Assignment

Read this artical: Crisis Management and Communications by W. Timothy Coombs.

Part I: Crisis Summary Assignment

Objective: Summarize the crisis in "executive summary" format. Begin with what happened (who, how, when, what, where, why, how). Then explain why the events were a crisis. Conclude with two bullet points:

· The first bullet highlights one reason why the company and/or its executives acted appropriately in handling the crisis

· The second bullet highlights one reason why the company and/or its executives acted inappropriately in handling the crisis.

Length: Maximum 300 words (not including references).

Format: Note that I highlighted the example to help you understand the content requirements - please do NOT highlight your paragraph.

Part II: "Appropriate" Paragraph

Objective: Persuade your reader that the company/organization/person appropriately responded to the crisis for ONE specific reason.

Format: Your paragraph must begin with a TOPIC SENTENCE that states your specific argument (including evidence and analysis) about why the company responded appropriately. Your paragraph must then offer EVIDENCE to back up your claim and ANALYSIS to explain your interpretation of your claim to your readers. Within your analysis, you MUST refer to a crisis expert (Coombs, Gaines-Ross, or someone else).

Length: Maximum of 300 words.

Format: See attached example. Note that I highlighted the example to help you understand the content requirements - please do NOT highlight your paragraph.

You will turn this persuasive paragraph in twice, each time for a grade out of 30 points.

Part III: "Inappropriate" Paragraph

Objective: Persuade your reader that the company/organization/person inappropriately responded to the crisis for ONE specific reason.

Format: Your paragraph must begin with a TOPIC SENTENCE that states your specific argument (including evidence and analysis) about why the company responded inappropriately. Your paragraph must then offer EVIDENCE to back up your claim and ANALYSIS to explain your interpretation of your claim to your readers. Within your analysis, you MUST refer to a crisis expert (Coombs, Gaines-Ross, or someone else).

Length: Maximum of 300 words.

Format: See attached example. Note that I highlighted the example to help you understand the content requirements - please do NOT highlight your paragraph.

You will turn this persuasive paragraph in twice, each time for a grade out of 30 points.

Formatting Requirements

1. Cite all sources using APA Style.

2. 12 point Times New Roman or Calibri font

3. Double spaced

4. 1-inch page margins for top/bottom and left/right

5. Your header should appear at the top of the first page, RIGHT JUSTIFIED and SINGLE SPACED - see example bolded below:

Student Name

BA 2196 Section XXX/(Professor Name)

Crisis Communication

Sources requirements:

· You must use credible primary sources (company press releases, statements, videos, advertisements, etc.) and/or credible secondary sources (news coverage of the crisis).

· You must refer to a crisis communications expert (either one of the experts we have read, such as Timothy Coombs, or another you find on your own) in each of your analysis paragraphs.

· You may NOT use Wikipedia as a source (though I encourage you to mine Wikipedia to gather initial information)

· You may NOT use garbage websites (pro/con.org, askjeeves.com, etc.)