ways of communication that are most commonly used in the work place. I find the idea that this class is an online class and based on professional writing very interesting. Professional writing seems to be changing from mailed letters to emails.

Upon completion of this course, I expect to have gained a better knowledge of rhetorical principles and writing practices. I would also like to learn to write memos, letters, reports, and other business documents more effectively. This was an area I have always wanted to improve on. Even though I took ENG 106 and COM 114, I don’t think either of those would have taught me as much as I am bound to learn in this course. Since it’s a senior-level class, I expect to be educated on all of the necessary tools and skills that will make me a well-rounded and qualified candidate for future jobs.