ENG HW 2-1

3 parts total need 4 pages answer

book download: from https://zh.3lib.net/book/5868569/b36ca0

Part 1: Use chapters 7 and 8 from your book to answer the following questions. (2-3 sentences for each question is okay) keep question number for each answer

Part 1 (1-1.5 pages answer)

1. How should memos be formatted if they exceed one page?

2. Why are memos more formal than emails, according to your book? 

3. What are the potential consequences of using business email for private matters?

4. What are some of the Dos and Don'ts of writing emails, according to the book?

5. What is the purpose of an email or memo in a business context, according to the book?

6. What are the parts of good-news and neutral letters? Explain why we use those parts.

7. Of the seven Cs (pg. 33), which do you think requires special attention while delivering good news, neutral news, and bad news. Explain why.

8. What are the parts of the bad news letter? Explain why we use those parts.

9. Explain what the nod is.

10. Imagine you have a dog or a cat who has a litter of puppies or kittens. Unfortunately, as cute as they are, you can't take care of all of them. So you've decided to start interviewing candidates to adopt them. It doesn't take long before you've found a home for each one of them However, that means you have to disappoint a few people who missed out. Write the "nod" for the start of a letter to an eight year old and their mother, informing them you don't have a kitten or puppy for them. 

Only write the nod. Assume these people are rejected because you ran out of pets, not because there was anything wrong with them (though that probably wouldn't matter for just the nod).  

Part 2 (1 page needed)

Use the memo UC President Announces Pay Freeze(https://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/2020/05/president-napolitano-announces-systemwide-pay-freeze-for-policy-covered-employees.html)

and the Bankoff memo (https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/vox-media-layoffs-6-percent-revenue-coronavirus-1234708210/) to answer these questions.

1. Compare the tone of each memo. How are they similar? How are they different? What accounts for these similarities or differences?

2. Compare the use of language in each memo. Do they have the same level of formality and diction? How does their use of language affect the success of the memo?

3. Compare how each memo explains the bad news? Do they have the same level of detail and specificity? Is it clear in each who is effected and who isn't? Is the extent of the news clear in each?

4. Compare how each memo justifies its decisions? Are they concrete? Do the authors explain their justification? Do the authors leave areas for second-guessing?

5. How does each memo leave its readers? Do the authors make apologies? Do the authors present actions to take? Do the authors provide alternative solutions?

Part 3 (1-1.5-page answer needed)

The nod is an essential part of delivering bad news through an email or a memo. The nod is the first part of your writing following your greeting/salutation. The nod is a rhetorical buffer between the reader and the bad news. This buffer is necessary because the bad news risks damaging our relationship with the reader, and we want to preserve that relationship as much as possible. Some bad news will still alter that relationship, but a good buffer can mitigate typical bad news addresses. 

The nod works by making some sort of statement(s) about a topic related to the bad news (but not the bad news itself). These statements should be about general principles the reader is likely to agree with you on. For instance, If you were telling a child they can't have ice cream before dinner, you might precede that bad news with something like, "You want to grow up to be strong and healthy so you can live a long life with your friends and family." This is something the child can agree with, and by agreeing with it, they've given you a sort of credibility. Regardless of the bad news, they have at this point agreed with you at least on principle. That's what we want to achieve with our nod. It puts the reader, at least temporarily, on our side so they better receive and understand the bad news.  The key to writing a good nod is picking a general principle related to your bad news. If you were firing someone, a good principle might be "It's important that employee and employer suit each other." In this case, this principle would be a likely reason why the employee was terminated. So the nod can be a good, indirect way to bring that into the conversation.

 

For this writing practice, I've given you 5 different "bad news" scenarios. In each of these scenarios, you are in a position to deliver bad news to a person or a group of people. You are to write a nod for each scenario that would precede their respect "bad news" memo or letter. Only write the nod. Do not write the rest of the memo. Your nods should be based on a general principle based related to your bad news, but the nod should not state or imply the bad news.

1. You have to kick a close friend off your softball team. This person has been with the team as long as you have, but they’ve not been pulling their weight for the past two years. You went to the same high school as this person, and you regularly send texts to one another and follow each other on all social media.

2. You want to decline a coworker’s invitation to a date. You’ve worked at this company for two years, and it’s been one year since your first promotion. You like your job and have no plans of moving. Because the reasons for declining a date are personal (though maybe company policy might prohibit/discourage dating), you can use whatever justification you might have for declining a date or you can justify the rejection with the personal principal to never date co-workers. 

3. You are declining the services of musicians who have auditioned to perform at an event your company is organizing. In general, these musicians didn't suit your event's needs, but you might need their services for other events in the future.

4. You are declining requests for a puppy. Your pet dog just had a bunch of puppies, and you want to make sure they find a good home. You have found good homes for all of them, and now you must let know people you have no puppies for them.

5. You must tell employees that the company's dress code is getting stricter and more formal. The company wants to create a more professional image it believes will benefit employees and make the company more competitive.