Lackawanna ENG115 Complete Course Latest 2021 September (Full)

ENG115 Business Communications

Module 1 Discussion

DQ1 Interaction & Trends

Discussion Question

Which of the current trends in business communication from the infographic did you find most surprising and why?

Describe the most memorable communication interaction you have ever experienced. For example, this might have been with a teacher, coach, entertainer, friend, speaker, boss, etc. It could have been through text, via phone, in-person, etc. Also, it could have been negative or positive.

Could the method of communication changed your opinion of the communicator – why or why not?

DQ2 Look, Listen, Learn

 Discussion Question

Discuss the challenges of gaining a complete and unbiased message from the newscast.

What were the benefits of volume?

What were the benefits of NO volume?

How can what you learned help you communicate more effectively?

 

ENG115 Business Communications

Module 2 Discussion

DQ1 Communication & Culture

Discussion Question

Identify the country or culture you chose.

Explain what you learned about their communication and why exploring other cultures’ communication is important.

Identify three specific steps you can take to expand your knowledge of diverse communication styles and preferences.

DQ2 Social Networking Know-How

Discussion Question

Is it possible to communicate effectively for business purposes completely through social networking sites – why or why not?

Would any popular platforms – like TikTok – not be effective?

 

ENG115 Business Communications

Module 3 Discussion

DQ1 Bearer of Bad News

Discussion Question

Think of the last time you gave and received bad news. What were the best and worst parts of each delivery?

 Being specific by using examples, explain how each delivery could have been better. Consider yourself as well as the person who was the bearer of bad news to you.

DQ2 Vital Vocabulary

Discussion Question

Find an example of at least one sentence – online, in print, in music, etc. – that uses words extremely effectively. Reply with your sentence and your explanation of why and how the words are used well. Be sure to address both connotation and denotation.

 List at least one specific everyday step (i.e. one so easy and natural you will actually do it) to enhance your vocabulary, choose words more wisely, and communicate more effectively.

 

ENG115 Business Communications

Module 4 Discussion

DQ1 Rave Reviews

Discussion Question

First:

Think of what you consider to be the best product on the market today. Convince your classmates to buy it. For a scaled down version of the effective persuasive structure, address the five following minimum points in your argument. Also, don’t forget to choose words wisely!

*Gain three bonus points for successfully incorporating (and identifying) each of the elements of rhetoric.

Your clear and detailed opinion of the product

Three distinct and different reasons for your opinion

Evidence, by way of research or examples, in support of your reasons

Acknowledgement and response to at least one opposing opinion

Details that enable the audience to take action to purchase

  Second:

Compare and contrast, then critique the recommendations of any two (or more) of your classmates and answer explain who was more effectively persuasive – and explain, specifically, why.

DQ2 Convincing Candidates

Discussion Question

Identify your candidate and explain the most convincing and unconvincing elements of the campaign.

 What is your opinion on where, why, or how this candidate most effectively and/or ineffectively communicated a political platform?

 

ENG115 Business Communications

Module 5 Discussion

DQ1 Selling Your Skills

Discussion Question

Whose resume and cover letter are you reviewing?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of this cover letter?

Address at least one specific piece of advice from the Introduction or Lesson materials and identify the specific resource from which the advice came.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of this resume?

Address at least one specific piece of advice from the Introduction or Lesson materials and identify the specific resource from which the advice came.

DQ2 You’re Hired!

 Discussion Question

Choose two classmates to “interview” and ask the same two questions to each classmate. Respond to their answers to engage them more deeply in answering your interview question so you have a thorough knowledge of whether or not they would be a good fit. Would you want to work with this person based on their answer?

Once you are satisfied with their responses, hire one of your classmates. Discuss and explain the strengths and weaknesses of each classmate’s response and clarify what specifically led to your hiring decision.

Remember to incorporate what you learned about developing good news and bad news messages into your explanations.

 

ENG115 Business Communications

Module 6 Discussion

DQ1 Ethical decisions, as explored in this Module’s Lesson, are a part of the daily workday experience. If you stop to consider what is fair and right, you will see there is opportunity to use ethical thought processes around every bend of every decision. Raising your awareness of perspectives in any given situation enables you to recognize the value of thinking ethically. It is consideration of more than one view that leads to more thorough knowledge and, thus, better decisions with less regrets.

Discussion Question

First:

Identify and briefly summarize the case study you chose.

Explain your decision by identifying and addressing each of the steps in the ethical decision-making process.

Second:

Evaluate and make suggestions to your peers about their strategies. Did they miss or misuse any of the steps? Is their decision ethical? Why or why not?

