Homework 1

Organizing, Researching, and Illustrating Your Material

EXAMINATION NUMBER:

05002200

General Instructions

Purpose

This examination will give you practical experience in writing a business letter and doing prewriting for an informal report.

Preparation

Review the instruction on business letters in Writing Effective Communications, particularly the content for an information-

gathering letter ("Neutral letter"). Also carefully review pages 1-17 in this study unit. You'll be building on the prewriting you prepared for the exam in Writing Effective Communications, so make sure youVe completed that exam.

Review your work for that exam, as well as the scenario

information provided below.

Background

Phoenix Advertising, with its main headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, serves clients that include banks, insurance

companies, and retail chains.

You're the vice president of human resources management at

Phoenix. You report directly to Gregory S. Forest, the com¬

pany president. Mr. Forest advises you that in the last month,

four clients have complained about the advertising work

produced by the Roanoke, Virginia branch of the agency. He

reminds you that the clients served from the Roanoke branch

are vital to the overall success of Phoenix Advertising.

Mr. Forest also explains the little he has been able to learn about the situation at the branch: In the last three months, two of the top management people—an art director and an

account executive—have left the agency. Three of the graphic

designers and four of the copywriters are threatening to quit because they feel their creative efforts are being rejected or

revised without consultation. They want to be part of a collabo¬

rative team, not to simply produce work that the art directors

and account executives can alter arbitrarily.

In an attempt to increase revenues, the branch is accepting

new clients without evaluating the effects of the new accounts on the current project workload. As a result, without notice

or compensation for the additional hours, all salaried employees

are required to work long hours several days each week.

Employee morale and productivity are declining day by day.

Mr. Forest directs you to conduct a field investigation at the

branch itself to explore the nature of the problems that have arisen there. Your investigative goals are to

• Identify and describe specifically the causes (root issues) underlying each problem

• Show the impact of each problem on the business and on

employee morale

• Provide specific recommendations for resolving the problems in order to restore the Roanoke branch to

full productivity

Process

Step 1: Prewriting Prepare yourself for your visit by creating personnel information

for the employees at the Roanoke branch. Brainstorm and

freewrite about the number of people working in each depart¬

ment and the names and experience of each key executive

(including the two who left). Also review the information provided by the staff person and the executive team members

regarding agency and branch policies. Use the following questions to jumpstart your prewriting, but expand on them with your own questions and ideas.

• Why wouldn't employees be paid or compensated for extensive overtime? Is the branch following employee contractual agreements and agency/branch policies? Is the Roanoke branch operating under different salary scales/schedules than others Phoenix offices?

Examination

• Is the business experiencing financial problems?

• Who at Roanoke oversees the account review process?

What are the procedures for accepting a new client account and for closing completed accounts? Are

these procedures being followed?

• Why are some, but not all, of the graphic designers and writers complaining? Are their complaints legitimate? Have they always complained or is this a recent devel¬

opment? If recent, what has changed to cause the complaints? What have the art directors already tried to do to handle their concerns? How does their negative attitude affect productivity?

• Why did one of the top executives leave recently? In what ways has the absence affected the branch productivity and employees?

• Has the loss of some management people caused the regular procedure of collaborative review to be over¬

looked or are the complainers not doing their jobs appropriately?

• What's the nature of the complaints filed by the four clients with Mr. Forest? What does each request to

resolve the situation?

Once youVe created answers to these and other questions

you've asked yourself, determine how you'll approach the

investigation to accomplish your goals and find the facts underlying each situation. These methods might include one-to-one interviews with employees, observation of the

work environment, surveys of the clients, and a review of

various business reports, policies, and procedures. Use a

variety of methods—don't rely on only one, such as employee

interviews, because what people feel or say may not repre¬

sent the reality of the situation.

Create further details as necessary to craft a clear picture of

• The branch, the employees, and the clients (both satisfied and dissatisfied)

• Particular cause or source of each problem (usually

more than one cause)

• The impact of each cause on business and morale

Examination

Assignment: Methods In a Word document, type the heading "Step X." Below it type a list of your methods and summarize what you want

to accomplish with each. For example, if your method is to

interview each department as a group, what kind of informa¬

tion related to the problems should you be able to uncover

through that method?

Step 2: Gathering Information Set aside your prewriting for a few days until you can revisit it with fresh eyes. Reread the scenario information

and add ideas to your prewriting as you review it.

Suppose you decide to create two questionnaires, one for all

the employees at Roanoke and one for all the clients Roanoke has serviced in the last 12 months. Your purpose is to deter¬

mine when the problems began, how they're defined by those involved, what caused them, and how the employees think they could be solved. Write several possible questions and jot down any facts you hope to establish with each question.

Assignment A: Employee and Client Surveys Continue with the Word document begun for Step 1. Type the heading "Step 2A: Surveys." Below it type "Employees" and list in correct sentence form the top three employee

questions from your brainstorming. Choose words and phrases

appropriate for the intended purpose and audience. Under each

question, write one or two sentences describing the information

you hope to establish through the use of that question.

