English 398B: Writing for Social Entrepreneurship

English 398B: Writing for Social Entrepreneurship Spring 2016

1601 Section - Monday 6:30pm to 9:10pm, Tawes 0207 1701 Section – Tuesday 6:30pm to 9:10pm, Tawes 1106

Instructor: Dr. Mrim Boutla Email: [email protected] Tips for effective email use: 1) Begin the subject line with ENGL 398B.1601 2) Complete the subject line with a concise phrase describing your question or concern. Office: 1202 Tawes Hall Office Phone: 301-405-3760 Office Hours: Mondays + Tuesdays 5:30pm to 6:30pm (1230 Tawes) Additional physical and virtual office hours by appointment.

Tips for effective email use:  Begin the subject line with ENGL 398B.1601 (for M class) or ENGL 398B.1701 for T class)  Complete the subject line with a concise phrase describing your question or concern.

Office: 1230 Tawes Hall Office Phone: 301-405-3760

Suggested Texts & Online Materials:  True to Yourself by Mark Albion - http://www.amazon.com/True-Yourself-Leading-Values-Based- Business/dp/1576753786  How to build a lean startup (via Udacity) - https://www.udacity.com/course/how-to-build-a-startup-- ep245  Resources for Social Entrepreneurs (from the Mentor Capital Network) - http://www.williamjamesfoundation.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.ViewPage&pageId=1540  Echoing Green Stories Blog - http://www.echoinggreen.org/tags/stories  Stanford Social Innovation Review Blog - http://www.ssireview.org/blog  FSG Social Impact Advisors Blog - http://www.fsg.org/blog

Course Description “Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.” ― Bill Drayton (Links to an external site.), Founder & CEO, Ashoka

English 398B is designed to help innovators put discipline into their mission-driven dreams. Traditional entrepreneurs measure their results by how much money they are making. Social entrepreneurs measure how much money and impact their professional lives are generating. Money is like oxygen, you need to have enough to think clearly, but too much makes you dizzy.

If you are intrigued by solutions that blend making enough money but also having a positive social and/or environmental impact on our world, my class will help you acquire the skills, knowledge, and mindset you need to decide whether to become an entrepreneur or to get hired by a scaled social enterprise (i.e. become a social intrapreneur).

Whether you are interested in social entrepreneurship ideas in the private, nonprofit, or government sectors, this advanced course in writing will give you cross-sector discourse practices that are emerging as the standard in the new and growing field of social entrepreneurship.

My course blends design thinking exercises with practical insights and tactical guidance to help you become a better critical thinker and a more compelling and evidence-driven writer. Previous students have applied these frameworks and insights to a broad range of social and environmental issues (e.g. international development, global health, renewable energy, sustainable energy, education, corporate social responsibility). You may start class with a social enterprise idea you want to work on, or you can develop a concept or group project over the course of the semester, that is fine.

Throughout the course, you will have opportunities to write about research results, business ideas, and recommendations for a range of audience including fellow change makers, potential funders, government agencies and the broader public. In this course, you will write:  A substantial Social Venture Project (SVP, 25% of your grade) related to your mission-driven goals. You can choose if you want to write your SVP as a business plan, a job/internship search plan, or a plan on how you will secure consulting gigs with social enterprises that align with your mission-driven goals.  A literature review and citation formatting assignment (5% of your grade) to desmontrate your ability to identify, select, and cite quality evidence to support your arguments.  A blog post draft (5% of your grade) that demonstrates your ability to succinctly and effectively highlight the scope and depth of a social or environmental issue/impact area you are interested in exploring further.  A resume (10% of your grade) and cover letter (10% of your grade) that demonstrate your professional writing skills and experience.  A persuasive oral presentation with slides (10% of your grade) to “pitch” your SVP to your target audience (e.g. investors, funders, customers, future employers, partners).  Written self-reflections, including but not restricted to: o Learning Expectations (5% of your grade): You will write a short essay centered around your passions and goals for this class. This essay will also describe your professional writing learning journey and which course activities in and beyond the classroom will be helping you develop into a more effective and compelling professional writer. o Social Enterprise Symposium Debrief (5% of your grade): You will write a short essay centered around your attendance to the Social Enterprise Symposium that will take place on ¾ at the Stamp Student Union. o Do Good Challenge Write up (10% of your grade): You will write a short analytical essay based on your attendance of the Do Good Challenge Finals, and provide data and analysis about the winning ventures and projects.

