Business Communications and Procedures
Curriculum guideline
Students will learn through short lectures and discussion, group activities, and practice in writing and revising business correspondence and in delivering oral presentations. Peer assessments and self-assessments may be incorporated.
1. The requirement for professional communication in the global business environment, and the role of administrative professionals in maintaining professional communication standards for their offices
2. The need for administrative staff to be aware of intercultural diversity when communicating in a global world
3. Application of active listening skills when providing administrative office support
4. The role of administrative professionals in reviewing communications created by themselves, their co-workers, or their supervisors for correct grammar and mechanics. Administrative professionals should be able to correct the following areas of common grammatical errors:
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parts of speech and word function in a sentence
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punctuation (focus on commas, colons, and semicolons)
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capitalization and number style
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sentence structure, and if required, proper parallelism
5. The creation of routine office messages or correspondence that are client or patient, third party or supplier, or office co-worker or supervisor focused. Focused messages should contain the following characteristics:
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recipient focus/attitude ("you" focus/attitude)
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maintenance of goodwill
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positive language
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coherence, conciseness, completeness and correctness
6. The role of administrative professionals in determining the correct mode of message transmission (letter, memo, or email) when given communication duties or tasks by their office supervisors. Administrative professionals should be able to format the following business correspondence:
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letter - block/modified styles, mixed/open punctuation, annotations
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memo
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email - current conventions
7. The requirement for administrative professionals to compose routine office messages when given communication duties or tasks by their office supervisors. Administrative professionals should be able to compose messages according to the following strategies:
- direct - simple requests or replies
- indirect - refusals or persuasive requests
8. The preparation and delivery of professional presentations
The learner has reliably demonstrated the ability to:
- write and edit business letters and memoranda which conform to business standards for content, organization, language, grammatical correctness, and format;
- prepare and deliver insightful, dynamic oral presentations that meet the needs of the audience; and
- exhibit professional standards regarding quality of work, adherence to deadlines, effective listening skills, and contribution to group activities.
| Employability skills | 0 - 10% |
| Assignments | 15 - 25% |
| Presentation | 15% |
| Tests (Min 3) | 60% |
| Total | 100% |
Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students:
Guffey, Mary and Almonte, Richard. Essentials of Business Communication, Latest Canadian Edition.
Scarborough: Nelson Canada
Or other textbook as approved by department