Collaborations

Part of the WRIT 340 curriculum requires students to do a group project. Business majors are old hands at these -- you can see them throughout the semester, dressed in black suits, prepping for their group presentations in their BUAD classes.

You can tell by their demeanor, everything's riding on this -- perhaps more than one night's sleep has been lost, tempers have flared, and finally, today, is the moment of truth. It's a little different in Professor Hansen's class. The assignment is more about preparing a "formal written report" as a group than delivering a formal oral presentation, complete with the obligatory Powerpoint slides. Currently, there are five variations on this collaborative theme.

Sustainable Business Plans

This assignment was developed by Professor Hansen to complement the sustainability theme of his other individual assignments.

Sample Plans: VINIFERA (2015) and JUICE EARTH (2014)

Sustainable Cities Reports

Reports should address how existing infrastructure could be redesigned or replaced by environmentally friendly solutions that allow for quality of life in the personal and work spheres. This assignment was developed by the Pacific Rim Cities Sustainability Initiative (PCSI) to "help stimulate major Pacific Rim cities to transform their current carbon-intensive architecture to a more sustainable footprint. PCSI aims to catalyze behavioral change among municipal decision makers, consumers, and business by fostering on-going dialogue and sharing best practices on urban sustainability."

Two Sample Reports: SUSTAINABLE CITIES, METRO MANILA AND SHANGHAI

Management Consulting Reports

This assignment was developed in consultation with Professor Hansen's WRIT 340 Students Hyun Woo Chang, Colleen Liu, and Carmen To. This provides an opportunity for students majoring in accounting who may one day become management consultants - along with their curious but non-accounting-major team members - to strut their stuff a little bit. Professor Hansen's pet name for this project is The House of Lies project.

Two Sample Reports: MANAGEMENT CONSULTING, TESLA and NETFLIX

Case Studies

Much attention has been given to the role of case studies within business schools, and this assignment gives students a chance to contribute to the Center for Management Communication Case Study Initiative. The Initiative is looking for cases that focus on diversity, technology-mediated communication, intercultural business communication, ethics and communication, and other topics relevant to communication, and it prefers that cases be about a Pacific Rim or California-based organizations in order to align with Marshall’s strategic goals.

Sample Case Studies: AIRBNB (2016), PLAYSTATION VUE (2016), FACEBOOK (2016), MARIJUANA (2014)

A World We Dare to Imagine

The final assignment of the semester is a series of three blog posts. In the first, I ask students to think about this quote and then write about what their first step in making the world a better place might be. Based on initial responses, I group students fairly loosely into "affinity" groups of four or five, then for the second post I ask them to comment on each other's "better world" ideas. For the final post, I ask each student to write a "pitch" for an organization that would help their "better world" idea manifest. On the last day of class, students stand with their affinity group and deliver their pitches to the rest of the class. It can be a pretty powerful experience.

Two Sample Pitches: IMAGINING A WORLD, The She Shelter and The Institute for Cross-Cultural Collaboration Between Women.