Type "Clients" and list the top three client questions from your brainstorming. Under each one, write one or two sentences

describing the information you hope to establish through the use of that question. Use language appropriate for the intended purpose and audience.

Assignment B: Letter to CEO of Roanoke Branch

Continue from Step 2A in the same Word document, but begin a new page. Write a full-block style, neutral letter to the

CEO of the Roanoke branch in which you explain the reason

you're coming and the preparations he or she must complete

before your visit. Use the ABC approach to developing each paragraph. Use correct sentence structure and word

choice appropriate for the intended purpose and audience.

Examination

Based on your prewriting, detail what reports and client accounts you'll review during that visit, the meetings and

interviews you want to conduct, any branch policies on

which you need further information, employee performance

reviews, procedural manuals, and so on. Be sure to end in a

positive tone showing appreciation for the CEO's assistance.

Include a representation of your signature above your typed

name (such as typing it in italics or script font).

Step 3: Organizing Now imagine that youVe visited Roanoke, met with the people,

conducted the interviews, and reviewed the surveys and

other information. YouVe returned to Charlotte and are

sorting the information gathered from your investigation

according to the primary problem.

Review all your prewriting and freewrite on any problem not

yet clearly defined in terms of causes, the impact on employee

morale and/or productivity, and possible solutions.

Assignment: Problems and Illustration Start a new page in the same Word document after the Step 2B assignment for this section. For the "Problems" portion, you

may use words and phrases in bulleted or numbered form to

represent your thoughts instead of complete sentences. For

the "Illustrations" portion, you must use complete sentences.

Begin with the following labels for the Problems section.

Problems: Facts and Causes:

Impact and Effects: Solutions:

Under "Problems," list four or five of the primary problems

you discovered in your investigation. Although President Forest categorized the problems into three areas, you will

have found that one or two need to be broken down fur¬

ther, and/or you will have discovered other problems

unknown to Forest.

Choose one of the problems you listed. Under "Facts and

Causes," list those you identified—not only what people

said or felt, but also the proof or facts youVe uncovered that

identify the causes and underlying issues of the problem. Remember, a major problem is the result of several factors

working together.

Examination

For the chosen problem, describe under "Impact and Effects"

the impact on the business and on the employees for each of the underlying issues you identified in "Facts and Causes."

In your discussion, include numbers such as percentages to

show changes in productivity, employee work time, and so on.

For issues involving employee morale, be sure to explain the

impact on the business as well.

Finally, under "Solutions," list ideas for each cause that will

end the negative impact as well as improve the situation,

making sure the solutions actually address the issue. For

example, suggesting an award for employee of the month may

be a morale booster in some situations, but probably not at

Roanoke, since the low morale is the result of serious problems.

If you create a solution you want to use but haven't laid the

foundation for it in the causes and impact sections, then

return to those sections and create the necessary information

to support your solution.

After providing the above information, type "Illustration" and below it identify a specific type of illustration (table, bar graph, pie chart, etc.) you might use to represent numbers related

to causes or impacts. Then write two or three sentences

explaining why your choice is the best way to convey the information to the executive team of Phoenix Advertising.

Revising

Referring to the above instructions and the evaluation criteria for the exam, revise your work carefully. For the survey

questions and letter (Step 2A and B), revise for directness, emphasis, sentence variety, coherence, and appropriate

word choice for the audience and purpose. Carefully edit

grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Read through your

work backwards, first word by word, then sentence by

sentence, and then paragraph by paragraph.

Word by word. In this way you can locate spelling errors. Be

alert—you may see the word here in your essay, a correctly

spelled word. But also check the words on either side. Did

you mean here in terms of location or did you mean the

sense of hearing?

Sentence by sentence. By looking at each group of words

separately from the context, you can more easily locate run-on

Examination

sentences or fragments. Compare the length and structure of

each sentence for variety. Also check the connections

between sentences—are they coherent?

Paragraph by paragraph. Locate the controlling idea of each paragraph and compare them with your primary focus for the

memo and e-mail. Does the paragraph help to develop that

focus in some specific way? Compare it with the controlling ideas of the paragraphs before and after it. Do they follow

in logical order?

Evaluation Criteria

Your instructor will use the following criteria to evaluate

your exam:

• Methods (10 points) How varied were your methods? How applicable and clear was your analysis of each?

• Surveys (10 points) Did you provide three different questions for employ¬ ees and three for clients, each obtaining desired info related to specific part of scenario?

• Letter (15 points) Did you clearly and logically specify your purpose and detail your expectations for your purpose using ABC? Did you format it with appropriate, complete addresses, salutation, and closing-signature?

• Problems (5 points) Did you identify four specific problems related to the scenario?

• Cause and impact (15 points) Did you give specific facts showing underlying causes of one problem and describe the impact and effects of those issues on the company and morale?

• Solutions (10 points) Did you identify specific actions the branch should take to solve the underlying issues identified in Cause and Impact or address only the symptoms?

Examination