All business writing either persuades or informs. Often, business writers are asking for changes they cannot implement themselves. This assignment will give you ACTUAL experience in causing change in another organization. This assignment contains two parts, so read and follow instructions carefully.
1. Correspondence to Supervisor
Write a brief (200-300 word) note, memo, e-mail, or letter to the supervisor of some person who has provided excellent service for you or for someone else in the last two months. The service you reference must have been “above and beyond the call of duty,” and you must write to real named people about a real event that really happened in your life.
Your note must request the supervisor to take action to formally recognize the employee’s act. Merely commending the employee yourself is NOT what is required, as that will merely be posted in the employee’s file and result in an embarrassingly low grade for you. Deliver your request to the supervisor.
NOTE: The person to whom you are writing can be any supervisor in any establishment with which you have had contact (not just in your imagination–in real life–see above). The supervisor CAN NOT be someone YOU supervise, nor can the employee singled out be someone who works for you. Merely commending the employee yourself is NOT what is required, as that will merely be posted in the employee’s file and result in an embarrassingly low grade for you.
2. Memo to Your Instructor
Write a 400-500 word report to your instructor (in business memo format) describing the supervisor’s reaction and other consequences of your request.
Include a copy of your request to the supervisor as the last page of your report to your instructor and submit both documents in ONE MS Word file. Remember that NO ACTION by the supervisor constitutes a valid result for the report.
