Southern Utah University

Course Syllabus

Southern Utah University
Southern Utah University
Fall Semester 2025

Business Communication (Face-to-Face)

MGMT 2020-02

Course: MGMT 2020-02
Credits: 3
Term: Fall Semester 2025
Department: MHRH
CRN: 30269

Course Description

This course is designed to help students write business and professional documents and in a broader sense to help students hone all their professional communication skills. It emphasizes a variety of organizational and problem-solving approaches that lead to logical conclusions and recommendations. Business English grammar is reviewed and discussed, as are conventions of both business etiquette and correspondence. Oral communication in a business context is also reviewed. (Fall, Spring, Summer) [Graded (Standard Letter)] Prerequisite(s): ENGL 2010 - Prerequisite Min Grade: C- Can the prerequisite be taken concurrently? Yes

Required Texts

McLean, S. (2015). Business Communication for Success. University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/8 
McLean, S. (2015). Writing for Success. University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/writing-for-success 
Business Case (for individual and team project) available on Canvas. 


Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

Written Communication
  • Demonstrate consistent use of important conventions particular to writing tasks, including organization, content, presentation, and stylistic choices. 
  • Use clear language, effective grammar, appropriate style to concisely convey meaning to readers across audiences and tasks
  • Understand and exhibit the difference between various forms of written communication in the workplace, including email, memoranda, letters, and reports
  • Use appropriate, relevant, and compelling content to construct arguments that demonstrate awareness of purpose, audience, and context
  • Develop the ability to critically evaluate and improve writing through outlining, drafting, and revising the work of oneself and others

Oral Presentation
  • Understand and implement best practices in utilizing visual aids to support the presenter’s message to various audiences
  • Demonstrate awareness of nonverbal communication in business presentations
  • Learn and display the differences between presentations with differing goals (persuasion, information, and more)

Information Literacy
  • Identify and locate credible and appropriate information for a specific purpose
  • Evaluate sources and attribute them according to a writing style
  • Synthesize academic writing legally and ethically

Course Requirements

Tests
  • Grammar Exam (10%)
    • The Grammar Exam is designed to ensure all students complete the course with a professional level understanding of the English language. This involves not only being able to use language effectively but to be able to talk about language as an object using widely understood meta-language. These concepts and vocabulary are important when communicating with editors and others who will publish your work in print, online, and other contexts. 
    • Everyone will take a practice pre-test during the first week of class. Then, starting the second week of the semester, each student must pass at least ONE graded version of the test with a minimum score of 80%. 
    • Students will retake the test weekly for the first six weeks of the course. The highest FOUR scores will count towards your grade; lower scores beyond the top four will be dropped. Students can retake the test weekly as many times as they like between Week 7 and Week 14. 
  • Content Quizzes (10%)
    • The weekly Content Quizzes are a way to help you stay accountable for reading the textbook chapters and watching the pre-class videos. You can retake the quizzes as many times as you like BEFORE you come to class. These quizzes help you prepare for class so you are ready to engage with your classmates. Late attempts are not allowed and will receive zero scores. Your lowest two content quizzes will be dropped from your grade.  
Projects
  • Case Study Analysis Report (20%)
    • Case study analysis is a common learning method in Business and other professional fields. In this course, you will learn how to read, analyze, and write a case analysis report. You will work with a team to understand the case study, but each student will complete their own case study analysis report. This project will involve multiple process documents. 
  • Team Presentation (20%)
    • Following the completion of your case study analysis, your team will present your analysis to classmates. You will also submit a professional recording of your portion of the presentation to your instructor through Canvas. This project will involve multiple process documents. 
Assignments
  • Homework Exercises (20%)
    • To help you apply what we learn each week, you will have individual homework assignments to complete through Canvas. 
  • In-class Exercises (20%)
    • To help you stay engaged and involved during class sessions, you will have individual in-class assignments to complete and submit through Canvas. If you miss a class session, the only way to make up these assignments is by attending office hours.  

