Written Essay Assignments

The assigned essays are intended to be a professionally prepared exposition similar to what you might submit to your future employer. As such, please refrain from "cutesy" expressions, slang, or other vernacular. The essays are not intended to be editorials so there is no need to argue or exaggerate your points.

Essay 1 Content (due no later than 11:30pm on Sunday, October 9, 2016)

Items that you must address in this essay are:

1. Describe a material or tool (e.g., paper, pencils, laptop, etc.) that you use for schoolwork whose quality is important to you. Why does its quality matter to you? Materials and tools do not include personal items such as apparel or personal care products.

2. What are the attributes of this material or tool that would cause you to perceive it as high quality?

3. What are the attributes of this material or tool that would cause you to perceive it as low quality?

4. Do you think that most students would agree with your high/low quality attributes? Why or why not?

5. In your experience, is there a relationship between the quality of this item and its price? Why or why not?

Essay 2 Content (due no later than 11:30pm on Sunday, October 30, 2016)

Items that you must address in this essay are:

1. Describe a situation you experienced as a consumer with either an out-of-stock condition or when an expected delivery was delayed.

2. How was the situation communicated to you by the retailer/shipper? Was the communication satisfactory?

3. Did the retailer/shipper tryto remedy the situation? If so, was the recovery satisfactory? If there was no recovery (or the recovery was unsatisfactory), how likely are you to remain a customer?

4. If you were the business owner, what are some cost-effective methods that might prevent the stock-out or late delivery?

5. If you were the business owner, what are some cost-effective remedies that you might use in case the stock-out or late delivery occurred?

Format:

• Each essay must be 400-600 words in total length.
• Do not include any graphics, pictures, or charts.
• Each essay must contain NO personal identifying information (e.g., name, PID, MSU NetID) so that it is anonymous to reviewers. IF YOUR ESSAY DOES CONTAIN IDENTIFYING INFORMATION, POINTS WILL BE DEDUCTED.

Submission:

• You must register with Eli Review (for free) and select this course (SCM303) using the code

o hazier946gulch for section 001 (11:20am)
o coven400legumefor section 002 (8:00am)

• Note that Eli Review generally does not perform well using the Internet Explorer browser. Other browsers (e.g., Chrome, Firefox) don't seem to have performance issues. If you have technical problems with Eli Review, please call the D2L help desk (517-355-2345 or 800-500-1554, available 24/7).

• Each essay can be either be created directly in Eli Review or created in other word processing software, and then copied and pasted into Eli Review.

• Essay files must be submitted to the appropriate Eli Review assignment no later than the due dates shown above.

• Late assignments are not accepted for any reason and will be scored as a zero for the essay portion. There are NO exceptions. As it says in the syllabus, problems with computers, internet connectivity, life events, etc. are bound to happen so plan accordingly and don't wait until the last day or last minute.

Academic Honesty:

• Feel free to cite and paraphrase from reputable sources but do not directly copy or quote from any sources (published or unpublished).
• Citations should be in any easily understandable format.
• Any evidence of plagiarism will be graded as a zero.