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This is “Preface”, article 4 from the book English for Business Success (v. 1.0). For details on it (including licensing), click here.








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Preface

Business English for Success is a creative solution to a common challenge across Business Communication courses: Business English or Business Presentations? Some classes place an equal emphasis on oral and written communication, and if that is the case for you please let me direct you to our online text Business Communication for Success. If, however, your class places the emphasis squarely on written communication and writing proficiency then this book is for you.

The Business English course and corresponding text often starts with a solid foundation in written communication with several opportunities to both review the fundamentals as well as to demonstrate mastery and move on to more challenging assignments. Our students are sometimes learning English as they enter a business program and benefit from the attention to the basics. At the same time this course often articulates as a course-equivalent for English or fulfills a writing requirement for a degree program. This range provides the instructor with both challenges and opportunities that Business English for Success can address.

We open the text with a discussion on the sentence and then break it down into its elemental components, before reconstructing them into effective sentences with paragraphs and larger assignments. This step-by-step approach, with many exercises and opportunities for reinforcement along the way, provide a clear path to student-centered learning.


A note to the instructor

Business English for Success provides instruction in steps, builds writing, reading, and critical thinking, and combines comprehensive grammar review with an introduction to paragraph writing and composition.

Beginning with the sentence and its essential elements, this book addresses each concept with clear, concise, and effective examples that are immediately reinforced with exercises and opportunities to demonstrate learning. If you start your course with a quick familiarization of reference materials, including a dictionary, thesaurus, and grammar manuals, I encourage you to go to the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University for the free tutorial here: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/738/02/

Each chapter that follows allows students to demonstrate mastery of the principles of quality writing. With its incremental approach, this book can address a range of writing levels and abilities, helping each student prepare for the next writing or university course. Constant reinforcement is provided through examples and exercises, and the text involves students in the learning process through reading, problem solving, practicing, listening, and experiencing the writing process.

Each chapter also has integrated examples that unify the discussion and form a common, easy-to-understand basis for discussion and exploration. This will put students at ease and allow for greater understand and demonstration of mastery of the material.

Tips for effective writing are included in every chapter, as well. Thought-provoking scenarios provide challenges and opportunities for collaboration and interaction. These exercises are especially helpful for working with groups of students. Clear exercises teach sentence and paragraph writing skills that lead to common English composition and business documents.

Business English for Success also offers a separate chapter for English Language Learners. This chapter focuses on word order, negative statements, count and noncount nouns and articles, verb tenses, modal auxiliaries, prepositions, slang and idioms.

Starting in Chapter 9 "Effective Business Writing": Effective Business Writing, the discussion applies lessons learned from the previous foundational chapters into common business issues and applications. From paraphrasing and plagiarism to style to the research process, the expectations increase as several common business documents are presented, including text messages and e-mail (and netiquette), memorandums and letters, the business proposal, business report, resume, and the sales message. Business English for Success provides a range of discussion, examples, and exercises, from writing development to mastery of the academic essay, that serve both student and instructor.


A note to the student

Writing is often a challenge. If you were ever challenged to express yourself via the written word, this book is for you. I encourage you to explore it, use the exercises as opportunities to learn new skills, and most of all, to be successful in your achievement of your course objectives and goals.


Features
•Exercises are integrated in each segment. Each concept is immediately reinforced as soon as it is introduced to keep students on track.
•Exercises are designed to facilitate interaction and collaboration. This allows for peer-peer engagement, development of interpersonal skills, and promotion of critical-thinking skills.
•Exercises that involve self-editing and collaborative writing are featured. This feature develops and promotes student interest in the knowledge areas and content.
•There are clear internal summaries and effective displays of information. This contributes to ease of access to information and increases students’ ability to locate desired content.
•Rule explanations are simplified with clear, relevant, and theme-based examples. This feature provides context that will facilitate learning and increase knowledge retention.
•There is an obvious structure to the chapter and segment level. This allows for easy adaptation to existing and changing course needs or assessment outcomes.


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