DQ2 hile supporting your opinion with the details of your own experience is certainly valuable, an effective message requires more than your own experience. After all, your audience may not know you personally, so why would they trust your experience? Supporting your opinion meaningfully requires evidence.

Discussion Question

How do you decide if a source is reputable?

What are some examples of the kind of evidence that is relevant for effective and ethical communication?

 

ENG115 Business Communications

Module 7 Discussion

DQ1 One of the most common mistakes in communicating is skimping on detail. This is especially easy to do when your topic is one for which you have a great interest and passion. You can get so excited you tend to forget not everyone in your audience has the same level of knowledge and curiosity as you do for a particular topic. The result is our rushed or clipped explanation full of assumptions and lacking in substance.

Discussion Question

Did whoever taught you the last think you learned provide enough detail? How do you know?

How did the detail – or lack of detail – impact your interest and/or satisfaction in learning this thing?

What does it mean to have good detail? What, in other words, does good detail consist of?

DQ2 Discussion Introduction

In business, we might think of a presentation as an occasion to dread – time taken away from our already packed workday to listen to a person in a suit at the front of a room reading from a PowerPoint; but there is no reason for a presentation to be so cliché and stale.

presentations.

Discussion Question

Describe the best and the worst presentation you have ever seen. It could be a concert, a conference, a classroom lecture – anything.

Tell specifically what made it so good or so bad, and what you learned to enhance your own communication skills.

 

ENG115 Business Communications

Assignment 1 & 2 Team Project

Team:

In this Module’s Engagement Activity #1 you should have reintroduced yourselves to one another and formed a team.

If you did not form a team by deadline, I would have formed a team for you by now. This may have resulted in being added to a team with others who did not complete the activity, or being added to a team that was already formed.

Either way, you will now notice teams are now formed, with each classmate’s name designating each team’s members – and your space to work! Keep in mind you must pledge and maintain a commitment to your teammates to stick to the plan…

…that you should have made In Engagement Activity #2. Here, your goals were to:

Agree upon your team’s communication and time management plan

Designate who and how you will complete the weekly-step-summaries

Keep in mind, weekly-step-summaries demonstrate the team’s consensus for the steps due in any given week.

If you have not completed Engagement Activity #2, please do so now. Then, you are ready for the steps! And here are your first two:

STEP 1:

1.  Review the following three resources for some inspiration on how to solve problems with creative thinking:

12 Tips for Brainstorming More Creative Solutions (Links to an external site.) (article)

15 Ways to Inspire Creativity in Problem Solving (Links to an external site.) (article)

5 Most Unusual Ways People Solved Difficult Problems (Links to an external site.) (video)

 2.  Reflect on the problems and needs in your own community or in our world, and identify the problem or need you feel most excited to address.

You may want to do some research here, but please be sure to include properly formatted sources if you do. You can use www.citationmachine.net and choose APA.

 3.  Suggest a unique and creative product or service that solves the problem or fulfills the need you’ve identified. This will be what your “company” provides.

4.  Explain how your idea fills that need.

For example, the Snuggy fills the need to stay warm from head to toe while retaining motion – unlike a blanket, which falls and drags when you walk.

 STEP 2:

Be sure to answer all four questions.

Considering each teammate’s idea, which idea do you think your team should use?

According to your own vision of that idea, describe the product or service in detail.

What do you think your business should be called?

Use this source for help with naming: How To Create a Great Business Name. (Links to an external site.)

In your mind, who should be your target audience, and why?

 

ENG115 Business Communications

Assignment 3 Team Project

STEP 3:

Thank you for your work so far! Your next step is to complete an organizational chart, which will help you to prepare your formal business proposal. This partially repeats and confirms what you have done in steps 1 and 2. The addition is a bit of research to flesh out your plan.

The Basics

Briefly describe your product/service by identifying:

The name of your product/service

The need it fulfills

How it differs from any product or service already in existence

Three specific benefits of your product/service

Your tagline/motto/slogan

 The Research

Industry: Does anything like your idea exist anywhere in the world? If so, what are some of the keys to its success that you can borrow?

Target Market: What kind of person will use your product/service? i.e. age, gender, interests.

Location: Where will you locate your business and why?

Competitors: Do you have any competition? If so, how will you achieve your fair share of business? If you do not have competitors, what is one specific issue or obstacle you may encounter and what research can you find to support your idea for overcoming it?

 

ENG115 Business Communications

Assignment 4 Team Project

STEP 4:

Create two lists: one should consist of what you believe to be the strengths of your product or service and the second should consist of the potential weaknesses.

