09 Jul letter writing

Assignment #4: Letter

Write a letter for one of the following situations using correct business letter format. See pages 56, 143, and 147 or Figures5.4, 7.3, and 7.5 in the textbook for examples. Check your organization, content and tone carefully. Be sure to consider the potential reactions from your audience and adjust your word choice and organizational strategies (direct versus indirect) accordingly—your goal is to resolve the situation in a diplomatic manner.

Star Wars

You are the Assistant Director of the Waste and Maintenance Department of the Death Star (current address: Waste and Maintenance Department, Room 2187, Block 83, Floor 153, DS-1 Orbital Battle Station, Alderaan System). A month ago, you received a report that there might be a dianoga infestation in the trash compactor system, so you hired an exterminator service, Utapau X-Terminators (1344 Sinkhole Lane, Amanitown, Utapau, Tarabba Sector, Utapau System, X8C 1G9), to take care of the problem. 

Nessle Shodon and her team were dispatched to the Death Star and looked at the compactor system three weeks ago. They set some traps and Shodon assured you that the dianoga would be gone within two weeks—she was confident that dianoga are easy pests to get rid of because they always go right for the bait. Two days ago, however, you received another report of a dianoga sighting, and when you scanned the system, you found that there were still several of the creatures moving around in the station’s compactors. 

You’re very upset. Utapau X-Terminators has a policy that says customers do not pay until the pests have been dealt with, but Shodon told you that the dianoga were as good as gone, so she had you pay the 20,000 Imperial Credit fee upfront. You’vesince found a new exterminator to deal with the problem, but you need to send a letter to Syrin Tendoora, the owner/manager of Utapau X-Terminators, to complain about Shodon’s false promises and to get your money back.

The Lord of the Rings

You are director of the official Shire Party Planning Committee, and you have spent the last couple months preparing for Bilbo Baggins’s 111th birthday celebration. The party is a week away, and almost everything is ready to go—invitations have been sent, food has been secured, decorations have been made, and Gandalf the Grey is on his way with the fireworks. There is one major hiccup, though. Your contact at the Inn of the Prancing Pony (12 Bree-hill, Bree, Arnor, Eriador), Nob, was supposed to deliver ten kegs of ale three days ago, but he never showed up, and you have heard nothing from him.

You are frantic. Ale is a necessity at hobbit parties, and there is no other way for you get your hands on enough ale for 144 guests in such a short amount of time. You’ve also already paid a deposit to the Prancing Pony.

You’ve decided to contact Nob’s boss directly, and send a letter to Barliman Butterbur, the innkeeper of the Prancing Pony. You want to express your frustration with Nob, while also securing the delivery of the ale before the date of the party (September 22nd). Butterbur can respond to you at the party planning headquarters (Bag End, 14 Bagshot Row, The Shire, Arnor, Eriador) with attention to the Shire Party Planning Committee, since Bilbo also receives his mail at the same address.

Avengers: Endgame

You are the personal assistant to the Grandmaster (4766 Grandmaster Blvd., Grandmaster Palace, Sakaar City, Sakaar, Fornax Galaxy, Tayo System, 30J87078). Five months ago, he sent you to the Collector’s Museum (47 Jemiah Ave., Exitar, Knowhere, The Rip, 17H17211) to procure a very expensive and rare object that was in the Collector’s possession: the Reality Stone. 

Your boss paid an extremely hefty sum of money (equivalent to an entire system’s yearly GDP) for the infinity stone, so it was no surprise that he was furious when he discovered that Thanoshad somehow collected all of the stones and snapped half the universe’s population away. The Grandmaster has asked you to write a letter to Tanaleer Tivan, the Collector (even though he’snot sure if the Collector survived the snap). In the letter, he would like you to demand a full refund for the fake Reality Stone he sold you. The Grandmaster would also like you to express his disappointment toward the Collector for betraying his trust, but he also doesn’t want to jump to conclusions about the Collector’s deceit—he’d like to give the Collector a chance to explain himself.

