Project 1

Engl 278F
Project 1: Formal Email w/Instructions

The Assignment:

Write an office-wide e-mail explaining a change in company policy accompanied by the instructions employees will need to comply with that policy change. Effectively communicate that, rather than only senior staff members being required to complete a printed 100-word professional bio after two weeks of employment, all employees must submit a 100-word professional bio directly to the company’s web site using a new content management system within two weeks of receiving your e-mail. Then provide instruction on how to do this with the new content management system.

The Situation:

You are the Web content coordinator for Alignmark Services, an architectural firm with about 50 employees. Your daily responsibilities are to write and edit content for the firm’s promotional Web site. Today, however, you’ve been asked by Alignmark President David Newman to notify the entire office by e-mail that they are now required to post their professional bio to the company Web site using a new content management tool provided by the IT department.

Further Details for this project come directly from the Alignmark president, director of communication, and IT Administrator. (Sees supporting documents.)

The Format:

Though your paper should be written as if it were an email, you should draft the text of the email in Microsoft Word, using 12 pt Times Roman font. The final project should be no more than two pages. Make sure your full name is printed in the upper left hand corner of the first page. (Any printed copies distributed for workshop must be stapled.)

For the formatting of the text of the e-mail itself, you can rely on what you’ve learned from our class discussions and readings to informa you as to the best way to layout your explanation and instructions. You do, however, have to rely entirely on text to communicate, as pictures are not garunteed to be accepted by every employee’s email program. (Many of the Alignmark employees opt to work on PowerMacs running OS9, while others use PCs.)


Your Audience:

The 50-person staff at Alignmark is made up almost entirely of architects.

They are:

• highly educated (though they tend to process information better visually than through language.)
• tech-savvy, familiar with numerous design and word-processing software packages, and adept at learning new ones.
• highly impatient, which means they seldom read long emails, opting instead to scan for the information they feel pertains to them and giving up quickly if they can’t readily discern that from the email itself.
• suspischious of change, needing to be reassured of the need for any alteration to their responsibilities if they are going to comply.
  

Draft Due Dates:

Your draft due date is determined by whether or not you are workshopping this project.

If you are workshopping this project, you will submit 19 printed copies of your email to the class and one electronic copy to your instructor at mgetty@gmail.com by October 6.

If you are not workshopping this project, you need only submit electronic copy to your instructor at mgetty@gmail.com by October 13.

Final Due Date:After your draft is returned with comment you will have one week to submit your final version to the instructor electronically by October 27.