Welcome to Business Communications!

My Name is Y. Michelle Brown A little bit about me… The Y is for Yvette, but I don’t use my first name. I prefer to be called Michelle. This is my second year teaching here at Sias. I’ve done mostly corporate training in large corporations in the USA.

I am from the USA, the state of Florida, but I was born in Jamaica.  Florida

Jamaica Jamaica is a small Island in the Caribbean. It is very multi- cultural with a large population of African, Indian, Chinese and other nationalities.

Jamaica is the birthplace of Reggae music.

It is a very popular place for honeymoons.

Family vacations

The beaches are beautiful and the water is very warm.

If you were watching the Olympics you say these winners from Jamaica.

My Information Peter Hall Room A203 When you me, please include your English name, Chinese name and class number. You may visit me by appointment. You can set up a visit when you see me in class or me.

About you… Please complete the information on the sheet. - For the “Notes” section, write down what kind of job you would like to have after graduation.

Our Course Website Here is the website for our course: www…. The website will include: - Syllabus - PPT from the classes - Articles not in the book

Expectations This will be an interactive course. This course will build your English vocabulary and communication skills. This course will better prepare you for the business world. This course will stretch your thinking.

A typical class period will include… Working with the textbook. Activities based on the material. Discussions in small groups Class discussions.

Syllabus The syllabus shows you the schedule of what we will do in class. You can find the syllabus for the course on the website: www. Your class monitor will also have a copy. Rules - Turn off cell phones. - Respect each other. - Cheating will not be tolerated. Please do your own work.

Cheating Policy Cheating will not be tolerated in this course. Cheating may seem like a good way to reach your goals, but you are actually hurting yourself, the people you cheat from, and your teacher. Cheating includes copying your answers from another student’s book, doing an assignment or an exam for someone else, turning in the same written homework paper, and looking at other student’s quizzes or exams. Cheating will result in a grade of “0” on the assignment and may result in failing the course.

Attendance Policy Excused absences (with the form from your class master) lower the final grade 1 point each. Unexcused absences lower the final grade 2 points each. Repeatedly being absent from class will result in failing the course with no option to take the final exam.

Grading Homework & Quizzes5% Attendance & Participation10% Project20% Midterm Exam25% Final Exam40%

Grading Procedure Homework & Quizzes (5%): You will have homework assignments, as well as 2 quizzes in class. Attendance/Participation (10%): Every student starts the semester with 10 participation points. You can lose points for things like being late often, not answering questions, not working well with a group, or sleeping in class.

Grading Procedure Project (20%): This project will give you some practical experience of one of the areas we have studied. I will begin to give you details in several weeks. The project will involve some research and group presentations.

Grading Procedure Midterm Exam (25%): A midterm exam is given to measure your progress and help you and I to know where you stand in the course and what ways you can improve. Final Exam (40%): Your favorite part of the course! Don’t worry! I’m not here to make your senior year difficult. I want you to enjoy this course.

We are on the same team! Let’s work together! I don’t expect you to like every part of the course, but I expect you to do your best in the course. It’s my job as a teacher to provide a good learning atmosphere. Some days we will study the material in the book. There are other days we will change the activities so you can be more creative. I look forward to our time together.

Take a break! “ How wonderful it is that nobody needs to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Anne Frank

Let’s Have Some Fun! Split into 4 groups. Build a tower in your groups with the 9 items. Each group will have a different level of difficulty:  1. No communication allowed  2. Open communication for everyone  3. Only girls will communicate  4 Only guys will communicate

Business Communications: Let’s begin….. First, what is communication? It is the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing or behavior. You cannot avoid it, everybody does it It happens everyday You can communicate in many different ways

Everyday we communicate with written words:

We communicate with gestures:

We communicate with our bodies, without saying a word:

Communicating through a handshake Different types of handshakes:  the vice (a firm, authoritative shake)  the pump (vigorous up and down motion)  the topper (placing your left hand over the shake)  the flip (turning the shake so that your hand is on top)  the limp (very weak, wimpy handshake) What does each shake communicate? In what situations would you use them?

Why is communication so important in the business environment or in your daily life? Can you give me some reasons……

Why is communication skills important for you? It is critical to job placement. Affects your performance on the job and in graduate school. Good communication skills will lead to advancement in your jobs. Great communication skills will lead to a more successful life.

Why is communication skills important for you? * China - 7 Million New Graduates each Year How do you distinguish yourself from the rest of the graduates? With opportunities available with global companies here and overseas as well as study abroad options, how do you prepare? Build and improve your communication skills

Effective Employee Communications Please read the article, “Effective Employee Communications” and answer these questions: If you were the manager of a company with 20 employees, how would you choose to communicate an important message to all the employees? If you were an employee of a company with many communication problems, what would you do? - Talk to your boss about it. - Ignore the problem and just try to do your job. - Look for another job.

The structure of our textbook Our textbook has 8 chapters. Each chapter is in English and Chinese. You will be required to read the chapter in English, and only use the Chinese translation for words you do not know. Your quizzes and exams will be based on the English text. Each chapter has 4 parts: - New content to read - Questions for discussion - Communication practice - Case analysis The new content will be the most important for this class. We may sometimes use the other parts in class, but we will also be using other resources outside of the textbook.

Homework Read Chapter 1 in English. We will discuss this chapter next week. Have a great week!