15.279
Management Communication for Undergraduates
Develops skills in professional writing, presentations, teamwork, and interpersonal communication, including feedback and difficult conversations. Emphasizes strategic choices about audience, purpose, message, structure, and delivery through individual and team assignments for professional settings. Includes guided use of generative AI to support planning, drafting, critique, and revision while maintaining quality control and accountability. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication provided.
Fall 2012
Topics
- Introduction to the Course; Strategy and Structure
- Strategy and Structure (cont.)
- Oral Presentations
- Oral Presentations (cont.)
- Listening; Giving and Receiving Feedback
- Persuasion
- Writing
- Writing (cont.)
- Effective Teamwork
- Team Meeting
- Cover Letters
- Interviewing
- Writing Team Reports; Giving Team Presentations
- Communicating Electronically
- Individual Conferences / Team Meetings
- Individual Conferences / Team Meetings (cont.)
- Cross-Cultural Communication
- Cross-Cultural Communication (cont.); Gender Communication
- Communication Skills for Leaders
- Communication Skills for Leaders (cont.)
- Working with the Media
- Review of Strategic Communication
- Team Report Presentations
- Team Report Presentations (cont.)
- Course Wrap-Up
Readings
- Phillips, Donald T. Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times . Warner Books, 1993. ISBN: 9780446394598.
- Munter, Mary M. Guide to Managerial Communication . 9th ed. Prentice Hall, 2012. ISBN: 9780132147712.
- Williams, Joseph. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace . 10th ed. Longman, 2010. ISBN: 9780205747467.
- Zelazny, Gene. “From Data to Chart.” In Say It With Charts: The Executive’s Guide to Visual Communication . McGraw-Hill, 2001. ISBN: 9780071369978.
- 8 · Writing (cont.) · Lu, Chi. “Catalogue of Genres.” Part V in Wen Fu (The Art of Writing) . Far Corner Books, 1987. ISBN: 9780932576408.
- Phillips, Donald T. “People.” Part I in Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times . Warner Books, 1993, pp. 11–38. ISBN: 9780446394598.
- ———. “Communication.” Part IV in Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times . Warner Books, 1993, pp. 143–69. ISBN: 9780446394598.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2012
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.