Acknowledgements
This textbook project was made possible by a grant from the Oregon State University (OSU) Open Textbook Initiative and the authors would like to thank Dianna Fisher and later Shannon Riggs for their guidance and assistance in its creation.
The foundation for the project started long before the textbook became a reality. John attempted a similar textbook project twice with V.T. Raja and Rene Reitsma, both faculty in OSU’s College of Business in 2010 and 2011, but it did not make it out of the starting blocks. Still, these two gentlemen persisted and generously provided a review of the written material before publication.
Ted Patterson, also an associate professor in the OSU College of Business, importantly lent the authors access to four video writing workshop lectures (one is used with permission in Chapter 3) that helped shape and inform our work.
Jason Marquart, from INTO OSU graciously shared his thesis statement video, which is used in the Standard Essay Template section.
Rochelle King, from INTO OSU put many hours into improving this manuscript. Her knowledge of language teaching and grammar was a very helpful addition.
Lucia Stone, from INTO OSU helped with the detailed editing of the document. We are very thankful for her keen eye and ability to catch what we had missed.
Lastly, and certainly not least, two cracker jack teaching assistants, Hailee Schroeder and Katharine Satak for miscellaneous projects to make this book coherent.
About the Authors
In 2009, John Morris transitioned from a three decades long career in private industry to teach at OSU; his first course incorporated the university’s Writing Intensive Course (WIC) requirement, for the College of Business. As a stipulation of its accreditation process, AAC&U requires that each college have a WIC that teaches students how write in the profession. Having worked extensively with recent college graduates in private industry, John had some very specific ideas about what was needed to write for business, but he found little in existence in the way of universal business writing standards beyond academic writing guides. During the interim nine years of teaching WIC, a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses, and collaborating with other business instructors and professors, he developed a variety of job aids to help students write for business.
Julie Zwart is an instructor in INTO Oregon State University’s Graduate Pathway program. The Pathway program was established in 2008 to provide language, culture, and academic support for international students as they transition into their masters programs at OSU. Julie began teaching at INTO OSU in 2014, and shortly after worked on a project to redesign a foundational MBA pathway course, which is how she met John. Later she worked with him as co-instructor in the MBA Pathway teaching writing and analysis. Over the course of working together and assessing the needs of students in terms written communication for business purposes, the two undertook creating this writing textbook.