Course Outline

Here is our plan for the semester, subject to change. 
Week | Topic | Major Assignments | Readings
1 | Introduction and course goals | Email 1 | B1, B4 
2 | Control of sentence-level writing | Email 2 | W2, W3, W4
3 | Control of paragraph-level writing | Email 3 | B6, W5, W6
4 | Control of discourse-level writing | Memo 1 | B2, W9
5 | Cooperation, conflict, and crisis | Memo 2 | B16, B17, B18
6 | Processes for writing | Memo 3 | B5, W8
7 | Group communication and meetings | Agenda 1 | B3, B15, B19
8 | Reflection and citation styles | Agenda 2 | W13
9 | Revision and feedback | Agenda 2 | B7, B9, W7
10 | Case study analysis | Case report pt 1 | Case study
11 | Oral presentations and visuals | Presentation pt 1 | B11, B13, B14
12 | Working sessions | Case report pt 2 | 

13 | Working sessions | Presentation pt 2 | 

14 | Final presentations and reflections | Final case report and final presentation | 


Readings starting with W refer to the Writing for Success textbook. Readings starting with B refer to the Business Communication for Success textbook. The number following W or B refers to the chapter in that particular textbook. For example, W2 refers to Chapter 2 of the Writing for Success textbook. 

Instructor's policies on late assignments and/or makeup work

Rubrics
  • Your work will be graded according to rubrics we develop as a class. In general, these rubrics are holistic based on criteria relevant to written and oral communication, including Content, Organization, Language Use, and Professional Presentation. 
Late Submissions
  • Late tests are not accepted, but the lowest test scores will be dropped from your final grade. 
  • If homework or project submissions are late by a few days, you do not need to email me for permission to submit them late.  However, assignments will close one week after the due date and submissions will not be accepted. Content me if you have any concerns. 
Collaboration
  • One of the advantages of learning with a university class is the community of fellow learners. I encourage you to collaborate with your classmates through collaborative note-taking (a GoogleDoc with entries for each class session in which all classmates can view and contribute to), study groups, and other supportive measures. However, all assignments you submit through Canvas must be your own work and not copied from a classmate. 
  • Technology is an increasingly important and valuable tool in business communication. This includes the use of the internet for finding sources to support your writing and using AI to help with the writing process. In our course, we will learn how to use AI effectively and ethically for developing written and oral communication. Technology, including generative AI, should support students and professionals in their thinking and communication and not replace them. Technology should be used to help us develop our skills rather than become a replacement for our lack of skill.
  • The use of AI in this course is only permitted for assignments in which the instructor explicitly gives permission. Before using AI for any assignment, a student should receive instructions from the instructor on how and why the tool can be used. When an AI tool is used, students should submit a copy of the full interaction they had with the AI tool. 
  • Students will be required to use sources to complete some of their assignments. Students should properly cite their sources and follow APA guidelines for synthesis, including quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing the work of others. 

Attendance Policy

Participation in class is an important part of the learning process. Some assignments can only be completed in-class. If you miss an in-class assignment, the only way to make up for it is by visiting the instructor during office hours. 

Course Fees

This course has no additional fees. 

ADA Statement

Students with medical, psychological, learning, or other disabilities desiring academic adjustments, accommodations, or auxiliary aids will need to contact the Disability Resource Center, located in Room 206F of the Sharwan Smith Center or by phone at (435) 865-8042. The Disability Resource Center determines eligibility for and authorizes the provision of services.

If your instructor requires attendance, you may need to seek an ADA accommodation to request an exception to this attendance policy. Please contact the Disability Resource Center to determine what, if any, ADA accommodations are reasonable and appropriate.

Academic Credit

According to the federal definition of a Carnegie credit hour: A credit hour of work is the equivalent of approximately 60 minutes of class time or independent study work. A minimum of 45 hours of work by each student is required for each unit of credit. Credit is earned only when course requirements are met. One (1) credit hour is equivalent to 15 contact hours of lecture, discussion, testing, evaluation, or seminar, as well as 30 hours of student homework. An equivalent amount of work is expected for laboratory work, internships, practica, studio, and other academic work leading to the awarding of credit hours. Credit granted for individual courses, labs, or studio classes ranges from 0.5 to 15 credit hours per semester.

