WR214: Writing in Business
one class down
three to go. man, this is a lot of reading. and the same week that I need to finish three more applications to PhD programs.
I didn’t sell out, son; I bought in
There’s quite a bit that’s different about teaching college compared to teaching middle school or high school, and one thing that strikes me as one of the biggest differences is the closure of the term. The close of the year for a secondary teacher, especially a young one (someone as inexperienced as I was), can [...]
you must cite your sources
I finished grading all of my students’ proposals today (finally!). I was surprised with the number of students who either didn’t include a works cited page or didn’t cite their sources (or both!). Out of approximately 100 students, 21 didn’t cite sources or include a works cited page or both. (Some students worked in pairs, [...]
I can’t believe it’s already week 8
I’m not a huge fan of the quarter system. Doing my undergraduate work at Iowa State and having 15 weeks for a semester acclimated me to a longer term with more depth and more time for final projects. A 10 week quarter just doesn’t cut it; I don’t feel like we can go into as [...]
conciseness in student writing?
I’m reading through my students’ individual portfolios, and I am amazed with how many students mention (in their reflection letter to me) that they feel they are doing a better job of being concise than they were at the start of the term. Of course, a key component of business writing is conciseness, but I [...]
it’s official: i’m really cool
I’m reading through my students’ individual portfolios (with their original documents and revisions in them). Each portfolio starts off with a cover letter explaining to me how they’ve grown or struggled as a writer in class, what they’ve learned, what they’ve revised and what documents they feel are strong in their portfolio, etc. It’s always [...]
irony of the colon
Last week I was explaining to my classes how to use a colon or semicolon, and the differences between the two. One rule I gave because I see colons misused a lot: never use a colon after a to be verb. Today I found myself replying to a student email and using a colon after [...]
the obligatory male handshake
I’ve noticed a strange phenomenon with many of male students. Many of them like to shake my hand after the conference, which I’m okay with, but I’m a bit surprised by. I don’t remember ever shaking a teacher’s hand when I was an undergrad. I wonder if they shake hands with their other teachers? I [...]
it’s 2:00 am, do you know where your teacher is
I just finished creating a trailfire presentation for my business writing students tomorrow (summary available here) — or, rather, today, as it’s 2:00 am. Why am I up so late? Due to having a lot of grading left to do and accidentally sleeping so much on Saturday, when I had scheduled time to grade. Guess [...]
frustrated with student emails
I’m getting overloaded with questions from students via email. This is a bit frustrating, but really I love it. It shows that students are working on and caring about their coursework (at least some). But what is even more frustrating is that a student emailed me an assignment and I wanted to email him back. [...]