Here is a step you can split up! Each team member only needs to list one strength and one weakness. You will then have, through your collaboration, an entire list!

Then, answer these two questions:

How can you emphasize your strengths in your promotion and marketing? Address each one individually.

How can you respond to your weaknesses to minimize them in the eyes of your audience? Address each one individually.

 This step will prepare the team to pose more relevant questions in the Audience Analysis assignment due in the next Module. For this assignment, you will be using your classmates – those not on your team – as a test group.

So, once you have completed your lists of strengths and weaknesses, work together to decide on your best plan for minimizing weaknesses and maximizing strengths, choosing from each teammate’s answers. The end result should be a master list of product/service characteristics that set you apart in a positive way and issues you may encounter along with the plans to overcome those issues.

By highlighting the strengths of your idea, and by anticipating obstacles and preparing responses in advance, you can present your business plan more convincingly to your classmates. But you will also have the advantage of their responses and reactions to further shape your master list moving forward.

 

ENG115 Business Communications

Assignment 5 Team Project

STEP 5:Team: this project step coordinates closely with the Engagement Activity in this Module. Your time management must be on point this week. In fact, the purpose of the quick turnaround is to immerse you in the often demanding and fast-paced environment of a real-life business.

There are four parts to this step. You must use parts one and two in the Audience Analysis activity; therefore, you must complete these first two parts prior to the Audience Analysis discussion’s initial reply deadline, which is Tuesday at 11:59pm.

Parts three and four depend on the results of the Audience Analysis discussion; therefore, the Audience Analysis closes Thursday at 11:59pm, to give you time to complete these parts by the usual project step deadline, which is Sunday at 11:59pm.

The four parts include:

Pre-Audience Analysis Team Meeting Chart collaboration

Individual logo design

Post-Audience Analysis Team Meeting Chart collaboration

Preview presentation collaboration

 Use the Audience Analysis Team Meeting Chart  Download Audience Analysis Team Meeting Chartto organize your thoughts. Add the blank chart as a reply (not attachment) in this team thread and use the Edit button to contribute.

Here is a breakdown of what to accomplish in each of these four parts, when to have it done, and how many points each is worth:

Part 1 (+4)

Pre-Audience-Analysis Team Meeting Chart collaboration

In Module 2, you completed Step 4 of your team project where you collaborated to create a master list of your product/service’s advantages and issues.

For this step, use that master list to identify two questions you would like to ask your audience in order to get to know their needs, wants, thoughts, objections, etc. For instance, do they share your enthusiasm? Do they have issues other than those you identified? Is there a price they would not pay? Do they have ethical objections to your product or service?

Getting to know your audience will help you more effectively communicate your product or service to them. Here is what to do to complete Part 1 successfully:

Each team member should list two questions.

Review each other’s questions to be sure:

They are not the same as another team member’s

They are useful in meeting your goal

Add everyone’s questions to the Team Meeting Chart

Go to Part 2.

 Part 2 (+4)

Individual logo design

In this step, you will design a tentative logo for your product. You might perform an internet search to find examples, but please review the blog post, Logo Design: Everything You Need to Know (Links to an external site.), for an ideas and understanding. Additionally, take advantage of the resources available on 12+ Free Logo Design Makers 2020: a Cool Logo in Few Seconds (Links to an external site.). You will also learn about why logos are so important for your business. 

Here is what to do to complete Part 2 successfully:

Each team member should create a logo.

Go to your Audience Analysis Engagement Activity and join in by sharing your two questions and your logo!

 Part 1 and 2 Due Date: Tuesday 11:59pm.

Part 3 (+8)

Post-Audience-Analysis Team Meeting Chart collaboration

Your Audience Analysis would have helped you gain knowledge and insight into your audience. Work together to choose a logo; and complete the last two columns of your Team Meeting Chart by analyzing and summarizing your audience’s responses to each question, then identifying a suggestion for how to change your business based on what you learned.

Here is what to do to complete Part 3 successfully:

Collaborate to decide which logo to use – or which logos to combine for a collaborative redesign.

Complete the remaining columns on the Audience Analysis Team Meeting Chart.

Task your current team summarizer to ensure everyone’s questions, summaries, and recommendations are included on a single chart.

Share the final version in your team thread.

 Part 3 Due Date: Wednesday 11:59pm.

Part 4 (+4)

Preview presentation collaboration

In this Module, we discussed good, bad, and neutral messages. You likely received a little of each from your audience. Collaborate to develop a presentation to preview the changes made to your business plan based on the audience’s feedback. Be sure to address good, bad, and neutral news elements in incorporating the audience’s positive and negative feedback into your presentation.