Academic Freedom

SUU is operated for the common good of the greater community it serves. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition. Academic Freedom is the right of faculty to study, discuss, investigate, teach, and publish. Academic Freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research.

Academic Freedom in the realm of teaching is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the faculty member and of you, the student, with respect to the free pursuit of learning and discovery. Faculty members possess the right to full freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects. They may present any controversial material relevant to their courses and their intended learning outcomes, but they shall take care not to introduce into their teaching controversial materials which have no relation to the subject being taught or the intended learning outcomes for the course.

As such, students enrolled in any course at SUU may encounter topics, perspectives, and ideas that are unfamiliar or controversial, with the educational intent of providing a meaningful learning environment that fosters your growth and development. These parameters related to Academic Freedom are included in SUU Policy 6.6.

Academic Misconduct

Scholastic honesty is expected of all students. Dishonesty will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent (see SUU Policy 6.33). You are expected to have read and understood the current SUU student conduct code (SUU Policy 11.2) regarding student responsibilities and rights, the intellectual property policy (SUU Policy 5.52), information about procedures, and what constitutes acceptable behavior.

Please Note: The use of websites or services that sell essays is a violation of these policies; likewise, the use of websites or services that provide answers to assignments, quizzes, or tests is also a violation of these policies. Regarding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), you should check with your individual course instructor.

Emergency Management Statement

In case of an emergency, the University's Emergency Notification System (ENS) will be activated. Students are encouraged to maintain updated contact information using the link on the homepage of the mySUU portal. In addition, students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Emergency Response Protocols posted in each classroom. Detailed information about the University's emergency management plan can be found at https://www.suu.edu/emergency.

HEOA Compliance Statement

For a full set of Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) compliance statements, please visit https://www.suu.edu/heoa. The sharing of copyrighted material through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, except as provided under U.S. copyright law, is prohibited by law; additional information can be found at https://my.suu.edu/help/article/1096/heoa-compliance-plan.

You are also expected to comply with policies regarding intellectual property (SUU Policy 5.52) and copyright (SUU Policy 5.54).

Mandatory Reporting

University policy (SUU Policy 5.60) requires instructors to report disclosures received from students that indicate they have been subjected to sexual misconduct/harassment. The University defines sexual harassment consistent with Federal Regulations (34 C.F.R. Part 106, Subpart D) to include quid pro quo, hostile environment harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking. When students communicate this information to an instructor in-person, by email, or within writing assignments, the instructor will report that to the Title IX Coordinator to ensure students receive support from the Title IX Office. A reporting form is available at https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?SouthernUtahUniv

Non-Discrimination Statement

SUU is committed to fostering an inclusive community of lifelong learners and believes our university's encompassing of different views, beliefs, and identities makes us stronger, more innovative, and better prepared for the global society.

SUU does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex (including sex discrimination and sexual harassment), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ancestry, disability status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, genetic information, military status, veteran status, or other bases protected by applicable law in employment, treatment, admission, access to educational programs and activities, or other University benefits or services.

SUU strives to cultivate a campus environment that encourages freedom of expression from diverse viewpoints. We encourage all to dialogue within a spirit of respect, civility, and decency.

For additional information on non-discrimination, please see SUU Policy 5.27 and/or visit https://www.suu.edu/nondiscrimination.

Pregnancy

Students who are or become pregnant during this course may receive reasonable modifications to facilitate continued access and participation in the course. Pregnancy and related conditions are broadly defined to include pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation, related medical conditions, and recovery. To obtain reasonable modifications, please make a request to title9@suu.edu. To learn more visit: https://www.suu.edu/titleix/pregnancy.html.

Disclaimer Statement

Information contained in this syllabus, other than the grading, late assignments, makeup work, and attendance policies, may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.