ENGL 3130: Business Writing

Professor:If you've never met a professor you might wonder what we do. We do research, write grant applications, write articles and books, review colleagues' work, give public presentations, participate in university governance, and teach (distill hundreds of books and articles into syllabi, create quizzes and tests, assign papers, offer feedback, grade, write letters of recommendation, design new classes). Most of the professors you will meet care deeply about teaching. They just wish they had more time for it. Remember there's a difference between learning and being entertained. Remember also that you don't have to like someone to learn from them. Dr. George Pullman
Office address: 2424, 25 Park Place
Phone: 404 - 413 - 5458When you do call someone, have a voice message prepared in advance. No more than 10 seconds. Speak slowly. Just say who you are, what you want, how to reach you. Repeat your number at the end, s-l-o-w-l-y. If you need more than 10 seconds, use email or face-to-face. I never use the phone, so with me, go straight to email.
Office Hours: I am available via gpullman@gsu.eduWhen emailing a professor, the subject line should be class number: day, time. Like this, for example, ENGL 3130: TR, 8:00. That way you don't have to introduce or explain yourself. The proper salutation is, 'Professor Lastname.' Don't use txt spk. Use complete sentences and standard punctuation. Don't ask questions Google answers. Don't ask, 'What did I miss?' (unless you want to antagonize your professor). Sign off with Thank you, and your name. Don't expect an immediate response. Many professors answer email only during a set time, say between 4 and 5 pm. I'm compulsively responsive to email but tend to maintain radio silence between 10 pm and 5 am..
I am early to class and frequently stay late, if you want to speak face-to-faceDon't be anonymous. Go to your professors' office hours at least once; early on is best. (Think of a smart question first: why did you get interested in SUBJECT HERE? What do SUBJECT majors do when they graduate? Most people, not just profs., like to talk about themselves, especially indirectly). Generally speaking, if you behave as though you take your learning seriously, a prof. will take you seriously. Otherwise, you are just a face in a sea of ever-changing faces..
You may also make an appointment, office, Skype/FaceTime, coffee shop.

The Plain Style

Overview

The plain style is simple, direct, unambiguous, and unadorned. No word is accidental or merely descriptive. The plain style is appropriate whenever you want to convey information without evoking emotion or creating an impression of the writer's character. The plain style is defeated by wordiness, redundancy, clichés, and nominalizations (using a noun phrase when an adjective or verb phrase would be more effective).

At the bottom of this screen is a simplistic (unreliable) program. It compares what you have written to a list of several thousand of the thousands of possible imperfect expressions and prints any case-sensitive matches back to the screen, color coded according to the particular imperfection. It will not catch everything; It will "catch" problems that aren't actually problems, and it knows no grammar. The goal is to help you think about how you are writing and not to “fix” what you have written.

Instructions

Copy and past text into the space below and hit the submit button. The style checker prints the content back to the screen below the box, color coded. Edit and resubmit. When it comes back with nothing highlighted, what you have should be more effective than what you had.

orange -- nominal You've used a noun phrase instead of an adjective or verb. Rephrase the main idea using a verb or adjective: in all likelihood likely. list of nominal expressions
green -- wordy You've used unnecessary words: at this time currently. list of verbosities
darkred -- redundant You've said the same thing twice. Delete the adjective: common similarities. list redundancies
blue -- cliché You've used an overly common metaphor, simile, or allusion. Find another way to say the same thing: sour grapes bitter. list of clichés
red -- prepositional phrase; You've begun a sentence with a prepositional phrase; begin with a noun instead: To the library I am going I'm going to the library. list of prepositional phrases
purple -- vague word You've used a word that is too general. Specify. Some people say . . . Jocasta said in her last interview . . . list of vague words
yellow -- business jargon You've used an overused business cliché. Be more direct. We need to downsize in order to right size this departmet You are fired because we need to make more money. list of bizz words