The presentation could be a PowerPoint, Prezi, Publisher document (like a brochure or poster), or Infographic. The choice is yours. Also, you do not need one presentation per teammate. Instead, work together to decide what you want to present and how, and then divvy up the work among you.

Because each of you will have different content based on the previous steps, and because the presentation medium is your choice, there is no formal rubric for your presentation. However, if you choose PowerPoint, this PowerPoint Guidelines  Download PowerPoint Guidelinesresource and Worst PowerPoint Presentation Ever  Download Worst PowerPoint Presentation Ever, will provide you with insight into effective communication through design.

The presentation will be used in an upcoming team step to develop a commercial for your business. So be as complete as you can!  

 

ENG115 Business Communications

Assignment 6 Team Project

STEP 6:

Team:

When we communicate, as we have explored throughout our semester, we are not always as effective as we would have hoped. However, with open-minded reflection and ethical awareness of our audience’s reactions, we will know when we need change. Understanding conflict resolution then helps us decide what to change and how.

But in addition to changing, taking responsibility for miscommunication helps build our reputation as a trustworthy communicator. So, we must be prepared to present our process – realizing, correcting, and creating a plan to improve – in order to assure our audience we will do our best to avoid miscommunicating twice!

We are at the halfway mark, which is a perfect time to reflect on your team progress so far. In this step you must identify the most prevalent issue of communication breakdown your team has experienced since Module 1, and design a conflict resolution plan to ensure more successful communication as you move forward.

Remember: miscommunication or ineffective communication does count as a conflict because the potentially negative outcomes – from a loss of productivity to a loss of profit – are extensive.

 Each of you should identify the issue you feel has weakened your team’s communication in the previous project steps, and create a presentation to share your thoughts and modified communication plan. However, keep in mind gaining multiple perspectives should be part of resolving conflict effectively, so you will need to include a clearly dedicated section of your presentation for gaining your team members’ feedback.

You will then hold a virtual meeting using Canvas Conferences to present to one another and collaborate to decide on a plan for resolving the issues each of your team members has brought up. Be sure to choose the option to record your Canvas Conference, so participation is clear. Following your team meeting, have your designated summarizer synthesize the main ideas from the presentations as well as the new communication plan in your team thread. See Using Conferences as a Student: Canvas Tutorial WorkshopLinks to an external site. for help.

Finally, this week is an opportunity to catch up on past steps. During your meeting, you may also include a slide or slides to revisit any two previous project steps and discuss these with your team to regain points. This will also strengthen the project through reflection and increased contribution of diverse perspectives. Be sure to label your slide clearly with the specific step(s) you are revisiting so your grade can be reviewed and amended.

For the content of your presentation, please use the following six steps to design a conflict resolution plan that will address your communication breakdown. Additionally, review this week’s resources on the different presentation media you can use, and choose one you believe works best.  

Clarify the issue:

Identify and explain how well you believe your team has been communicating.

Describe, in detail, the most detrimental example of communication breakdown the team has experienced so far. What went wrong, where, why, and how?

 Identify the common goal:

Explain the requirement or expectations for the week(s) in which the communication breakdown occurred.

Identify and explain whether or not the team has stuck to the original communication plan set in Module 1.

 Analyze the perspectives of your teammates in this communication breakdown.

What were their reasons for not being able to meet the goal?

Why do you believe the original communication plan did not work in this instance?

 Brainstorm solutions that consider these perspectives as well as your own.

Identify what you did, if anything, to correct this incident of ineffective communication.

If you did nothing, explain why not. If you did attempt a correction, explain what you did and what happened – i.e. did it work?

Regardless of whether your correction worked or not, describe at least two possible solutions that could have corrected this communication breakdown and why this change would lead to more effective communication.

 Identify, in your opinion, the best of those two solutions and explain why you believe it is the best choice.

 To prevent this communication breakdown as you move forward to Module 7, create a brief formal list of rules based on the solution you identified.

How and why is the solution you came up with using the six conflict resolution steps stronger than the actions you actually took in reality?

 

ENG115 Business Communications

Assignment 7 Team Project

Weekly Assignment: Team Project Step 7

STEP 7:

Team: this step has two parts. Please be sure to address each one completely. Additionally, please be mindful of your new communication plan, which you would have completed in STEP 6 based on the resolution plan created for any instances of communication conflict you experienced in the preceding Modules.

The two parts include:

Persuasive email

Commercial video

 You will complete each of these parts separately, but then collaborate to decide which ones to use going forward and why. Be sure your discussion is clear and your summarizer replies with the team’s decisions. Here is a breakdown of what to accomplish in each of the two parts.

