Assignment: Block Business Letter

Choose one of the professional scenarios provided. Write a Block Business Letter (in the form of the posted example from Week 4) from the perspective of the company management. It should provide bad news and follow the guidelines outlined in Chapter 7: Delivering Bad-News Messages in BCOM7 (pages 110-128).

Sample Block Business Letter

The message should take the block business letter form from the posted example; however, you will submit your assignment to the online course shell.

The block business letter must adhere to the following requirements:

1. Content:

1. Address the communication issue from the scenario.
2. Provide bad-news from the company to the recipient.
3. Concentrate on the facts of the situation and use either the inductive or deductive approach.
4. Assume your recipient has previously requested a review of the situation via email, letter, or personal meeting with management.

2. Format:

1. Include the proper introductory elements (sender's address, date, recipient's address).
2. Provide an appropriate and professional greeting / salutation.
3. Single space paragraphs and double space between paragraphs.
4. Limit the letter to one-page in length.

3. Clarity / Mechanics:

1. Focus on clarity, writing mechanics, and professional language/style requirements.
2. Run spell/grammar check before submitting.

Your assignment must:

• Be typed, single-spaced within paragraphs/elements and double spaced between the paragraphs/elements, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

Submitting your assignment:

• Submit your assignment through the online course shell only.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Use writing process strategies to develop brief business documents, such as routine messages, bad news messages, and persuasive/sales messages.

• Support ideas or claims in body paragraphs with clear details, examples, and explanations.

• Organize ideas logically by using transitional words, phrases, and sentences.

• Use sentence variety and effective word choice in written communication.

• Write clearly and concisely using proper writing mechanics.

Workplace Scenarios

John shows up to work approximately five minutes late this morning, walks silently (but quickly) down the hallway and begins to punch in at the time clock located by the front desk. Kim, the front desk manager, says, "Good morning, John," but John simply ignores her, punches in, and heads into the shop to his workplace. Kim rolls her eyes, picks up the phone, and dials the on-duty manager to alert her that John just arrived and should be reaching his workplace at that moment.

Savannah is the lead on a project with a team of six other people. The project involves using an outside vendor's software. Without consulting Savannah, Amber (a senior team member) sends a professional email to the vendor asking for a change to the existing software. The vendor responds to the entire team expressing concern over making the requested change.