Short Writing #1: Workplace Correspondence

Overview:
As members of the business community, you will be asked to write memos and letters of
various kinds to many different audiences: individual customers, corporate clients,
government agencies, higher-ups, subordinates, and others. The strategies for internal
and external and good-news and bad-news messages are all related, but each requires
some rhetorical decision-making.
Directions:
For this assignment, you will write one memo and one letter; one of your documents
must relate good news and the other must relate bad news (in other words, you may
either write a bad-news letter and a good-news memo, or you may write a good-news
letter and a bad-news memo). You will choose two of the scenarios outlined below (one
memo and one letterone good news situation and one bad news situation) and will
write appropriate responses that take into account (based on class activities and
assignments to this point) purpose, audience, tone/language, and format/genre.
Checklist of Required Materials:
1 memo
1 letter
Grading Criteria:
Do both the letter and memo employ proper format for the genres?
Do both the letter and memo convey a clear, relevant, and convincing purpose?
Do both the letter and the memo address the proper audience using appropriate
tone and language?
Is the good-news message direct, polite, and helpful?
Is the bad-news message indirect, thoughtful, and honest?
Do the materials meet general criteria (final work should demonstrate familiarity
with basic grammatical principles)?
Grading/Evaluation Descriptors:
Remember, the grading/evaluation descriptors for each formal writing assignment can
be found in the syllabus.
Submission Instructions
Short Writing #1: Workplace Correspondence is due by midnight on 7/17. Please submit
your documents as one combined file to the Short Writing #1 assignment in accordance
with this deadline. Please submit your response by attaching the file to the assignment
and use the format Last Name_SW1 for your file name.

Note: Course Learning OBJs #1, #2, and #3 are relevant to this assignment.

Letter Scenarios:
Bad-News Letter #1
You are the Manager of the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Mohan
Limaye, M.D., of the International Medical Relief Society has written you the following
letter:
Dear [your name here]:
The International Medical Relief Society will hold its annual staff meeting
on June 1517 of next year. We would like to use your resort for this
three-day meeting, which will include about 1,500 staff members,
speakers, and others.
We would need to use your conference area from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each
day. We would also need video tape players, PowerPoint capability,
Internet connections, an overhead computer projection system, and an
interactive podium in the largest room for the various speakers who will
address our group.
Since some of the staff members will stay at the resort for three days or
more and we will be paying for meals in your dining room, Im sure you
could provide the use of your conference area free of charge. In fact, the
exposure your lodge will receive during our meeting and the goodwill you
will generate should more than pay for the facilities in your conference
area.
Please let me know by [date] if your lodge is available.
Sincerely,
Mohan Limaye, M.D.
Executive Director
You will need to write to Dr. Limaye, and youd like his organization to use your
conference area. But you have a problem: you charge $2,500 per day to any group that
uses the conference area. The conference area has many fixed and variable costs
you cant afford to give them away. (Hint: what services do you provide? Does it cost
money to clean rooms? Pay for the light and air conditioning? Supply and repair
equipment? What happens if others know you have allowed the group to use the
conference facilities free of charge?) Write a letter to Dr. Limaye turning these negatives
into selling points while holding to the position that the $2,500 fee must apply. Use tact,
audience accommodation, and rhetorical strategies to help you write the letter. You
cannot, by the way, simply say that its company policy to charge for the use of the
conference room.

Note: Course Learning OBJs #1, #2, and #3 are relevant to this assignment.