Part 1 (+5)

Persuasive Email

Create an email to preview your business/product idea to an investor. Be sure to use the persuasive characteristics explored in this Module’s Introduction and Lesson. Also, the email must be use proper format and include relevant content. Read/Review these three resources prior to starting your message.

How to Format a Professional Email Message (Links to an external site.)

How to Write a Formal Email (Links to an external site.)

How to Write an Email to an Investor (Links to an external site.)

 Share your email as a reply to your team thread; then, in your collaboration with your teammates to decide on the best email to use, explain:

How your email demonstrates effective formatting

Why email is a good choice for the message you’ve written

 Part 2 (+5)

Commercial Video

This is a fun part, so let your creativity take over! In this step you will each create a promotional video for your product or service. Keep in mind that your video is the “commercial” for your product or service. Remember to employ the characteristics of effective persuasion you learned about in this Module’s Introduction and Lesson. Think about how you can convince the audience they need your product or service by showing how it benefits them. 

View/Review these two resources before you begin:

8 Steps to Creating a Promotional Video (Links to an external site.)

Promo Videos: What Really Matters (with Examples) (Links to an external site.)

 If you are familiar with a video maker, such as on YouTube, you may use it. If not, try using one or more of the resources from 8 Free Resources For You to Make an Online Video Easily (Links to an external site.). Share your video or the link to your video as a reply to this team thread. As you decide which video to use going forward, discuss which team member’s video – or which parts of each video – are the most effective and persuasive representations of your business and why.

 

ENG115 Business Communications

Assignment 8 Team Project

STEP 8:

Team: congratulations! Your email from Step 7 has persuaded your investor to fund your business project! To follow up, Step 8 engages in you in four parts. You will complete these four parts as individuals, but then collaborate to determine what or which elements of each team member’s contribution you will use moving forward.

The four parts include:

Letter

Memo

Voicemail

Reflective Comparison

 As you construct your messages, be sure to consult the notes from past Modules, including Module 3, which focused on the characteristics of effective good news and neutral messages. There are also resources listed in each part below to help you accomplish each task successfully.

Part 1 (+5)

Thank You Letter

Using proper letter format, draft a letter to thank your investors for their funding commitment. Be sure to clarify how you will use the money and identify how you will keep them in the loop with a consistent plan for communicating your spending updates and outcomes.

Before beginning your letter, please Read/Review the following resource to understand proper format and content. Be sure to use all seven parts in your draft. You can also use the second “generator” resource to help you develop your letter if you are struggling.

Seven Basic Parts of a Business Letter (Links to an external site.)

Letter Generator (Links to an external site.)

 Part 2 (+5)

Memo

Unlike other forms of business communication, a memo is internal. Construct an informative memo to share the good news about your investor with your teammates. Also, be sure to include what you believe the team’s next steps should be.

Read/Review this resource prior to starting your memo.

How to Write a Business Memo (Links to an external site.)

 Part 3 (+5)

Voicemail

Using Mighty Call’s Seven Best Business Voicemail Greetings (Links to an external site.) for guidance, each team member should record a general voicemail greeting for your business line and share it here as a reply to your team thread.

You may use a recording program with which you are familiar, or use whichever of the following free and simple resources applies to you. Remember to ensure you background is noise free!

How to Record your Voice on a Windows Computer (Links to an external site.)

How to Record Sound on a Mac the Easy Way (Links to an external site.)

 Part 4 (+5)

Reflective Comparison

In this final part of Step 8 you will reflect on how the various forms of communication – email, letter, memo, and voicemail – differ. What are the pros and cons of each, and what constitutes effective communication regardless of form? This reflection should guide your collaboration regarding which of your teammate’s efforts – or what parts of each teammate’s efforts – you will choose to move forward and why.   

 

ENG115 Business Communications

Assignment 9 Team Project

STEP 9:

First:

Locate an article in a publication relevant to the product or service you have created and evaluate it for reliability using the handout for Evaluating Sources in the Module 6 Lesson. Before you begin, review How to Write an Article Review – Tips and Explanation (Links to an external site.), for an understanding the purpose, structure, and content of this communication form.

Then, using the APA Template  Download APA Templatefor proper format, write an article review for your fellow teammates consisting of the following elements. Be sure to include a proper title page, abstract, and full reference for your article as per the template.

You should delete all template directions when you are done.

Introduction

The title and author of the article you are reviewing

The relevance of the article to your business

A summary list of the major topics covered in the article to be discussed in your review

Body

A well-organized presentation of each of the article’s main points followed by your opinion on the strengths, weaknesses, and relevance of those p