SELF-GUIDANCE, MENTORSHIP, AND GROUP WORK

To learn in this course, you must be self-motivated.

This course is software assisted and largely self-taught. In other words, you will not learn what you need to know from this course unless you are self-motivated. In any course that is graded pass/no pass, students, if they want to, can find ways to "beat the system" and earn a passing grade without putting their full effort into the course. The distance added between the instructor and students within courses delivered primarily over the WEB enhances the possibility that students can choose to be lazy without being noticed.

Of course, what you learn from this course will depend upon how much effort you put into the course. All of the skills taught within this course will help you succeed in other courses at the University of Oregon and in your professional life after graduation. We strongly encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to learn.

Self-teaching is a proactive endeavor.

Effective self-teaching involves knowing how to utilize the resources available to you and doing so whenever necessary. Please be proactive when you have questions about the course materials or assignments. Ten hours of class time during the term is not much, but you will learn more if you come prepared to ask questions. To ask questions at other times, communicate them immediately by email to the instructor or to the writing tutor assigned to your group. They will answer your questions as quickly as possible. Finally, proactive students occasionally visit their instructors, tutors, and mentors. Please visit with any of your instructors or with a Lundquist College of Business Writing Tutor. 

You are responsible for the work of your project partner/peer reviewer as well as for your own work.

Business writing is a collaborative activity. Different persons within organizations work together to produce and/or review important documents. In this class, you will be responsible for writing and submitting each assignment individually, but you will also be responsible for reviewing the writing of a peer in the class. By reviewing and commenting on the writing of others, you will not only help others improve their writing, but also learn how to make constructive recommendations to writers, one of the most important tasks of business managers. See Peer Review.

The process of reviewing documents within organizations serves valuable, managerial functions.

Any manager will tell you that the process of reviewing the documents of others within an organization serves valuable managerial functions. Managers influence the direction of projects within their companies by reviewing the writing of the persons they manage. Furthermore, by circulating writing throughout their organizations, managers keep employees informed about common projects. Managers store documents to produce an organizational memory, to clarify contracts, to evaluate the performance of employees, to train new employees, to insure quality control, etc. In short, the production of effective documents within organizations is everybody’s business.