- In this correspondence assignment, you’ll write an email in response to the scenario below. (This one is adapted from the textbook Business Communication Today.) Once again, you may need additional information that isn’t provided in the scenario. For this message, I encourage you to consider the role that research (e.g., examples from other companies, advice from communication experts, etc.) can play in persuasive correspondence. (You should cite any research that you use in APA documentation style.) Along similar lines, carefully consider what forms you-attitude and positive emphasis will take in the message. From your college years, you have hands-on experience with a wide range of social media tools, having used them to collaborate on school projects, to become involved in your local community, to learn more about various industries and professions, to research potential employers during your job search, and to stay in touch with family and friends at home. In fact, without social media, you might’ve never heard about your current employer in the first place. Moreover, your use of social media on the job has already paid several important dividends, including finding potential sales contacts at several large companies (which you referred to the sales department), connecting with peers in other companies to share ideas for working more efficiently, and learning about some upcoming legislative matters in your state that could profoundly hamper your company’s current way of doing business. You hoped that by setting an example through your own use of social media at work, your new colleagues and company management would quickly adopt these tools as well. However, just the opposite has happened. Waiting in your e-mail inbox this morning was a message from CEO John Tebac announcing that the company is now cutting off access to social networking websites and banning the use of any social media at work for all employees except employees in the sales, marketing, and public relations departments. The sales, marketing, and public relations departments retain access to all social media tools in the new policy. The message says that for other employees using company time and company computers for socializing is highly inappropriate and might be considered grounds for dismissal in the future. Your task: You fight the urge to fire off a hotly worded reply to the CEO about how social media is used by other departments to support the company’s success. Instead, you decide to send an email to your immediate superior Barbara Jules that explains why you believe the new policy should be reversed. Using your supervisor’s favorite medium, write an email explaining why Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking technologies are valid and valuable business tools and ask for action within your reader’s scope of power.
Sample Solution
