Business Writing and Communication (ENGL 343 at Lynchburg College) is a class that has traditionally given business students a lot of trouble. Because of this, business students often write off this class and are satisfied with a grade of C. Do not do this. Being able to complete this course successfully will enable you to excel in your career for three reasons:
- Receiving high marks in this class will make you stand out from others who receive low marks. This is important; people do see your transcript.
- Being able to write grammatically correct sentences will make you seem intelligent. Many extremely intelligent people cannot write a complete sentence, and, therefore, they do not seem as intelligent as they really are. Understanding grammar and other important aspects of English will give you an advantage over these people.
- Communicating with others is essential in every career, not only in business. A manager could have the best ideas in the world, but if he or she is not able to communicate these ideas to others, the ideas are of no practical use to anyone.
Here are some suggestions to help you do well in any business writing course, no matter where you may take it.
- Read and understand the assignment. Pick out issues from the assignment description that need to be addressed.
- In class, the teacher will usually give guidelines and hints as to what is important -- you will find them helpful, so use them!
- Make an outline (or some other type of organizational scheme) of ideas you wish to discuss in your letter or memo.
- Use the appendices in the back of the book (see below) to choose a format. The book contains appendices for both memos and letters, so there is no excuse for turning in a sloppily organized paper. DO NOT DEVISE YOUR OWN FORMAT.
- See a Writing Center tutor for assistance.
- Proofread your paper and use Spellcheck (for the obvious reasons). Many students turn in papers with simple errors because they did not take two minutes to proofread it. Teachers can tell how much effort you put into an assignment by the number of careless mistakes found in the paper.
- Finally, if the teacher allows revisions of the papers to improve your grade, REVISE YOUR PAPER! Do it immediately after you receive your paper; the information will still be fresh in your mind. Use the suggestions made by the teacher (usually written in red ink on your paper) to improve your paper.
Following these steps can improve your grade in Business Writing and Communication and, more importantly, will help you in your future endeavors.
Sources of Memo and Letter Formats
- Bovee, Courtland L., and John V. Thill. Business Communication Today. New York:
Random House, 1989. 641-655. - Kolin, Philip C. Successful Writing at Work. 5th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
110-118; 140-154; 181-220. - Locker, Kitty O. Business and Administrative Communication. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1998. 579-592.
Prepared by Jonas Callis