Professional Conduct and Participation (15% of your grade). Your professionalism and participation grade will be measured by 1. a) Attendance (including arriving on time and not leaving class early); 2. b) Completion of major and supplemental assignments on time and within the quality criteria outlined in class; 3. c) Demonstrated engagement with course content and with peers; 4. d) My impression of your professionalism and participation, based on my recall of demonstrated responsibility, sustained contribution to class discussions, and consistent effort to improve both written and spoken work.

I dock points for irritations such as pestering about points, excuses, missing appointments or the writing conference, and demonstration of other attitudes and/or behaviors inappropriate in the workplace. My guiding question at the end of the semester is: Based on your performance in this course, would a senior colleague believe she could count on you (to produce solid, honest, effective work consistently on time without hassle or drama)?

Conferences. You are required to attend one student-instructor conference during the semester. During this meeting, I will discuss your work in progress and you can raise any questions or concerns you might have about the class. Sign-up sheets will be distributed several weeks prior to our meetings.

Other work in this course includes:  Activities that help you leverage design thinking techniques to define a key problem, injustice, or pain point you want to focus on for this course.  Research and readings about the solutions currently offered to address that problem or pain point.  Readings about cross-sector traditional and mission-driven ventures that cover a broad spectrum of social or sustainability-related issues.  Activities that help you consider how to craft a credible, compelling, and evidence-based case or argument.  Activities addressing topic selection, design, grammar, style, tone and voice.  Editing and providing constructive feedback on the work of your classmates.  Activities that help you analyze workplace writing situations by considering audience/reader, who you are as the author (or the organization whose voice you represent), and your purpose (i.e. rhetorical triangle - audience, speaker, message with purpose in the middle).

All Professional Writing Program classes require six graded assignments comprising a minimum of 25 pages of original writing. Papers for this class may not be used in other classes. Previously written material may not be used for credit in this class. For the resume and cover letter assignment, your first draft may be something you wrote before class started, but you must make significant changes to the drafts or else get an alternative assignment. Structured peer review will be part of your grade for most written assignments. Course Learning Goals As a cognitive neuroscientist turned edtech entrepreneur, it is my honor to serve as your Sherpa through your learning process. My key goals for our course-centered partnership are to:  Help you learn what threshold of style, keywords, and trends are used in the field of social entrepreneurship, whether you want to operate in the for-profit, the nonprofit or government sector.  Provide you with opportunities to reflect on your abilities as a writer and communicator so that you can increase the slope of your learning curve and reach the professional threshold level of social enterprise conventions faster.  Connect you with the most relevant resources and best practices available at UMD and beyond so that you can produce the best writing possible within the context of the social and/or sustainability issues you want to explore.

Whether your goal is to become a social entrepreneur, get hired by a social enterprise, or volunteer to make a difference, this course will help you develop and practice the foundational professional writing skills you need to succeed as a 21st Century change maker.

I designed this course to help you achieve the following learning goals:  Discover and understand that discourse features that distinguish the new and growing field of world- changing social enterprises across the private, nonprofit and government sectors.  Determine and specify the best genre, argument and evidence to convince your target audience to engage with you as a funder, an employer, a partner or a customer.  Develop a range of writing processes appropriate to various writing tasks in social impact and sustainability-driven communities.  Organize and iterate on the structure of your communications by using transitional and forecasting statements as well as effective page and document design techniques.  Observe and distill key genre conventions and formats for social enterprise documents.  Design and effectively use tables, graphs, and technical illustrations when appropriate.  Communicate in an ethically responsible manner.

