Classroom Content = Workplace Skills

"A survey last year by Robert Half International reported that 96% of the 1,000 largest employers in the U.S. believe employees must have good communication skills to get ahead."

Source: Fortune, 12/7/98

Communication

Employers increasingly expect employers to be able to communicate with each other, whether they are in the same city or across the globe. This class encourages communication between peers by use of a listserv, email and, in some classes, Oncourse.

In the workplace, a number of studies indicate that the typical college graduate will spend up to 20 percent of his day writing or one day out of five (Anderson, p. 4). Since good communication is often fostered by appropriate writing techniques, emphasis in this class is placed upon accurate word use, smooth flow of thought from sentence to sentence, action verbs, concise wording, strong author voice and correct identification of targeted reading audience.
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Technical Competencies

Although employers are often willing to teach new employees the software that is relevant to their responsibilities, they usually expect a working knowledge of communication technology and productivity applications. Thus in this course, although students are not required to have a certain level of technical fluency upon entering the course, they will use a word processing program to prepare documents, PowerPoint to create a presentation, possibly Excel to create a survey analysis chart, and the Internet and electronic databases for research purposes.
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Information Literacy

In the workforce, readers expect to encounter reliable evidence, based on research in their given field, to support any proposed action. Thus, a credible writer knows how to determine research objectives based upon his reader's needs and the questions they will ask. Pre-organizing strategies, such as a flow chart, mind mapping, or a matrix are often useful and are taught in the class to help organize research focus.

Also, since information is proliferating at an increasing pace, everyone must know how to locate specific information as quickly and accurately as possible. Within the context of this course, students will receive an orientation to the IUPUI library from a research librarian, and additional instruction from the instructor on use of the Internet, Boolean search terms, INDYCAT, online indexes, the Indiana INSPIRE database and the Electric Library. An estimated 8-15 hours will be spent in research in both electronic and text-based resources, as well as in interviews and/or focus groups.
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Writing Superstructures & Document Families

  Writers often use patterns, which are used to meet a reoccuring need, for constructing communication. These patterns may be called genres, formats or superstructures. Superstructures are documents which contain content which can be re-purposed, depending on the needs of the author and reader. In this class students will create a proposal, a research report (literature review) and a project or recommendation report. Content within these documents can overlap and be re-focused for the intent of the document.

Document families are those items which often relate to each other. For example, a memo might introduce and overview a project, while a proposal would delineate that project in greater detail. Students will gain experience writing both superstructures and document families in this class.
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User Feedback & Reader Response

Many documents in the workplace go through cycles of evaluation and revision because it is important to create a document that meets a reader's needs. One document, written at Proctor & Gamble, was reportedly revised 460 times before publication (Anderson, p. 366). Peers, acting as reviewers or coaches, can often focus on editing different elements with a document to ensure its effectiveness.

Thus, one of the best ways to know if one's writing communicates effectively is to let a classmate read and critique it, which leads to relevant revision. In this class, students are given multiple opportunities to read and respond to each other's work. They are also given an opportunity to review research instruments (like a survey or questionnaire) before the instrument is distributed to the target audience. They also have the opportunity to peer edit each other's reports.
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Graphic Design Elements

  On the job, people use visual aids (tables, drawings) to share ideas. Visual elements may include headings, technical illustrations, white space, type size or typeface, or text alignment. Visuals are often used to show how an item is constructed, how an operation or process occurs, how something is organized, to show trends or relationships or to display data so facts are easy to find. Visuals must also be clearly integrated with text. The appearance of a document is important to a reader's ability to discern relationships and use the information.

Layout of documents is important for both visual appeal and audience impact. In this class students are taught correct formatting and design principles for both documents, charts and/or graphs and electronic presentations.

Oral Presentation & Articulation of Ideas

Oral delivery may come in the form of a scripted or impromptu talk or an outlined talk. Regardless, speakers need to help their audience build a mental hierarchy of ideas that link together, and flow sequentially. They need to help their listeners follow a conceptual roadmap by focusing on a few important points, using a simple outline, designing a presentation from a storyboard, or integrating visual aids into the presentation, and, of course, by rehearsing their speech. Being able to clearly articulate ideas in front of an audience or client is a critical workplace skill. Students are given opportunities in this class to orally summarize their research project at various stages, and to present a final PowerPoint summary of the recommendation report for their client.

Teamwork

One study of college graduates showed that 87 % reported working with co-writers at least some of the time (Anderson, p. 8). Working in a team often means working on a project schedule, sharing leadership responsibilites, and being sensitive to individual learning styles and cultures.

In this class, students form both informal and formal networking associations, which mirror working relationships in the workplace.
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Time Management

This class has assignments which are time sensitive, which implies that students know how to balance classroom responsibilities with other committments. Learning how to schedule interviews with professionals and clients, to administer survey instruments in a timely manner, and to allow adequate time to process research findings all work together to help reinforce time management skills.

Problem Solving and Critical Thinking

In the workplace, supervisors, managers and decision makers often rely upon the written recommendations made to them to help choose between multiple courses of action, some of which will significantly influence the ROI (return on investment) of a company. In this context, it is helpful to think of a writer and his readers as partners in a "joint problem-solving effort" with communication/documents playing a key role in the solution (Anderson, p. 233).

By the end of the semester, students have pulled research from at least three vectors, a literature review (text documents, secondary research), an interview with a client (personal communication, primary research) and a research instrument (field research, raw data). Organizing relevant findings and drawing valid conclusions leads to recommendations for active solutions for a real-world client's problem; this process, by necessity, necessitates higher order thinking and problem-solving skills.
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