Using the Zero-Waste Circular Economy Module in Business Writing

Ross Jackson, Wittenberg University

Course Description

This course is designed to provide students with an integrated and multi-functional approach to understanding business writing and communications. Students are provided with an opportunity to explore and produces a variety of business writings and communications. This business writing course addresses the central themes of a) what is organizational meaning and how is it effectively communicated internally and externally, b) elements of effective and strategically aligned business writing and communication and c) how to generate informative business reports. Emphasis is on the formulation, application and justification of ethical business writing and communication through the use of cases.

Explore the Zero-Waste Circular Economy Module »

Relationship of the Zero-Waste Circular Economy Module to Your Course

The course was a semester long (16 weeks). The module was implemented the last two weeks of class (the week before finals). I would not offer the class that late in the class again. The class was about business writing, so the course unique assessments were focused on writing an internal memo and a press release based on the waste audit data.

Integrating the Module into Your Course

My class was a business writing class. The focus was on how would one communicate the major ideas of a circular economy to internal and external stakeholders. So, two of the assignments were an internal memo and an external press release designed to communicate how they're going to adopt a circular economy. The focus was on a vinyl record company, called Wit World Records, and the focus was to develop vinyl records that were more sustainable.

What Worked Well

The writing assignments worked incredibly well so this was sort of a double-edged sword. On one level, it was at the end of the class so they had a lot of the course material to draw upon on how to do these things. But having it as the last part of the class was a constraint, just in terms of how much flexibility there was for execution.

Challenges and How They Were Addressed

The major challenge was having it at the end of the class was a major time constraint for me more than them. If they needed more time, I was really hitting a wall with where the final was enabling to address that. So, if I had to do it again, I would position it more, maybe 2/3 of the way into the class rather than at the very end.

Student Response to the Module and Activities

The students responded very well. I think starting with the personal waste audit, that really provided a foundation that students were able to see why this was important and to understand what the circular economy was aiming at. So that context provided a great foundation to then go to the more abstract circular economy.