By the end of the semester, you will also be able to articulate how mission-driven organizations (whether they are for-profit or nonprofit ventures) launch or scale solutions that will maximize impact and financial returns. It is my hope that through this process you will emerge as an effective, and compelling writer, as well as become able to articulate what career paths within the new and growing ecosystem of social entrepreneurship you might want to consider post-graduation.

Plagiarism. UMD’s honor code is available at http://www.studenthonorcouncil.umd.edu/code.html. Please review it. I am obligated under university policy to refer suspected plagiarism to the Office of Student Conduct, and we DO follow this policy. I refer students I suspect of plagiarism to the Honors Council. The Honors Council determines the punishment if plagiarism is confirmed. Plagiarism is using other people’s words or ideas without giving them credit. The penalties for plagiarism can include an XF on your transcript for the class and possible dismissal from the University. Avoid problems by giving credit where it is due. Check with me in advance if you are uncertain. I treat errors of sloppiness in the same way I treat intentional plagiarism: referral. Additional resources and policies: http://www.lib.umd/edu/shadygrove/plagiarism.html (Links to an external site.) http://www.studentconduct.umd.edu/info/students/default.aspx

Copyright notice. Class lectures and other materials are copyrighted and they may not be reproduced for anything other than personal use without written permission from the instructor.

Grading Scale. Letter Grade Numerical Grade A+ 99-100 A 93-98.9 A- 90-92.9 B+ 87-89.9 B 83-86.9 B- 80-82.9 C+ 77-79.9 C 73-76.9 C- 70-72.9 D+ 67-69.9 D 63-66.9 D- 60-62.9 F 59.9 or below

Late papers: Late papers should be uploaded on ELMS/Canvas at your earliest convenience. All assignments are due at 5pm unless otherwise indicated. Assignments will be marked down 10% of the grade for each 24H cycles they are late. Your grade will include credit for the writing process as well as the final product.

Re-Writes. Because this class focuses on the value of iterative learning, you may submit some assignments for re-grading. But you have to earn the right to a re-grade. An assignment will only be considered for a grade change if it meets all of the following criteria: 1. It is turned in by the deadline I give for rewriting. 2. You get additional feedback on the assignment from the Writing Center. 3. For your SVP, you must get additional feedback from the Writing Center and a professional in the impact area/field your SVP focuses on. 4. You must write a short memo about your approach to the re-write and what you learned from the review and re-write process. Two paragraphs are sufficient.

Diversity. Social entrepreneurs are by definition a diverse group of change makers that come from different socio-economic and educational backgrounds. I am committed to providing a classroom atmosphere that encourages the equitable participation of all students regardless of—and inclusive of—age, disability, ethnicity, gender, national origin, race, religion, or sexual orientation. Potential devaluation of students in the classroom that can occur by reference to demeaning stereotypes of any group and/or overlooking the contributions of a particular group to the topic under discussion is inappropriate—for the classroom and for the workplace culture we are modeling. (See Statement on Classroom Climate, http://www.umd.edu/catalog/index.cfm/show/content.section/c/27/ss/1584/s/1541).

Citation Style. Like academic writing, professional writing requires proper attribution for quotations and ideas that are not your own original work. However, the style of citation will depend on the organization and purpose of the document. If your subject area uses one of the recognized systems for style and attribution (APA, MLA, AMA, or Chicago) you can use http://www2.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citation.htm (Links to an external site.). If you have any questions about attribution, please contact me. Always err on the side of caution. See note on plagiarism below.

Group Work: Class assignments will involve collaboration of the kind that is typical for a work environment. The opportunity to learn from your peers is an essential part of this class, as is learning how to share appropriate, sensitive, critical, constructive feedback.

