For Thursday, March 10

Write: Prove It! #3

This Prove It! assignment focuses on professional correspondence. Put all parts of this assignment into a single document and submit it to me via email (not the blog) as an attachment or link to a Google Doc with appropriate sharing permissions.

Scenario #1
Write an appropriate professional response to the following scenario.
(Scenario adapted from Locker and Kienzler p. 367)

As a supervisor in a state agency, you have a dilemma. You received this email message today and need to respond quickly.

Subject: Need Recommendation for Peggy Chafez

Peggy Chafez has applied for a position in the Department of Taxation. On the basis of her application and interview, she is the leading candidate. However, before I offer the job to her, I need a letter of recommendation from her current supervisor.Could you please let me have your evaluation within a week? We want to fill the position as quickly as possible.

John Inoye,

Director of Personnel

Department of Taxation

Peggy has worked in your office for 10 years. She designed, writes, and edits a monthly statewide newsletter that your office puts out; she designed and maintains the department website. Her designs are creative, she’s a very hard worker, and she knows a lot about technology.

However, Peggy is in many ways an unsatisfactory staff member. Her standards are so high that most people find her intimidating. Some find her abrasive. People have complained to you that she’s only interested in her own work; she seems to resent requests to help other people with projects. However, both the newsletter and website require a lot of interpersonal communication. People also complain that she doesn’t return voice mail or email messages.
You think managing your office would be a lot smoother if Peggy weren’t there. You can’t fire her, but you feel that it would be pretty easy to find someone better. If you recommend that Mr. Inoye hire Peggy, you will be able to hire someone else but risk your own credibility with Mr. Inoye. If you recommend that Mr. Inoye not hire Peggy, you could be stuck with her for a long time.

Deliverables

1. Write an email message to John Inoye with your recommendation.
2. Write an explanation of your email to Dr. Santee that justifies your communication choices.(Hint: Try to think of more than two approaches to this situation. Is it possible to select facts or use connotations to achieve your goal without over- or under-selling Peggy’s skills?)

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Scenario #2

You are the director of the city’s Division of Water. Your mail today contains this letter:

When we bought our pool, the salesman told us that you would give us a discount of the water bill when we fill the pool. Please start the discount immediately. I tried to call you three times and got nothing but busy signals.

Sincerely,

Larry Shadburn-Butler

However, the city does not give discounts for filling pools or for any other water-related use. At current rates, filling a pool costs from $8.83 (for a 1,800 gallon pool) to $124.67 (for 26,000 gallons) in the city. Rates are 30% higher outside of city limits. Also, you don't have any staff to answer phones. You tried a voice mail system but eliminated it due to costs and the time to process all the messages, most of which dealt with unreasonable complaints or for questions that have answers found in the FAQ of the city webpage. You have submitted a proposal to the city to hire an administrative assistant, but that proposal hasn't been approved yet. 

Deliverables

1. Write a formal business letter to Mr. Shadburn-Butler to respond to his letter, remembering to give bad news clearly while trying to maintain goodwill. Because of city policies, you cannot give him any sort of discount or incentive.
2. Write a formal business letter to all the local stores that sell swimming pools. Urge them to stop giving customers misinformation.
3. Write an explanation of your rhetorical decisions (content, tone, format, etc.) for these documents. Include information on your communication goals and how you attempted to meet those goals.

Use information from Chapter 14 to justify your communication choices and to help you format the letters appropriately.

Submission

Submit all elements of this assignment (5 deliverables) to me via email in a single document.