Routine Inquiry

Instructions

You have a few topic options for this assignment, but please understand that you must choose one of the topics listed here. Otherwise, the assignment will need to be rewritten, and a grading delay will occur.

No matter which topic you choose, you will write a Routine Inquiry designed to glean information that you need via relevant, specific questions. You should include a full Memorandum heading as though you were sending the document to your chosen professional. This business professional can be a family friend, acquaintance, a person you work(ed) with, someone from whom you need information for work purposes, or simply someone you admire in the professional world.

To obtain the information you need, you will create a Routine Inquiry that includes a set of questions you hope to have answered. You should format your Routine Inquiry in business Memorandum format (see the example below).

Your inquiry should include an introduction of yourself and why you are writing the inquiry. You’ll also need at least 4-5 good questions that will help you determine what your next steps would be. These questions will of course vary depending on which topic you select. With this in mind, please use the guidelines underneath each topic choice below to inform your writing choices. Audience and purpose are key elements of this assignment.

Assignment Notes:

• Create this Routine Inquiry in Memorandum format as a Word document.
• Your submission should be 1 or 2 pages. Remember, the focus is on being clear with your needs and

questions rather than filling space to meet a specified assignment length.
• You will upload your finished document to the appropriate upload area as a .doc or .docx file.

The topic options are described below. Choose one of the following topics:

Option #1: Online Meeting Software

You are a manager for a local restaurant chain with five locations within the city. Each month, the management team has a luncheon meeting in which they discuss any issues that have arisen, the financial health of the business, progress on current initiatives, any ideas for creating new business, and various other topics.

1 You will lose points if your Memorandum format is not correct

You think these meetings are a great idea, but you wonder if they are really worth the time and expense involved.

Having recently attended a meeting of the Restaurant Managers Association (RMA), you learned that many of your peers are conducting these business meetings online. One online meeting technology you kept hearing about was _______________ (WebEx, GoToMeeting, or some other relevant online meeting provider—you choose the specific product). You decide to research the product’s website, view the demo, and study the fact sheet about the product. You determine that this product might be a great alternative to holding these monthly meetings on- site.

To gather more facts before approaching your supervisors, you decide to consult a person2 you met at the RMA meeting. This person seemed to know a lot about online conferencing and the particular product you’re interested in.

Think very carefully about what you would like to learn; for instance, you would not want to ask any questions that can be readily found on the product’s website. Your target reader is a busy professional who has no personal interest in the topic, so plan your document accordingly and create a Routine Inquiry that includes good questions for this topic.