Transcript Slide 1

Composition, Prose, and Rhetoric:
Examples from MGT 360
Wayne Smith, Ph.D.
Department of Management
CSU Northridge
[email protected]
Examples of Writing Anomalies — Spelling
• The most misspelled word on this assignment is manager.
– In general, students used the word manger instead.
– Slow down, be careful, review your draft after at least one full day,
and run your work by someone else.
Examples of Writing Anomalies — Commas
• Link a (long, opening) dependent clause with an independent
clause with a comma (>= 5 words)
– Example: “In order to be a successful manager you need to be able to
motivate your employees…”
– Example: “After working so many Friday nights dealing with usually
the same parties we were able to work our organizational and
management issues out.”
• Use a comma before a coordinating conjunction (i.e., for, and,
nor, but, or, yet, and so—”FANBOYS”)
– Example: “The other employee was a young male who was in his
early twenties but this employee had very long hair as well as long
facial hair.”
Examples of Writing Anomalies — Run-on’s
• Run-on Sentences (comma splice)
– “First of all, you can’t leave the job for three people to take care of
everything, if the job requires more employees, then it’s in the best
interest of the company to hire more employees.”
• Run-on Sentences (fused sentences)
– “I was living in Riverside, California it was closer [to] home but I still
had to manage my free time the best that I could.”
Examples of Writing Anomalies — Homonyms
• Heterograph Errors
– Words that sounds alike, but have differently spellings and meanings
– Incorrect: “I left orientation knowing two things; they will fire you if
your late, and they will definitely fire you if you are rude to guests.”
– Correct: “I left orientation knowing two things; they will fire you if
you’re late, and they will definitely fire you if you are rude to guests.”
Examples of Writing Anomalies — Needed
Words
• English is context-sensitive, so clarity matters
– “that” is one of most missed and misused word in English
– Incorrect: “Upper management recognized guests found it confusing
to park at [our establishment].
– Correct: “Wrong: “Upper management recognized that guests found
it confusing to park at [our establishment].”
Examples of Writing Anomalies — Meaning
• Digital computing does not now, and will not in the
foreseeable future, identify this issue
– “The restaurant was busy. It was really hard to sever all of the
customers.”
Professional Writing Conventions Do’s
(no points missed, but change for next time)
• Do use “number” for countable nouns; use “amount” for noncountable nouns
– Example: “The number of bolts needed is too large to carry safely.”
– Example: “Black Friday put a large amount of stress on the team.”
• Do use (usually) “perhaps” instead of “maybe”
– Example: “Perhaps John isn’t suitable for the new sales position.”
• Do use “such as” for “like” is overused and misused
– If appropriate, use as a verb (e.g., “John likes to do annual inventory.”
– Also, save “like” for similes (e.g., “My smart puppy is like a mentor.”)
• Do use “its” (singular) for a company (not, “they”)
– Example: “The owner of the store assured me that its deliveries were
always on time.”
• Do use “American” English rather than “British” English
Professional Writing Conventions Don’ts
(no points missed, but change for next time)
• Don’t use “a lot” as an adjective (it’s often overused)
– Example: “I thought that I was in a lot of trouble.”
– Use, perhaps, “many” (for a countable noun) or “much” (for a noncountable noun), or often, just remove “a lot” (it’s a empty phrase; it
doesn’t contribute meaning)
– Besides, “a lot” has a specific meaning real estate (it’s a parcel of
land).
• Don’t use “pretty” as an adjective (leave it as a noun)
– Again, it’s an empty phrase
– Example: “That was pretty cool.”
Always elevate your writing
(throughout this class and beyond)
• Employ higher-order composition and prose strategies
• Use a quote if you feel it’s appropriate
– “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”—Unknown
– “All ye abandon hope who enter here”—Dante
– “[there will be moments] where fate rarely calls upon us during a
moment of our choosing”—Transformers (movie)
– You can use a quote in another language (just remember to add an
English translation for me)
Always elevate your writing
(throughout this class and beyond)
• Analogy
– “During my four years working at this [coffee house], I had to deal with my
share of good and bad. Customers wanted their free drink, and management
wanted their sales numbers.”
• Metaphor
– “Working in a pizzeria is all the fun that would be expected, but when the
dough rises, so does hell.”
– Unfortunately, when it rains, it pours.
• Simile
– “…there is a breakdown in communication between personal goals and
overall team goals. When you walk into our [bank] branch, there is the open
area with the desks where the bankers sit, and the windows where the tellers
stand. Tellers are separated by a “bandit barrier” to help ensure safety. It
seems like this barrier has taken a more literal meaning. Everyone who works
on the other side of the bandit barrier is completely separated from the open
side. Oftentimes, it feels like we’re two separate countries who have become
enemies at war.”
Avoid Logical Fallacies
(throughout this class and beyond)
• Fallacy of Weak Analogy
– “Here is what didn’t make sense with this [manager]: He
claimed to have a degree in chemistry, yet he was working
for a failing company in retail. He must not have been very
good in the lab.”