ENGL 3430 SPRING 2019 EXAM
Exam A
3 pages
Please read carefully and respond to all three cases presented below. You have two hours to complete the three documents. All three cases count equally toward your grade on the exam. You may invent needed information, such as addresses or compensation for lost services, but ensure that it is pertinent and realistic. You will be evaluated on your writing style and tone, as well as the formatting for each type of correspondence.
Case 1: Negative Correspondence
You work at Deckard State Bank and have some bad news to give some of your customers. During a recent trip, one of your account managers lost a laptop with customer information, including sensitive information like birthdates. The laptop had a number of software security mechanisms in place, so its unlikely, but not entirely impossible, that whoever found the laptop will be able to access the sensitive information.
Only a few of your customers (fewer than 3%) will be affected by this loss. Your procedures dictate that affected customers will be given a new account (a new debit card with a new credit card number will be sent to them) and the old account will be closed (so customers will have to destroy their current debit cards and checks and register the new card/account with any automatic online payments they have set up). The current balances and current credit limits will be transferred to the new accounts. Customers will have to order new blank checks with the new account numbers on them. Some of your customers will be inconvenienced by this process.
Although you cant force your customers to, you think it would be a wise idea for them to contact the three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) and put an identity theft or fraud watch request on their accounts.
Write a letter to those customers who were affected and let them know that the laptop was lost and what will happen with their accounts.
Case 2: Positive/Informative Correspondence
You are the office manager of the Crunchy Granola Café at the local community college. Generally, the café sells breakfast from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. (including breakfast tacos, biscuit sandwiches, and a variety of pastries) and lunch from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (including sandwiches, salads, hamburgers, pizza, and a daily hot lunch special). It also sells coffee, soft drinks, and a large variety of snacks all day. The café provides excellent service, and your students, staff, and faculty like to eat in the friendly environment. Indeed, its not unusual to see impromptu meetings between faculty members or students hosting small study groups.
However, the café is in desperate need of some updates and improvements, and you need to shut it down for about three weeks during the renovation. While the renovation is ongoing, you plan to open up a temporary facility close to the original café, but you wont be able to serve hot items for either breakfast or lunch for three weeks and the space you do have will be much smaller.
When the renovation is complete, your students, faculty, and staff will have access to a newly designed café designed by students in the engineering department and decorated with art from students in the art department. It will also feature wireless Internet access and a wide selection of specialty coffees.
Write an email to students, faculty, and staff informing them of the renovation and providing them with information they need to act.
Case 3: Persuasive Correspondence
Youre the public relations director at NSB Office Solutions, an international organization with its corporate offices in California. Every year, regardless of your annual performance review results, your company guarantees you a 3% cost of living raise. When reviewing your compensation while doing your taxes, you noticed that you did not receive the raise. You were supposed to have an extra 3% salary on your pay beginning January 1. Furthermore, you had dinner with a fellow employee and this person told you that he received his performance review raise in addition to his cost of 3% living raise.
You believe the cost of living pay raise was a computer error or an oversight by the human resources department. You received an excellent performance review from the company president for last years work, and your paychecks beginning January 1 do reflect the merit raise. However, you would like to how to rectify the problem of three paychecks that do not reflect the proper 3% cost of living raise.
Write a memo to the president of the company and the human resources director asking them to review your paycheck and salary.
