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Assignment 4 External Correspondence Packet

PART 1

The background. You are in the beginning stages of building your own consulting business and need to

build your client base (You can choose your field—financial consulting, marketing consulting,

management consulting, etc.) You recently hosted a table at an expo where you collected contact

information from people who stopped by your table at the event. Now, you need to follow up with

these individuals and try to attract them as clients.

The assignment. Compose an email to one of the people on your contact list from the expo. Your goal

here is to move the relationship forward, either by scheduling a meeting or—even better—hiring you as

a consultant.

Remember, the challenge of these emails is getting people to actually read them—and then getting

them to take action. How will you accomplish this?

Grading Criteria: A successful email will:

 Contain a subject line that grabs the reader’s attention and persuades him/her to actually open

the email;

 Effectively inform the audience of your services and motivate him/her to meet with you;

 Use principles of design and visual rhetoric to engage and persuade the audience (You have

some freedom here! Feel free to incorporate images, color, hyperlinks, etc.);

 Demonstrate thoughtful organization and formatting to make the information easily accessible;

 Demonstrate careful editing for tone, style, concision, and formal grammar and punctuation.

PART 2

The background. You are the president of DePaul University and receive the following letter from one of

your top alumni donors asking you to overrule an admissions decisions on behalf of the donor’s niece:

May 5th, 2016

A. Gabriel Esteban, President

DePaul University

1 E. Jackson Blvd.

Chicago, IL 60604

Dear Dr. Esteban,

My niece Mary Jones is a wonderful young woman who has thus far been unsuccessful in gaining

admission to the university’s undergraduate program. This is a frustrating situation because

three generations of our family have attended DePaul, and a denial of admission for Mary would

be a profound disappointment for our family.

We are longtime supporters of DePaul, as you know. My wife currently serves on the Alumni

Board, and we have helped raise more than $3 million for the school in recent years. We don’t

want to be forced to reconsider our important affiliation with the university.

While Mary may not have a spotless academic history, we believe that the year she spent

working for Habitat for Humanity after high school has given her the maturity she needs to

succeed in college. We ask you to talk with your admissions director, who thus far has not been

receptive to our concerns. We will appreciate your intervention in this matter.

Sincerely,

Robert Robertson, CEO

Major Investment Group

Northbrook, IL

The assignment. Compose a letter responding to Mr. Robertson. Your goal here is to support the

decision made by the admissions office, without losing the loyalty of Mr. Robertson and his family.

Grading Criteria: A successful letter will:

 Support the decision of the admissions department to uphold DePaul’s standards for admission,

without speaking badly of Mary’s current qualifications;

 Appease Mr. Robertson so that he will continue to support the university—this might involve

acknowledging Mr. Robertson’s accomplishments and generosity, or perhaps suggesting

another path for Mary to enter the DePaul, etc;

 Demonstrate thoughtful organization and formatting, follow the conventions of a formal letter;

 Demonstrate careful editing for tone, style, concision, and formal grammar and punctuation.