Posted by Janet Mizrahi

The first time I taught Business Writing, I was lucky that my colleagues happily shared their course materials. However, for others who are teaching the course for the first time or who are receiving their class assignment at the last minute, a pre-built course with a syllabus can be a lifesaver.

Building your course depends on many factors: level of student competency, length of term, and departmental or course requirements among them. Some instructors may have a great deal of freedom in how they design their courses whereas others may have strict guidelines and course objectives to follow. We’ve put together several sample syllabi and a detailed pre-built course for you that are summarized below.

Sample Syllabus 1: 15-Week Community College Course
For a class that meets twice a week for 1.25 hours, this syllabus is an excellent example of a systematic approach to an introductory business communication course. Assignments include employment correspondence, communication for internal and external audiences, collaboration, and a long report.

Sample Syllabus 2: 15-Week State University Course
This upper-division Business Writing course—as taught in the Business Communication Program at Cal State Fullerton—covers the strategies and techniques to prepare typical business correspondence, reports, and presentations. Assignments include e-mails, letters, memos, employment communication, and a collaborative project.

Sample Syllabus 3: 10-Week University Course
Another upper-division example, this syllabus centers on short assignments that support a major collaborative project. Short assignments include e-mail, memo, progress report, annotated bibliography, employment correspondence, and a major collaborative project presented in bound hard copy and orally.

Pre-built Course
This helpful guide provides all tools necessary for building a course. It includes:

• Course schedule
• Syllabus
• Assignments
• First-day plan
• Grade record sheet
• Testing
• Grammar and mechanics review
• Teaching tips
• Variations in course organization

To receive one of the samples as an MS Word file, just email Dana Loewy at dloewy[at]bizcombuzz.com and she’ll happily forward it to you. Of course, if you have a syllabus or course design you’d like to share, we would love to hear from you!