Things That Work in Business and Technical Writing

The instructors of Business and Technical Writing courses have been informally sharing their teaching strategies for some time. Things That Work allows us to formalize that process and to make available many handouts, activities, and ideas to all of our teachers. For many years, teachers of composition at Rutgers have been contributing to Things That Work, and you can print a copy of the 2001 edition of Things That Work (56 pages in .pdf format) from the Writing Program web site. We have adapted many of the strategies described here for our teachers and added some of our own advice based on our experience. Your own contributions are always welcome and should be sent to Michael Goeller (goeller@rci.rutgers.edu).

Contents:

• Setting the Classroom Tone
• Completing Assigned Readings
• Discussing Assigned Readings
• The Resume and Cover Letter
• Dealing with Error
• Helping Students Choose a Topic
• Graphic Aids
• Encouraging Strong Research
• Collaboration
• Peer Review
• Oral Presentations
• Grading
• Use of Technology
• Conferencing with Students
• Computer Lab Exercises