UPPER BA374 Business communication Week 1 Discussion
Issues and Resolutions
Applying your own thinking, experiences, and application and citation of information from at least one resource, respond to the following Discussion topic(s). Remember, the Discussions are a dialog (conversation) and an opportunity to build community. This is the second of two Discussions in Week 1. In this Issues and Resolutions Discussion, post your main response on or before Day 4 (Thursday night). Post at least three additional responses (one-two paragraphs each) during Monday through Sunday, all on different days. It is a UIU requirement for Discussion participation to occur on at least four of the seven days in each Week. With the exception of Week 8, “Weeks” begin on Mondays and end on Sundays. It is assumed in this Business Communication class that all writing will have been thoroughly proofread, grammar and spell-checked and never represent the first draft. Writing is always a process, one which requires more than one draft prior to submitting a final, polished posting. Grading rubrics for the Issues and Resolutions Discussion are included below the Directions.
The Issues and Resolutions Discussion is the place for you to familiarize yourself with the Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem-Solving Process by applying a real-world situation and communicating the outcome from your critical thinking and decision-making. Below is a visual representation of the process.
One important point made in Chapter 1 of our Guffey and Loewy (2018) textbook is you first must be able to think critically and make decisions before you can clearly communicate those decisions (p. 7). This also explains why our first Week’s Discussion is focused on this important reality.
Directions:
Write your response using paragraph format (include a topic sentence plus 3-4 additional sentences). Do not use the second-person perspective. You may use the first and/or third-perspective perspective for this “Issues and Resolutions” Discussion response.
Following the Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem-Solving Process, begin with “Explore the Challenge”. It is your choice what challenge you identify but it must relate to Business Communication. You will need to think about what you need to know about the problem, perhaps gather information (e.g., from people, from research) and ultimately, clearly state what is the problem (e.g, “the business communication challenge I have chosen is…” .Understanding the problem is essential” (Guffey& Loewy, 2018, p. 7). This section of your main response is likely one paragraph in length.
Next is the second phase of the Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem-Solving Process, “Generate Ideas”. Write in full sentences (not bullet-point sentence fragments) articulate ideas that could solve the problem. From this information, (perhaps one or two paragraphs = appropriate for this phase) choose one or two of the most promising ideas.
The third and final phase is “Implement Solutions”. This phase transitions ideas to solutions, including action planning. This section of your main response is likely one or two paragraphs in length.
Write a paragraph (paragraphs require at least three if not four sentences to be considered a paragraph) reflecting upon your experience using the Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem-Solving Process.
Somewhere, within the entire main response include one quote from either our textbook or from a UIU library article. Refer to the Overview section to 1) see how to correctly format references using APA formatting (a UIU requirement), and 2) see how to access information using the UIU library.
Give yourself the gift of allocating an appropriate amount of time to think, research, and write. Follow the directions. Run spell and grammar check and proofread your crafted response (reading aloud is highly recommended because it slows down the review, indicates where pauses are appropriate, and suggests where editing is beneficial). Discussion settings allow you to edit an already posted response without any change in date or time.
As noted above, postings should be made on four of seven days during the week. The main response plus three additional conversational responses to other postings is a requirement. Main postings should be present on or before Day 4 (Thursday night).
Enjoy the learning adventure. If you have questions or need clarification, send an email to petersonm@uiu.edu.
(note: this is the correct APA formatting so copy and paste it – see Overview section for additional information on using APA formatting to cite references)