The Writing of Business General Guidelines for a Syllabus

Required texts and other resources

Course goals

Assignments

Attendance

Housekeeping/procedural requirements

Grading

Sample Syllabus

Required texts and other resources. The list of required texts and other resources reflects our predilection for building a rich context of resources and readers of situations for the students in the course.

Course goals. This particular syllabus assumes an upper-level undergraduate class populated by people from a variety of majors. Notice that the course goals are expressed in terms of achieving competence and confidence in writing for a variety of situations in a number of different modes or genres of professional discourse. Hence, the goals could be achieved through a broad diversity of learning activities. A substantial number of the activities for this particular class (about half the time and half the points earned) are devoted to writing related to career development--resumes and related correspondence in particular, but also informational interviewing and memos and oral reports to the class through which students report on and analyze their career development activities and writing. A course aimed to serve a different group--say an older group who are already established in career paths, for example--would shift the agenda to class projects, both group and individual, that were appropriate for those students' needs and interests. But it could still have the same broad course goals.

Assignments. We'll discuss these assignments later in connection with specific documents describing the assignments in detail.

Attendance. A recent opinion issued by the Minnesota State Attorney General's office noted that courts have consistently supported instructors in their enforcement of attendance policies when those policies have been published via a syllabus or similar medium and have been enforced consistently by the instructor. This particular attendance policy embodies our own belief that

1. active participation is vital in writing classes in general,
2. collaboration is likewise a crucial element in successful writing, and
3. practice in group work is essential to the development of a successful career in any professional discipline.

Housekeeping/procedural requirements. This is a good place to lay out particular classroom conventions that are important to you, including those that some may consider idiosyncratic!

Grading. Our position is that grading policies are a good deal like attendance policies: It's good practice for both instructors and students when the grading policies are published, are clear, and are consistently adhered to.

For questions and suggestions, please e-mail us at kilbornj@stcloudstate.edu or rinkster@stcloudstate.edu.