18 Jan As you complete your final

WRTG394 Advanced Business Writing

Week 8 Discussion

DQ1 Bad news about your report

For this assignment, you will role-play a decision-maker who has decided against the positions advanced your classmates’ memos. Before delivering the “bad news” to your classmates, make sure to review “Delivering a Negative News Message” and pay special attention to the instructions for this discussion.

You should review the link from Purdue University on “Examples of Bad News Memos” located at the top of the list of activities for this week.

Step 1: Post your research report as a Word or rtf attachment (this is so a classmate can read it);

Step 2: Choose a classmate’s research report and post a response telling him/her that you are reading his/her report – only 1 reader for each report, please;

Step 3: (Here’s the hard part – and where Chap. 17 helps). In a memo (check Week 1’s topic on standard business writing types for correct memo format), tell the person whose report you have read that the company/community/etc. WILL NOT be implementing the recommended solution to the problem he/she has proposed. You will have to be creative in offering reasons why the solution cannot be implemented (money, opposition from stock holders, higher command or management, etc., are typical reasons for such decisions). Here is a helpful explanation of how to handle such a memo:

Bad News Memos

Post your memo as your second response to the person you have chosen.

This exercise gives you practice in one of business/professional writing’s toughest tasks – saying no.

Remember, try to follow the advice that you gain from Chap. 17 in the textbook. This will make the task both a little more difficult (the actual writing task) but somewhat easier (the handling of having to say no.)

For advice and resources to help you write a successful bad news memo, see the resources in Content for Week 7.

Doing this should give you all the knowledge you need to give your classmate bad news. 🙂

DQ2 Final reflections on your executive summary

As you complete your final assignment, share your responses to a series of questions about the process of business writing and creating an executive summary. Provide feedback to your classmates’ thoughts.

Please watch the short video linked to in Content for Week 8, “Video review of executive summary for WA#4.”

Then answer the following questions.

What is proportional length? In writing your report, did you find it challenging to keep your executive summary to proportional length? If so, what challenges did you encounter?Your answers can be a short paragraph for each question.

To whom was your report addressed? Is this person or group of people likely to read your whole report? Or just the executive summary? Please explain your answer.Your answers can be a short paragraph for each question.

What was your methodology in your report? You can review the video to re-visit how the methodology could be integrated into an executive summary.