Bad-News Letter #2
You are the manager of Midwestern Heating Supplies, a wood-burning stove distributor.
A customer, Jill Ferguson, purchased a stove from your store four months ago, the
Franklin Warmer, Model 874-B. However, Ferguson has called your store repeatedly in
the last few weeks. She has been angrily complaining that the stove isnt working right
and that waxy deposits are building up on the interior of the stove. She also claims the
stove is not putting out as much heat as it originally did. In calling and talking to her, you
discover that she and her husband routinely start fires in the stove by using a fire-starter
log made of pressed-wood byproducts and other flammable substances. You recognize
the problem. Because they contain waxes and resins that coat interior walls and clog
heating vents, fire-starter logs should not be used in your stoves. When the stove was
delivered, Ferguson also received a brochure that contained instructions that warned
users about substances that could damage their stoves. Nonetheless, Ferguson claims
that the company owes her a new stove.
Write Jill Ferguson a letter explaining the situation and refusing her a new stove.
Good-News Letter #1
How many elephants does it take to make 350 pianos? Only five, assuming that each
one has two 150-pound tusks that can be turned into ivory keys. That may not sound
like many elephants, but to fans of the endangered pachyderm elephant, its five too
many. Yamaha Corporation has the protest letters to prove it. Yamaha spokespeople
have tried to defend the company by pointing out that it has substituted plastic for ivory
in all but 0.2% of its pianos; nevertheless, the protests have increased. Finally, bowing
to public pressure, Yamaha has decided to stop using ivory entirely. Realizing that this
decision will be music to the ears of elephant defenders, the company is eager to
spread the good news.
As a member of Yamahas public relations department, youve been asked to develop a
form letter that can be mailed to all of the people who have written to the company in
the past year asking management to stop using ivory in its piano keyboards. Prepare
the letter announcing Yamahas decision.
Good-News Letter #2
Athletic concessions at Cullman College placed an order for 50,000 20-oz. plastic cups
at 15 cents each from Custom Plastic Products. Each cup was to be imprinted with the
colleges mascot and this years basketball slogan, Soaring to New Heights. The
concessions manager noticed, when inspecting the order, that Custom Plastic Products
had sent 16-oz. cups instead of the 20-oz cups ordered. As the claims manager for
Custom Plastic Products, you are concerned about the error. Working at peak levels for
the past three weeks, your companys workers made a simple but rather costly mistake.
Write to the concessions manager at Cullman College explaining the mistake and
apologizing for the inconvenience. Assure the manager that the correct order will arrive
in time for the first basketball game in two weeks and ask the manager to return the 16oz cups at Custom Plastic Products expense.

Note: Course Learning OBJs #1, #2, and #3 are relevant to this assignment.

Memo Scenarios:
Bad-News Memo #1
You are the sales manager for a national pharmaceutical company. Several years ago,
in an effort to cut costs, your company required sales reps to make sales contacts
primarily by telephone and fax machine rather than through one-to-one sales calls with
doctors, who were often too busy to meet with the rep. Using communication technology
allowed the company to reduce the sales staff and excessive travel costs. Morale of the
sales staff has increased because reps prefer working in the office. You believe,
however, that the companys recent decline in sales is a result of this policy. Research
shows that the success rate of telephone/fax contacts is 50% compared to an 85%
success rate with personal contacts. An informal survey of the companys current
customers indicated that they prefer talking with the sales rep in person, especially
when considering a new drug. Thus, management has accepted your recommendation
that the sales force begin making personal sales calls three days a week to maintain
relations with existing clients and to acquire new customers.
Write a memo to your sales force informing them of this change.
Bad-News Memo #2
Economic troubles have hit the Janata Forge Machinists Plant. Many employees have
been laid off, and the grapevine has begun to promote rumors that additional
employees will be laid off and that the company is going bankrupt. Communication
related to the initial layoffs was poor and reactive. Top management is convinced that
communication between employer and employees must be improved if the company is
to survive this economic downturn. As plant manager, you must announce to employees
that the plant will close for two weeks at Christmas. Workers will be paid only 50% of
their salaries for the two weeks the plant is closed.
Write a memo informing employees of their reduced work schedule during Christmas.
Consider ways to minimize fear and inaccurate rumors and to improve communication.
Good-News Memo #1
As director of human resources, you have been authorized to develop an appropriate
casual dress policy for your company (you specify the type of company). Write a memo
conveying the new policy to your employees that both informs them of the policy and
helps to ensure they follow it. Provide a detailed explanation of acceptable casual dress
that employees can follow consistently.
Good-News Memo #2
Sheila Leiter, a senior account executive in a public relations firm, sent the following
memo to the firms chief executive officer:

Note: Course Learning OBJs #1, #2, and #3 are relevant to this assignment.

To:
From:
Date:
Re:

CEO
Sheila Leiter
[insert date here]
Intern

The University of Springfield public relations program has

asked us to participate in its internship program. The
program is designed to provide its juniors with at least 150
hours of on-the-job experience over a 10-week period.
The upcoming Hallmans campaign would provide
meaningful experience to an intern. In addition, the interns
contributions would help us meet the hopelessly tight
deadlines inherent in a national ad campaign.
Let me have your answer about whether you approve the
use of an intern by July 5 so I can initiate the interview
process and have the intern on board when we begin
preliminary planning for the Hallman campaign.
In the capacity of Chief Executive Officer, write a memo to Sheila Leiter approving the
firms participation in the internship program and authorizing her to coordinate the
selection of the intern and work assignments. Provide instructions related to
compensation (salary/other benefits) and any other information you believe is relevant.

Note: Course Learning OBJs #1, #2, and #3 are relevant to this assignment.