FIU School of Journalism & Mass Communication

Senior Instructor: Professor Carlos Suris
Office Location: ACII / 319A
Office Hours: Monday 1:00-5:00 or by appointment
Phone: 305-919-5269
E-mail: surisc@fiu.edu
Classroom: A2-255 Class Hours: Monday 6:25-9:05

Course Description

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND LEARNING OUTCOMES
This course is designed to improve your verbal and written communication skills in the business environment. You will plan, practice, and participate in individual as well as group presentations. Effective communication skills will be applied to personal, class, and business situations.
This course will help you improve your business communication skills in the following areas:
 Business Writing: You will develop and/or improve your ability to use clear, concise language, to select an appropriate format, and to write the following professional business documents: memorandums, cover letters, resumes, speech outlines, speech notes, citations, bibliographies, and reports.
 English Language Skills: You will develop and/or improve your ability to compose English sentences using proper punctuation, grammar, and mechanics.
 Public Speaking: You will develop and/or improve your ability to select, organize, and effectively deliver information in a businesslike manner with appropriate language, articulation, nonverbal communication, and visual supporting materials.
 Interpersonal/Small Group Communication: You will develop and/or improve your ability to recognize how well you communicate with others in a problem solving small group setting. Our goal will be for you to develop essential critical listening, conflict management, time management, and problem solving skills.

TEXTBOOKs USED IN THE COURSE:

Teaching Method:

The course will be a mixture of lectures and in-class discussions. You are expected to participate in these discussions as part of your grade for the course. A term research project will also be required.
The instructor encourages all students to ask questions about the topics under
discussion and to state freely their viewpoints on any of the controversial issues that may be covered. At the same time, however, the instructor demands that students also respect the right of others to disagree. No student in this class should feel intimidated; all students enrolled in this class hopefully are here to participate and to learn.

Email

All students are required to have a working email address for this class. With the university providing an email address to all students and that all university
announcements will be sent to this university address, the FIU email address will be one used in this class. Early in the semester, students will learn where to get their FIU email address, how to access it, and how they can forward it to a different email account (e.g., AOL, Yahoo, or Hotmail) if they wish.

Students with Disabilities If you have any special circumstances it is your responsibility to make me aware of them so that you may be better accommodated. It is also helpful to mention this on your profile sheet. For questions and information, please call the FIU Office of Disability Services at
305-348-3532 (University Park Campus: GC 190) or 305-919-5345 (Biscayne Bay Campus: WUC 139).

Attendance
Though I may not take attendance at every meeting, it should not be interpreted to mean that students should not be concerned about coming to class regularly. Points for case discussions, in-class exercises, and homework assignments are not only contingent on participation, but also on the student’s record of attendance. If s/he is not present, s/he cannot participate. Informal rather than formal methods of taking attendance will be used. I will notice your absence although I will not track it directly. Habitual and routine
unexcused absences will directly affect your grade.

Cellular telephones and PDAs
If you carry a cellular telephone and/or a PDA, please be certain that at the start of every class, you have turned these devices off. If your phone rings or your pager beeps during class, you will be asked to leave the room, as this is very
distracting to me and to other students in the class. If it continues, you will lose class participation points.

Deadlines and key dates
Unless you have a legitimate, documented excuse, there will be no make-ups for the tests or assignments. Assignments are due at the beginning of the class period. A onepoint deduction will result for each day an assignment is late up to five days at which time you will receive a zero.

Office hours
My office hours are listed at the top of the syllabus. I will do my best to be accessible to you. If my office hours are not convenient, please call or e-mail me and we will set up an appointment. Do not hesitate to ask me any questions you may have about the readings or the lectures. This course will involve a number of assignments, but remember I’m here to help you do as well as you can!

Academic Honesty
In meeting one of the major objectives of higher education, which is to develop selfreliance, it is expected that students will be responsible for the completion of their own academic work. The use of literature, notes, aids, or assistance from other sources should be clearly identified with respect to all course assignments and examinations. In addition, students are expected to use all resources, including books, journals, and computers only in legal and authorized ways. They should also refrain from falsification of records, attend class as required, and participate in the educational process without disrupting the orderly processes and functions of the University.

Percent of Final Grade