Meeting Workplace Needs in an Introductory Business Writing Course: A Tale of a Classroom Corporation and a "Boss" Instructor

Abstract

This paper shows instructors how playing the role of a boss can lead students to write, speak, and behave more profes sionally. The course accomplishes this transformation by changing the academic mindsets, conventions, and actions of both instructor and students. Instead of academic policies to govern a class, workplace conventions operate. In a reciprocal fashion, instructors assume that students' assignments represent the instructor's competence to upper management, and thus instructors "invest"themselves in student work beyond traditional academic obligations. The paper also critiques the "boss" approach as well as provides assignment topics, evaluation guidelines, and specific descriptions of some assignments.