Course Intro: Business Organizations. (Posted by Gabe)

Dear Students--

From what I hear, you should be near the beginning of your third quarter of studies. I have been designated your third quarter mentor, and will do my best to assist you along the way. I must admit, when I saw the courses that I get to help you with, I got excited--these are wonderful courses, and I think you are going to have a great semester.

I'm going to start with the course that I would imagine has you the most worried. Now, I could be wrong on that front--I hope that you are looking forward to Business Orgs--but this was certainly the course in this semester that worried me when I went through the paralegal program. I was very surprised to find that I actually loved the course. Not only was it easy to follow and understand, but it's practical. I recently, and rather unexpectedly, became the CEO of a non-profit corporation, and this paralegal course got me started with the knowledge I need.

The key to Business Organizations is in remembering the different criteria for each organization. No matter how complex the organization--as simple as a sole proprietorship or as complex as a corporation--you can identify the structure by identifying the responses to these criteria.

These critera are found in your syllabus, and I would encourage you to start by memorizing them. Don't stop there, though! Take the information in your textbook that fills out these criteria, and create a "mind map" that outlines all of the issues that can arise from that type of organizational structure. I did just that, and it not only helped me through the paralegal, but got me through law school business orgs class, too!

The knowledge in this class is highly practical, but at times it can seem rather theoretical and obtuse. The best way that you can reduce the theoretical aspect is to think in terms of real-life situations. If you follow the stock market, for instance, you will be able to apply your knowledge of those corporations to the theory you are learning in this course.

A large part of the purpose of this blog is to facilitate class interaction and knowledge sharing, so now it is your turn. Take some time to think about what real-life situations you are going to use to help you learn the theory in this course.

And then tell us about it!