Attendance and Absences. Attendance and Absences: I follow university policy on attendance http://www.provost.umd.edu/announcements/StudentMedicalAbsences.cfm. Excused absences include:  Illness  Documented family emergency  Official university events (such as a basketball game you’re playing in; for these, notify me at least three weeks in advance)  Religious holiday (for these, notify me at least three weeks in advance or by the second class meeting for holidays that fall in the first weeks of class)

Consistent attendance is vital to your success in this class. Unexcused absences will deduct from your final grade (deducted from your participation portion of your grade). In addition, your grade will suffer further because you will miss for-credit classroom activities.

Any assignments due that day will be considered late and points will be deducted. You may miss important information that relate to future assignments. Tardiness will reduce your participation grade. If you do have to miss class for any reason, find out what you missed from a classmate and from ELMS, and do not email or call me asking for a summary of what you missed. It is your responsibility to catch up on missed work and handouts. However, in the event of documented serious illness or family emergency, contact me to make individual arrangements to help you catch up. I will take into account your specific situation.

Additional Resources. Below are organizations that will give you information on social entrepreneurship, writing and other services:  Dingman Center in the Robert H. Smith School of Business offers walk-in sessions every Friday 11 am - 1 pm, every Friday. See the Dingman website for other Dingman resources.  The Center for Social Value Creation (CSVC) has extensive resources and many programs relating to social enterprises. I encourage you to sign up for the CSVC biweekly list serve to learn about events/programs/careers/networking opportunities. The link is on the home page of rhsmith.umd.edu/svc and Facebook page = http://www.facebook.com/CreatingValue (Links to an external site.)  The AshokaU Terp Change makers “exist to promote the development of a culture of innovation and social change, along with a generation of students who feel empowered to test out novel ideas, approaches, products, and services to tackle today’s local, national, and international problems.” http://umdchangemakers.com/ (Links to an external site.) and Facebook page = https://www.facebook.com/groups/39233947647 (Links to an external site.)  The Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. http://innovation.umd.edu/ Lists the various resources on campus for students and coordinates various efforts in the field of entrepreneurship on campus.  The Writing Center english.umd.edu/programs/WritCenter/ The Writing Center can help you to improve your papers before handing them in, determine strategies for re-writes, and highlight grammatical errors. Grammar and sentence structure will count as I grade your assignments, so going to the Writing Center will improve your grade. The Writing Center is not just a remedial program for poor writers; it is helpful no matter what your starting point. I encourage you to visit the Writing Center (on the first floor of Tawes) for all assignments.  The UMD Library Professional Writing Website is a wonderful resource designed for PWP students to help you with your final projects. http://lib.guides.umd.edu/pwp. Also available to PWP students are clinics on a variety of writing topics (clinics are held across all three computer labs in McKeldin: 6101, 6103, and 6107). The schedule of PWP clinics will be posted on ELMS under the Literature Review Assignment.  The Career Centers. The Career Center careercenter.umd.edu (or Engineering Career Center www.coop.engr.umd.edu or Business School Career Center www.rhsmith.umd.edu/career) can help you with job search advice, career counseling, and other career-related questions. They can also offer specific assistance with the resume and cover letter assignments. The resume assignment requires a meeting with an advisor at one of the career centers. See also http://www.careers.umd.edu/events.cfm.  The Counseling Center can provide assistance if you want help reaching your academic goals, think you might have a learning issue that requires accommodation, want help getting more organized in your academics, or need support in managing end-of-semester or other stress. counseling.umd.edu.

