Positive Business letter

Writing Assignment 1
(From Chapter 6 Positive Messages)

Case Study 6.17
Direct Claim: Righting a Wrong (Obj.3)
Adapted from Page 186, so please refer to this assignment sheet as the final word for assignment requirements
Have you ever bought a product that did not work as promised? Have you been disappointed in service at a bank, restaurant, department store, or discount house or from an online merchant? Have you had ideas about how a company or organization could improve its image, service, or product? Remember that smart companies want to know what their customers think, especially if they could improve their product or services.

Your Task
Select a product or service that has disappointed you. Using the positive message approach, write a claim letter requesting a refund, replacement, explanation, or whatever seems reasonable. For claims about food products, be sure to include bar code identification from the package if possible. Consider any proof you would need to include (not really, just for the letter) to prove you purchased an item or a service. (Use section Objective 3 in Chapter 6 to guide your content.)

GRADING:
Half of your grade comes from your content, organization, and format; half comes from your grammar and mechanics. See details below. You may simply remove my words in the sample letter and type your own.

Grammatical and Mechanical Correctness
Because your writing skills and command of standard American English affect your credibility, business writing submissions can and will fail based on this one area, which affects all the other areas, like fluency, accuracy, clarity, and completeness, so make sure you submit your best work!

Since your instructor may not pre-grade or edit your letters, I strongly suggest you see a tutor with questions about grammatical and mechanical errors. Our college provides free on-campus tutoring. Simply call the campus you plan to go to for tutoring and request the tutors room location and available hours.

You may also refer to the grammar chapters and instructional videos within Blackboard or seek online-tutoring via Upswing, accessible via the Upswing button in Blackboard.

Content & Organization
This letter requires you to use the positive or direct strategy or organization. Carefully following organization of
the sample letter provided with the assignment sheet and the discussions in your textbook and chapter
PowerPoint understand what to include in each of the three paragraphs. Failure to include required content in
the required paragraphs will result in point deduction, approximately 10 points per instance.

This section also includes application of the you-attitude. Although you must use first person since this letter references your dissatisfaction with a product or service, use pleasant, non-threatening language, and focus on your recipient as much as possible. Avoid negative language and flabby, trite, redundant expressions, et cetera (See Chapters 2 4).

Basic Formatting Elements
Use full-block business formatting. You may use the attached sample business letter as a formatting guide since it is in Word format. Since you are writing as an individual, you will not have a letterhead with your company name, address, phone, and fax numbers.
Acceptable Fonts for business letters: (11 or 12-point font size)
ArialGaduji
GeorgiaRockwell
TahomaTimes New Roman
Verdana

Basic Paragraph Elements
Even in business writing, paragraphs require topic sentences with clear major and minor details that support the topic sentence.
Apply what you have learned about business writing content: sentence and paragraph length, structure, bullet points, et cetera in the business chapters thus far.

NOTE 1: As a college English instructor, I will carefully consider every line of every writing assignment you submit
for a grade, and I will consider how well you followed the directions. Make every submission your best.

NOTE 2: Even though you submit work that you believe reflects your best efforts, those efforts may not result in a
passing grade.

Pre-submission Check:
Before you submit your letter, make sure you
submit a letter with a professional appearance;
o Avoid letterhead or letter printer paper (if your instructor wants a hard copy of your letter) with flowers, birds, hearts, stars, babies, recipe note cards, et cetera. In fact, your best option is the avoid a letterhead altogether since you do not represent a company in this letter.
applied full-block formatting to your letter;
o See the example I provided.
use passive voice only when necessary (to avoid an accusatory tone);
avoid contractions;
you avoid the use of the words it or there as filler words.

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