It is time to write another persuasive letter, but this time you will write to your instructor about the topic for your formal report. Although this letter may be crafted less formally in tone than the “bad news” letter, it is a persuasive communication. Therefore, you should study all the resources for this module carefully before you begin.
Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is for you to continue to hone your writing skills, to persuade your instructor of the appropriateness of your topic for your final major project in this course, and to showcase your deliberative process as you illustrate the need for a solution to your selected “problem” or “opportunity.”
Task(s)
You need to begin preparing for subsequent activities related to the Final Recommendation Report due in Module 8. See the Final Recommendation Report Flow Chart.docx to get an idea of what is coming.
To begin that process and for this specific exercise, you need to identify a problem or concern in your workplace, a local organization, a government agency, on campus, or in your neighborhood. This problem or opportunity must be one for which you are qualified to seek a realistic solution and one that offers a real (and specific) audience to whom you can write your report.
In other words, you must consider the scope of your topic; you cannot attempt, for example, to solve the rising student debt crisis in the United States; nor can you attend to the refusal of some organizations to require (or not) face masks in their establishments during the pandemic.
Once you have decided upon a topic as the focus for your final report, you will then write a letter to your instructor identifying the problem or opportunity you wish to research and write about in that final report.
Consider the following as you complete this exercise:
1) What idea do you have to improve something at your job, your organization, or in your community?
Is it a new process or policy?
Is it a new position that should be created?
Is it a new program that could be created?
2) Who would care about this idea? In other words, who should be your intended audience?
Is it your boss? Your boss’s boss? A board? An elected official?
What will you need to do in your final report to convince your audience that your idea or solution is worth implementing?
Once you have decided on your topic, write a letter to your instructor (a minimum of 250 words), identifying the topic and addressing the questions above; include any pertinent details that will help make your case.
As with the “Bad News” assignment, this letter should be professional in tone and appearance, demonstrate careful thought and intelligence, sound compelling and sensitive to the writing context, make use of careful word choice, grammar, and punctuation, and relay a complexity and sophistication in ideas and appeal.
You will receive feedback and approval to move forward with the problem you have identified. You must receive approval before moving on to subsequent activities related to the final report, however. This exercise is required and not completing this task can result in reduced points on your final project.
Submission Format
Abide by all formal letter protocols and guidelines as presented in the readings, viewing, and additional resources for this module. Recall that in formal letter writing, formatting is very important. Your letter will be formatted in modified-block format. You may not use an existing template, but you are free to create your own “letterhead.”
In fact, this would be a great opportunity for you to create a personal letterhead that you can use for your application letter in Module 7’s job search dossier.
