Course Name

Effective Business Communication

Contact Hours: 11

Course Description

This series teaches the writing skills learners will need to effectively communicate in a business setting. They`ll learn how to prepare for a writing task, and about strategies and skills for effective word choice, sentence building, and paragraph design. Audience: This series is for anyone who wants to improve his or her professional writing skills. Features: Flash and audio provide animated, interactive Lesson Introductions, Activities, and Simulations. Flash scenarios use real world situations to illustrate course concepts. Audio accompanies each lesson page throughout the course. Activities allow learners to apply course concepts in an interactive questioning environment. Exercises allow learners to practice in the actual application being studied. Courses challenge the learner with a variety of question formats, including multi-step simulations, true/false, multiple choice, and fill-in-the-blank. A skill assessment generates a customized learning path based on the results of a pre-test. A glossary provides a reference for definitions of unfamiliar terms. Bookmarking tracks the learner`s progress in a course.

Outcome

By completing this series you will learn to: Describe the benefits of using a planning worksheet Determine the basic prerequisites of your business communication Identify the audience of your business communication Decide the format, style, order, and attachments of your business communication Identify the five qualities of effective words Identify the rules of correct word usage Identify the guidelines for nondiscriminatory language Build effective sentences Recognize and correct common sentence faults Design paragraphs successfully Define each informative prose pattern List business applications for each pattern Provide examples of each informative prose pattern List the acceptable letter-writing formats Discuss three categories of letters Determine which style of writing is best for a particular situation Write neutral, positive, negative, and persuasive letters Discuss memos Explain proposals Create a press release Describe e-mail and faxes Describe the general characteristics of formal reports Describe acceptable formats of reports Explain how formal, informational, analytical, and persuasive reports should be organized Understand the importance of planning your projects Select information relevant to your audience Identify and set up the standard sections of a document List the four rules of producing effective documentation Use charts, graphs, and tables to illustrate steps in the procedures you are documenting Choose the best formatting characteristics for your documentation project

Assessment

Students may master the course/s by achieving a percentage at or above 70% for each individual lesson, through their scoring results of the course questions, the skill assessment, or a combination of both.

Outline

The Planning Worksheet After taking this course, the learner will be able to use a Planning Worksheet to analyze the needs and restrictions of a writing task. Writing Skills This course will help you improve your business writing skills by choosing appropriate words, building effective sentences, and identifying and correcting common sentence faults. Patterns of Development After taking this course, you will be able to organize business writing into specific patterns, depending on the type of information you want to communicate. Letters The course discusses standard letter parts and letter formats. This course talks about planning a correspondence, and the words, sentences, and paragraphs used when creating an effective letter. It also discusses the block and modified letter formats and how they differ. Finally, this course presents how to write letters that convey neutral or positive news, as well as how to write negative news letters with tact and courtesy. Memos, E-Mail and Other Communications This course discusses memos, proposals, press releases, e-mails, and faxes. Reports After taking this course, you will be familiar with the general characteristics and acceptable formats of formal, informational, analytical, and persuasive reports. Documentation In this course, you will learn how to write clear, concise documentation. You will be able to effectively plan your documentation project and decide what information to include. This course also discusses the proper parts of a document, the editing process, and the preparation of your document for production and distribution.