Business Writing Assignments That Build Students Information Skills

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Business Writing Assignments That Build
Students Information Skills

• Presenters
• Mary Hayden, PhD
• Carolyn Johnson, MBA,MLS
• Arizona State University West

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Electronic Business Databases

• Access to more publications
• Better indexing
• Quicker access
• Full text

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Information Literacy

• Recognize what kind of information is needed
• Choose the most appropriate sources of
  information
• Think critically about the information, no matter
  what the source
• Build information skills

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CONTEXT

• Gateway to Global Business (GLB300)
• 1st course in Professional Program
• Acculturation and skills
• university rigor
• professional conduct
• team processes
• writing/research in culture of business (L1)

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ASSUMPTIONS

• Students have taken and passed
• ENG101-102
• Accounting Principles
• Economics 101-102
• other business course(s)??
• Students therefore possess
• junior-level writing, thinking, research skills
• basic understanding of the business enterprise
•  

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REALITIES

• extremes in skill and maturity
• variety of learning styles
• 30-50 lack basic writing skills
• increasing numbers of ESL students
• non- business majors
• lack ability to recall apply concepts to new
  assignments
• low tolerance for ambiguity

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CREATING ASSIGNMENTS

• Assignment development recursive process
• Early assignments based on traditional model
• faculty work in isolation
• library resource needs an after-thought
• Evolved into collaborative effort of faculty,
  librarian, writing center
• Input scheme
• faculty determine topic, content, basic
  structure
• librarian determines resources, creates web site
  and hyperlinks
• writing center recommends format, advises on
  skill levels
• Based on curricular need and student response
• old assignments revised or retired
• new assignments created and revised

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ASSIGNMENTS

• build on one another
• increasingly more difficult
• increasingly require higher levels of
• critical thinking and application skills
• use Fortune 500 company/industry
• as common focal point
•  

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The Three Assignments

• Company/Industry Information Sheet
• International Business Study
• S.W.O.T. Analysis

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ASSIGNMENT 1 Company/Industry Information Sheet
(Individual)

• Select Fortune 500 company
• Research factual information re company
  competitor
• Perform simple analysis and comparison of
  financial performance
• Gain knowledge and skill electronic database
• Recognize appropriate use of company web sites
• Present findings in business culture format
• make use of computer design tools
• (headings, bolding, bullet points, tabs,
  tables)
• Begin to use APA style
• Emphasis on
• organizing and synthesizing
• evaluating
• analyzing
• Work independently
•  

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Company / Industry Research

• Introduce one group of databases
• Change list of required items so that students
  need to use several sources
• Compare companies so that students need to look
  up the information twice
• Compare databases with company web site so
  students can see the difference

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ASSIGNMENT 2 International Business Study
(Team)

• Through team process select
• company/industry (from Assignment 1)
• products/services
• targeted foreign country
• Determine international involvement
• Increase repertoire of databases learn/use
  government reports
• Research, describe and analyze
• social/cultural or political/legal, etc
  environments
• product, consumers, marketing and competitors
• Make recommendation
• Present in memorandum style (incorporate design
  tools)
• Show increased understanding and use of APA
  style
• Emphasis on
• relative weight of data, analysis and
  recommendations
• data abundant, but what is most relevant?
• dont rehash data, but support recommendation
  with analysis
• Builds on Assignment 1

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International Business Study

• Government reports, periodical databases
• Strategies and examples
• Selection of product/service and country
• Group research

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ASSIGNMENT 3 SWOT Analysis (Individual)

• Research companys strengths, weaknesses,
  opportunities and threats.
• Identify describe companys two most important S,
  W, O, T
• Synthesize info, analyze how to
• maximize strengths
• minimize weaknesses
• leverage opportunities
• mitigate threats
• Make a recommendation
• Present in fomat of choice
• Exhibit facility in use of APA style
• Emphasis on
• integrating info/ skills from previous
  assignments
• building evidence to jusitify recommendation

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S.W.O.T Analysis

• New databases, review and repeat others
• More analysis and synthesis
• Strategies and examples

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REMEDIES thru PROCESS

• build-in redundancies
• provide specific, detailed, written instructions
  
• allow early perusal
• review point-by-point
• illustrate through class discussion
• show examples

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REMEDIES thru PROCESScontd

• supplement with relevant material
• solicit feedback frequently
• allow review of previous student work
• specify grading criteria
• work one-on-one with teams and individuals
• build-in progress reviews

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Remedies thru Process (contd)

• illustrate through hands-on or demonstration
• use library web page with hyperlinks
• if no accommodations for hands-on, only
  demonstrationuse overviews examples
• work from library web page created for class
  assignment
• sample company/industry used for all reports

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Conclusions

• Start with one assignment
• Think about information and research skills when
  creating new assignments
• Keep revising each semester
• Use rubrics to define expectations and simplify
  grading process
• Refer to remedial resources