Take My Liberty BUSI 700 Class

Four books carry the course, each read in a week or two. Browne and Keeley's Asking the Right Questions comes first, in weeks one and two, teaching a set of questions for testing any argument: its issue and conclusion, its reasons, its ambiguous words, its assumptions, its fallacies and the quality of its evidence.

Gwartney and colleagues' Common Sense Economics follows in week three, setting out the basic economic principles that shape markets, prices, incentives and public policy.

McRaney's You Are Not So Smart fills weeks four and five with short chapters on the ways human judgment goes wrong, from hindsight to the sunk cost trap.

Johnson's Who Moved My Cheese? closes the reading in weeks five and six with a parable about responding to change.

Short presentations each week introduce the program, the School of Business and the research path that leads to the applied doctoral project.

Graded items are spread so that something is due in every week but the last two carry only short pieces: a reflection and a solo forum.

Class introductions and the program assessment in the final week round out the course; the assessment is ungraded and records where you start.

BUSI 700 is handled week by week, because each group forum responds to the book read that week and the group needs your part early.

For each group forum, your contribution applies the book to a real business question, for example running a company's announcement of a plant closure through Browne and Keeley's questions, or using an economic principle to explain why a price cap produced shortages. It is posted early so your group can build its presentation, and your reply to another group's presentation follows once theirs is up.

The current business essay starts in week one with a topic from the past year that can be analyzed rather than only reported, such as a merger under antitrust review. The rough draft is ungraded, so it is used to fix the argument; the final essay of about 1,000 words in week four cites at least one book, two peer-reviewed articles and one internet source in APA.

The time audit depends on your own record. You log five business days in fifteen-minute blocks, and the write-up analyzes where your time actually went and what will have to change for doctoral study.

The closing project, about 300 words, draws a specific lesson from each book and the audit and ties it to a task ahead in the DBA.

Posting and uploading remain in your hands throughout.

A business doctorate holder who teaches first-year DBA students takes on BUSI 700.

That background helps in the forums, where each book is applied with the precision a doctoral faculty member expects, naming the specific question, principle or bias rather than paraphrasing the book loosely.

It helps in the essay as well, which is argued like a short research paper: a clear thesis, peer-reviewed support and an honest look at the counterargument.

The writer also understands the DBA's later demands, so the closing project points to real tasks such as reading empirical studies critically or protecting writing time.

One scholar writes everything for the term, with a reviewer reading each paper.

Only the coordinator knows who you are.

Group work is the first difficulty. Doctoral students often live in different time zones and work full time, so a group presentation depends on members posting early.

Reading pace is the second. A whole book is due in most weeks, and the forums assume it has been read closely.

The essay is the third. It is the first formal APA paper of the program, and new doctoral students often report a news story instead of analyzing it.

The time audit is the fourth, since five days of fifteen-minute records must be kept during an already busy week.

Self-doubt runs underneath all of it. Many students arrive years after their last degree and wonder whether they are ready, which the orientation is meant to address.

The four books also differ in tone, from Browne and Keeley's method to Johnson's fable, and students sometimes treat the lighter books too lightly in the forums.

Since a rough draft opens the term, arranging help before day one avoids a scramble.

Your forum contribution arrives early in each forum week, before your group needs it, and your reply to another group follows their post.

Expect the graded essay by midweek of week four, the audit analysis two days after your log, and the 300-word reflection at the start of week seven.

The forums together are the largest share of the quote, followed by the essay.

You can remove any item before agreeing, and a student who joins partway is quoted only for what remains.