BCHA:

Business Communication for Health Administrators

| Assessment | Schedule | Assignments | Research

Objectives: This course is designed to prepare you for the writing and communication requirements that you are likely to face in this program and in the health field. This course will help you acquire the communication tools you need to succeed:

• analytical skills
• audience awareness
• techniques for planning and presenting ideas with clarity

You will have lots of chances to practice in different business communication formats. You will produce letters, press releases, memos, e-mail, web pages, proposals, executive summaries, and oral presentations during the course of the class. And more!

Expectations:

• I expect you to come to class every day and to be ready to participate in writing exercises, small group discussions, class discussions, and editing workshops.
  
  
• I expect you to demonstrate mastery of the conventions of written and spoken English.
  
  
• I expect you to demonstrate the ability to apply what you learn about business writing in ALL your communications as part of this class.
  
  
• Needless to say, work you produce should meet the criteria we establish as a class, should be submitted on time, and should be your own work.
  
  
• I expect you to come see me in my office at least once during the semester to discuss your work.
  
  
• I expect you to contact me by email at least once to discuss your work.
  
  
• I expect you to call me, write me or come by when you have questions or need assistance in drafting papers.

Format: Communication is a process. This course is a process-oriented course. The emphasis is not on learning a specific content area, but on learning to communicate in specific business-oriented formats and about health-related topics.

The course is designed to give you regular opportunities to engage in the process of communicating, and to think about the process: to analyze writing tasks and audiences, for instance.

Groups: We will work in groups. Most of you will be called upon to work in groups in the academic and working world, so this structure will help prepare you for group communication. Group work in a composition class also provides you with a very tangible Other Person to communicate with as a reader/writer. You will be called upon to share your writing and to carefully read the work of others, provide feedback and editing, and to work well with your group, on a daily basis.

Reading: The text for the first part of the course is Piotrowski's Effective Business Writing, because it is inexpensive and covers most of the bases. We will also make use of other texts, including articles that you will be asked to locate as part of your research. I urge you to refer often to the writing handbook of your choice for guidance with grammar and usage (The Piotrowski book has a useful glossary on grammar and usage, by the way). A good, inexpensive choice is Diane Hacker's writers reference.

Writing: We will write in class virtually every day. Come prepared. If the schedule says "workshop," it means

• bring a draft
• be prepared to offer analysis and critique to other papers
• be prepared to receive input on your own draft.

Assignments

Letters (Paper One)

Business Communication for Health Administrators (BCHA) is essentially a research association; as an organization, our mission is to collect information and generate ideas. We usually find it beneficial to share our data with other organizations. In fact, most organizations try to maintain open communication with other organizations.

This assignment asks you to write three business letters, bearing the above objectives in mind. You will "correspond" with a partner from the class.

• Letter 1: In your role as a researcher from BCHA, write to a past/future preceptor (or an HPAA alum) requesting information/data that they are likely to have. If you haven't already, go to Amanda's career resources and find a real preceptor's address that you can use.
  
  
• Letter 2: This letter is a response to someone else's Letter 1. Borrow a copy of the Letter 1 written by your partner and write a "bad news" letter in response to your partner's data request. You can do anything you want in response to this request, but don't give up your data.
  
  
• Letter 3: Assume that the preceptor to whom you wrote in Letter 1 has left you a voice mail: "yes, you can have the data; write me a letter to finalize." Write a follow-up letter to establish a solid and productive connection with the preceptor; try to ensure that the data transfer goes smoothly.

Case Analysis (Paper Two)

BWHA has taken on consulting projects with a number of local organizations. Brief case study reports have been written up describing the situations in these organizations. Pick one of the case studies and write a thorough, concise analysis of the situation that answers the questions at the end of the case study. This document should be no more than two pages--double-spaced and appropriately margined--and written for BCHA internal use.

Bibliography (Paper Three)

This paper is designed to jump-start your research for the spring project. The Bibliography part of the assignment is simply a listing and summary of at least four important articles you will be using as background for your position paper. The summaries, or "annotations," should consist of a short paragraph describing the salient aspects of the article.

Your summary might cover the following questions: what is the article's argument in brief? why is it important? where does it fit in the larger discussion about your topic?

In addition this assignment requires you to cull at least five "talking points" from your articles; that is, five little factoids that you can use in future discussions with the media, or during oral arguments, committee meetings or presentations.

(Need help finding on-line resources? Try the BCHA web site).

Press Releases (Paper Four)

You will be required to write a press release describing two presentations: one from our class presentations, and one from the honors thesis poster day.

Your goal in writing the press release is to identify key interesting points; quickly and accurately communicate the who, what, where, when and why of the event; select or solicit an exciting and representative quote; and to generate positive buzz for BCHA.

Position Paper

BCHA, as a student-run think tank specializing in health issues, constantly needs to stay up to date on current controversies in public policy and the healthcare industry. This position paper requires you to research a health policy controversy of your choosing, define a narrow but interesting policy question to address, and then argue for a particular policy position.

As a group, we will select a short list of appropriate topics from which you will be able to narrow down a subject for your paper.

BCHA staff members are both busy and brilliant; your research paper should strive for depth of analysis, precision of information, conciseness of language, and clarity of structure.

The body of the paper should be NO MORE THAN five pages. Include copies of every article or website you cite in the paper. Completion of this paper includes the following elements:

• Research Proposal -- Statement of your general research area, brief discussion of background and proposed bibliography, brief outline of your proposed approach, and expected policy position.
  
  
• Executive Summary -- An abstract of your paper that briefly outlines the problem and the policy position in two or three paragraphs.

Group Oral Presentation

The goal of this presentation is two-fold. First, each individual must convince BCHA of the need to take a specific policy position with regard to the public policy or business policy issue you are investigating in your research. In addition, the members of the group will have to convince BCHA that the problem that their policies address is important.

Groups will have five minutes per person for their presentation and not a second more. Don't think about going over time. You will get an individual score and a group score. Each group will be responsible for the following deliverable:

• Oral Report Outline -- An organizational outline that indicates how the oral presentation will be structured, details major points for each of the presenters, and explains how the presentations are woven together.