The Incredibles

You are an engineer at WSP USA (1 Pennsylvania Plaza 2ndfloor, New York, New York, 10119). You have been hired by a Mr. Robert “Syndrome” Pine to develop an experimental rocket delivery system. He plans to launch the rocket on Sunday and has been preparing to meet that deadline by hiring extra staff and scheduling double shifts. You have chosen to order the parts for the rocket from Boeing, a respected aerospeace in the USA. It is crucial that every shipment of materials arrives on time so that Syndrome can meet his deadline. 

Unfortunately, Wednesday’s shipment of fuel lines was not what you had ordered. Not only was the shipment short three fuel lines, but four of the lines were slightly damaged upon arrival. Some of the fuel lines are salvageable, but most are broken. 

Syndrome has asked you write an urgent letter to Hawker Carlittle, the Distributions Manager at Boeing (1812 N Moore St, Arlington, Virgina, 22209). He would like you to rectify the situation as soon as possible, as he wants the fuel lines replaced by Friday.

Game of Thrones

You are the maester of House Glover, a noble house of the North, and former bannermen of House Stark. Recently, you heard that Jon Snow, the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch actually opened up the gates of Castle Black to welcome a horde of wildlings. Your lord, Robett Glover, is furious. This type of behaviour from the Lord Commander is unprecedented, and he feels that Snow has placed the entire North at risk by allowing these heathens into his ranks. According to Robett, “the only good wildling is a dead wildling.”

That said, Lord Glover (Deepwood Motte, Wolfswood, Bay of Ice, Northern Westeros) understands the importance of The Wall, and is not so hasty as to ignore the consequences of severing House Glover’s relationship with the Night’s Watch. He has begrudgingly decided to attempt a diplomatic approach before completely writing off Jon Snow’s ability to command the Watch. He has instructed you to send a raven to Jon Snow (c/o The Night’s Watch, Castle Black, The Kingsroad, The Wall, Northern Westeros) to try to address his concerns about the wildlings.

Le Casa de Papel/Money Heist

You are a manager at Santander Bank in Barcelona (126 La Rambla, Barcelona, Spain, 08002). Corporate’s head office has sponsored a series of motivational speeches by the author Arturo Román, the former manager of the Royal Mint of Spain. His lectures are advertised as an inspirational recounting of surviving his ordeal as a hostage where he discusses harrowing moments, such as taking a bullet and having a bomb strapped to his body. His story is supposed to inspire the importance of a team coming together to work for the common good. You and your staff were asked to attend by the head office as a professional development initiative. 

However, the lecture was not as advertised. Román spent much of the time ranting about one of the criminals named Denver. There was no mention about team building at all. Instead, Román went on and on about how his own personal qualities made him uniquely able to survive and outwit the thieves. While it was an interesting story, there was no particular emphasis on things your staff could learn about team building. Finally, and worst of all, the author aggressively hit on several female members of your staff. 

You have decided to write a letter of complaint to the director of human resources, Catalina Garcia (c/o Santander Group City, Av. De Catabria, Madrid, Spain, 28660). You plan to explain your concerns and why they should choose a different motivational speaker.

Stranger Things

You are a parent of a student at Hawkins Middle School and your child is interested in taking part in the A.V. Club at the school. So far, your child has attended two meetings, but they have told you that they felt out of place because the only other members of the club—Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Will—are all very close friends. The four boys have not been very welcoming to your child, and are constantly whispering secrets amongst themselves, while excluding your kid. Your child has told you that Mr. Scott Clarke, the science teacher and organizer of the A.V. Club, also seems to play favourites with the other kids—he is constantly having conversations with the four boys after school and generally giving them extra attention. You were surprised to hear this report about the A.V. Club because your child usually regards Mr. Clarke as a very caring teacher.

Your child is feeling really left out, and you want to try and rectify the situation. You are not prepared to take the issue to the principal yet, so you’ve decided to write a letter of complaint to Mr. Clarke to see if he can make everything better. You can reach Mr. Clarke at Hawkins Middle School, 200 E Campus Drive, Hawkins, Indiana, 14377.