ENGL398B Course Schedule – Spring 2016. All materials and course-related information will be posted and updated via ELMS/Canvas. Check ELMS/Canvas regularly for all updates, emails, communications and resources pertaining to this course as ELMS/Canvas will serve as my many way to communicate with you for this course. Note that I do update and change my assignments based on questions and suggestions I receive in class from all of you. Changes can affect the following schedule, topics, and any of the readings, learning activities, supporting assignments, points possible for individual assignments, meeting location, and guest speakers that are posted on ELMS. Week Class Date Content Assignment Due 1601 (M 1/25) 1 1701 (T 1/26) SNOWZILLA – Classes Cancelled Intro + Passions Mosaic Learning Expectations (5% of Impact Paths (Skills, Sectors, Industries/Impact 1601 (M 2/1) your grade) 2 Areas) 1701 (T 2/2) Due on ELMS by T 2/9, Transferable skills 11:59pm Learning Expectations Assignment Instructions Literature Review + Citations 1601 (M 2/8) Data Quality and Sources (5% of your grade) 3 1701 (T 2/9) Literature Review + Citation Formats Due on ELMS by T 2/16, 11:59pm 1601 (M 2/15) Design Thinking – Wallet Project 4 1701 (T 2/16) Blog Posts Analysis Blog Post 1601 (M 2/22) The Craft of Business Writing (clutter + 5 (5% of your grade) 1701 (T 2/23) sentence length) Due on ELMS by T 3/1, 11:59pm NO CLASS ON M + T but you must attend the 1601 (M 2/29) SES Report (5% of your grade) 6 Social Enterprise Symposium instead (Friday 1701 (T 3/1) Due on ELMS by T 3/8, 11:59pm 3/4/16) Cloud/Posting/Resume (10% of Mining the Hidden Job Market 1601 (M 3/7) your grade) 7 LinkedIn Hacks to get connected/mentored 1701 (T 3/8) Due on ELMS by F 3/11, Tailoring your resume for each opportunity 11:59pm 1601 (M 3/14) 8 SPRING BREAK – NO CLASS 1701 (T 3/15) Cover Letter (10% of your grade) 1601 (M 3/21) Cover Letter Writing + Editing 9 Due on ELMS by T 3/29, 1701 (T 3/22) Interviewing Skills 11:59pm 1601 (M 3/28) 10 Student Conferences 1701 (T 3/29) SVP Intro and how it will derive from our slide Slide Deck Draft deck exercise 1601 (M 4/4) (NOT GRADED) 11 Kawasaki 10/20/30 Pitch Deck 1701 (T 4/5) Due on ELMS by Sat 4/9, Story Telling Best Practices 11:59pm Track Determination Final Annotated Slide Deck (10% 1601 (M 4/11) of your grade) 12 Slide Presentations 1701 (T 4/12) Due on ELMS by T 4/19, 11:59pm Do Good Challenge Reflection 1601 (M 4/18) NO CLASS but required attendance to the (10% of your grade) 13 1701 (T 4/19) DO GOOD CHALLENGE FINALS Due on ELMS by T 4/26, 11:59pm Funding Exercise (who would you fund?) 1601 (M 4/25) 14 Revenue Streams + Cost Analysis + Path to 1701 (T 4/26) Profitability 1601 (M 5/2) 15 Who would you fund? + SVP Q&A 1701 (T 5/3) Final SVP (25% of your grade) 1601 (M 5/9) 16 Wrap up + next steps Due on ELMS by F 5/13, 1701 (T 5/10) 11:59pm

About The Instructor Dr. Mrim Boutla is a cognitive neuroscientist turned social entrepreneur. Over the past decade, Dr. Boutla has taught cognitive neuroscience courses at the University of Rochester, as well as professional development and career development workshops and courses at Brown University, Indiana University (Kelley School of Business and College of Arts & Sciences). In 2010, Dr. Boutla co-founded More Than Money Careers, a certified Benefit LLC that offers an elearning platform to help students turn their education into jobs that blend financial rewards with social impact and environmental sustainability. Distributed across 38 campuses and through 9 social change fellowship programs, MTMCareers has been awarded the AshokaU/Cordes Award for Social Innovation in 2013. MTMCareers has also been selected as one of the first ventures housed at 1776DC. A proud first generation college graduate, Dr. Boutla paid her way through college, graduating debt free with her Bsc in Psychology from the Universite Catholique de Louvain, and her MA and PhD in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Rochester.