Assignment
COMM 310: Business & Professional Writing
Workplace Communication
Due: September 29, before class
Form: Word Documents
Submission: On Canvas, saved as Lastname_Email.docx, Lastname_Adjustment.docx,
Lastname_Goodwill.docx, LastName_BadNews.docx, Latname_Pitch.docx
Value: 100 points (10% of overall grade)
Description and Rationale: In the workplace, you’ll find yourself creating several different types
of messages. Each message type requires careful thought about audience, organization, and
format. For your first major writing assignment of the semester, you will create multiple document
types in order to meet audience needs and expectations in different ways.
Assignment: For this assignment, you will create five different one-page documents, each
scored at 20 points apiece: an email, an adjustment letter (letter format), a goodwill message
(letter format), a bad news message (memo format), and a persuasive pitch (simple paragraph
format). Read the following guidelines and instructions for completing each of the five
documents:
EMAIL (Situation Report)
Format: Write the email in MS Word, but include the To:, From:, and Subject: lines above
the message. The document should include all elements in a professional email,
including a subject, salutation, body, conclusion, closing, and name.
Message Type: Information and request. The goal of the email is to inform your target
audience and request something of them in return.
Scenario: Determine a relatively complex scenario at your work or school where you
need to explain the current situation to somebody who has been out of the country for
two weeks. While you have flexibility in terms of what you may write about, the situation
should be for a professional environment and the topic should be complex enough that
it requires you to write multiple paragraphs and will need some formatting (headings, lists,
highlighting techniques, etc.)
Task: Write a situation report email and that effectively updates the reader. Request
information or action items from the person(s) you are writing to.
Assessment: Your email will be assessed on realistic scenario, audience adaptation,
professionalism, writing quality, and format. Be sure to revise for grammar, flabby writing,
clichés, parallelism, organization, sentence variety, active/passive voice, and so forth.
ADJUSTMENT LETTER (Adjusting a claim)
Format: Write the adjustment letter in business letter format on professionally designed
letterhead. Follow the guidelines in the book to include everything that should be
included in professional letter format.
Message Type: Adjustment letter to respond to a customer claim/complaint.
Scenario: Imagine you work for an online retail store, The Athlete’s Basement, that sells
sporting equipment and you receive the following complaint letter from a customer:
To Whom It May Concern:
I’m writing to complain about your service and products. My son plays on the
nationally-ranked golf team at Bellevue High in East Danburry, West Virginia. With
his championship tournament approaching on October 14, I decided to
purchase him a new putter well in advance (I ordered it August 10). After nearly
three weeks, I received a phone call from your company (the guy that I talked to
was about as dumb as an ox), informing me that the putter I ordered couldn’t be
delivered because the address they had was incorrect—I know for a fact that I
entered it correctly! (I’m starting to think you’re either a bunch of idiots, or you’re
complete crooks.)
I gave the guy my address—AGAIN—and he shipped it. I got it three days later,
but to my utter dismay, there was a serious scratch on the club’s face. For how
much I paid for that putter, I expect to receive one without a scratch on it!
I’m demanding that you send me a new putter. I’ll return the piece of crap you
sent me the first time, but not until I get a good one. I need it right away so that
my son can practice with it before his tournament. Please help me with this as I’m
not too happy and deserve better service.
Harold Walton Sr.
Task: Following the guidelines in your textbook, write an adjustment letter that effectively
responds to this customer. Assume that you have permission to respond favorably and
meet the customer’s request.
Scoring Standard: Your letter will be assessed on its formatting and design; its effective
use of the direct method of writing; its effective adherence to the guidelines for
adjustment messages on pages 168 – 171 in your textbook; and its effective use of
language, sentence structure, grammar, mechanics, and spelling.
GOODWILL MESSAGE (Recognizing Contributions)
Format: Write the goodwill message as a handwritten note on a small card. You can use
a blank sheet of paper for this, just make it card size and scan the document as a PDF.
Message Type: Goodwill message that thanks and recognizes an employee or colleague
for their help and/or contributions.
Scenario: Consider someone you have worked with in the past or someone with whom
you work now. Think of someone that has gone out of their way to help you or your
organization that is deserving of recognition.
Task: Write a short, handwritten note to a colleague, expressing thanks and recognition.
Use the guidelines on pages 171 – 173 in your textbook.
Scoring Standard: Your message will be assessed on its professionalism, effective use of
the 5 Ss, handwriting, and general ability to communicate goodwill.
BAD NEWS MESSAGE (Buffering Negative News)
Format: Write the bad news message as a memo in professional memo format. Be sure to
include a subject line and all components required in a typical memo.
Message Type: Bad news message written in the indirect method, notifying employees of
budget cuts.
Scenario: Imagine you are the district manager of a large company and under your
purview are a few hundred employees and several branches. You have just been
notified by the president of the company that a product your company sales has been
doing poorly, particularly in your district, and he needs to see your district make difficult
budgeting decisions to get through next year. While the president suggests that layoffs
are an option for you, he gives you the discretion to find other ways to reduce costs.
After evaluating the situation, you determine that you can avoid layoffs can get your
district back in the right direction by requiring all branches to reduce day-to-day
expenses by 10%, eliminate all holiday bonuses, and require employees to work one
extra hour per day until costs improve.
Task: Write a memo in which you use the indirect method to buffer and cushion the bad
news to your employees. You have discretion as to how you fill in the details, as if this
were a real situation. Particularly as your present reasons to your employee, you will likely
need to manufacture details. Make the memo as realistic as possible.
Scoring Standard: Your memo will be assessed on its successful display of professional
memo format; its effectiveness in following the indirect method of writing negative news;
its effective use of the guidelines in your textbook on pages 197 – 202; and its effective
use of language, sentence structure, grammar, mechanics, and spelling.
PERSUASIVE PITCH (Inspiring Others)
Format: Write the persuasive pitch as a simple, 200 – 300-word paragraph in MS Word.
Message Type: Persuasive pitch that inspires employees to get on board with your vision.
Scenario: Imagine that you are the manager of a team of 10 – 15 employees in your
sales department. You have a goal to increase your quarterly sales from $250,000 to
$300,000 (20%) in the following quarter and you want to inspire your employees to get on
board with your goal. After reviewing the numbers and history of your team, you
determine that if each member of your sales team makes 5 more sales calls per day
(which would, on average, take 20 minutes each day), you will likely reach your goal.
Task: Using the eight principles for inspiring/persuading others that we discussed in class,
write a short script that you would present orally to employees. Your script shouldn’t last
more than two minutes read out loud, which is the equivalent of about 200 – 300 words.
Specifically, write a script in which you do the following things:
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Communicate a shared vision;
Use inspiring metaphors and analogies;
Use word pictures;
Be knowledgeable and credible;
Be positive/optimistic;
Be charismatic and emotional;
Tell stories;
Be genuine.
Note that you do NOT need to follow this order and that you do not necessarily need to
do all seven items to be inspiring (and there is some overlap—you can share a vision, use
metaphors, and tell a story all at the same time, for example).
Scoring Standard: Your pitch will be assessed on its ability to grab an audience’s
attention through the principles stated above. While you will not be presenting this pitch
orally, it should read well enough that it would make for a great, inspiring presentation.