Week 4: Final Email/Memo and Peer Review
Submit your final email/memo here.
Criterion Excellent Good Needs Improvement
Memo/email is in proper format for the type of memo/email it is Memos have appropriate heading (to: from: subject: date:) with initials. Memos include no greeting and are initialed next to sender’s name. Memos are not signed. Emails include all appropriate heading information (to: from: subject: date:); an appropriate greeting, an appropriate signature. Meeting minutes have an appropriate header. Memo/email is generally correct with regard to headings and formats. Memo may be missing initials next to sender’s name. Email may be missing greeting. Minutes may be missing names of attendees or time of meeting ending. Memo/email is missing multiple important format elements.
Contents of the email/memo are appropriate for the type of email/memo it is. Directives begin with an explanation of the policy being implemented and end with a statement of the policy; meeting minutes include start and end times and attendees; progress reports update reader on the progress of a project including positive and negative aspects; responses to inquiries answer the inquiry clearly, completely, and succinctly; incident reports relate the sequence of events in chronological order Contents of the email/memo reflect slight wobbles in execution that do not impede the effectiveness of the memo. The email/memo contents are not appropriate for the type of email/memo it is. The email contents do not communicate effectively for the type of memo/email it is.
Tone of the email/memo is appropriate and reflects awareness of intended audience. The memo/email gives a favourable impression of the writer. The email/memo is polite and frames its communication with regard to what the reader wants/needs to know. The email/memo tone is polite. It could better reflect awareness of intended audience and improve the impression it gives of the writer. The email/memo tone seems to lack awareness of the intended audience. It gives a negative impression of the writer.
Words in the email/memo are carefully chosen and ordered to communicate effectively and concisely. The email/memo is straightforward, clear, and polite. The email/memo is generally straightforward, clear, and polite. It has some wordy phrases and/or could be improved with regard to clarity. The email/memo is not clear with regard to its purpose or point. Or it rambles or is unnecessarily repetitive or wordy.
Grammar/spelling are appropriate. All words are spelled correctly. Sentences are punctuated correctly. Grammar is correct. The email/memo has between 1-3 grammar/spelling/punctuation errors. The email/memo has 4 or more grammar/spelling/punctuation errors.
Memo/Email Final Project Assignment Options
You can choose to complete your final project in several ways, according to your needs and ability.
Option 1: Create a memo or email in the form of a progress report, meeting minutes, incident report, directive, or response to an inquiry according to your work/life/career needs. Feel free to use information from your real life or career (please do not use any private or proprietary information, as this memo or email will be shared with your classmates). You can also make up or alter information or change it to protect sensitive details. Make sure your memo or email is in proper format and fulfills rubric guidelines.
Option 2: Create a memo or email in the form of a progress report, meeting minutes, incident report, directive, or response to an inquiry using the information provided in the final project assignment prompts. You can adjust the information to make it more relevant to your career goals or current life situation. You may have to create institution names or other details. Please do not use any private or proprietary information, as this memo or email will be shared with your classmates.
Option 3: Complete more than 1 memo or email in line with options 1 and 2.
Prompts for Option 2
Progress Report
You are in charge of an important document design project, specifically a yearly newsletter, for your company, and you submit regular progress reports to your supervisor, Kelli Russell Cole. Submit a report with the following details.
The document design team met weekly in the past quarter.
The company’s 12 page newsletter is issued at the end of each calendar year with a twofold purpose—to provide customers with an overview of the business’ successes and challenges throughout the year and to encourage customers to renew their contracts with the business in the coming year. The tone should be honest, friendly, festive, and confident.
The team put together three possible newsletter designs for the company.
The relevant units provided the planned text/newsletter content to Help the design team in refining the designs.
The team realized one of the designs does not have enough space for the amount of planned text/newsletter content. At first, they planned to revise the design to add more space; however, they realized the design would not look good with the increased contents, so they decided to remove that design from consideration and create a new third design for consideration.
The three designs will be presented to the supervisor for consideration in the next two weeks.
When the supervisor decides on a design, the team will create four mock-ups with the provided content and chosen design for the supervisor’s perusal.
The team is on target to providing a draft of the holiday newsletter by the end of the third quarter.
Meeting Minutes
You belong to the Parent Teacher Association (a group that brings parents and teachers together for the purposes of involving the parents in the events and issues at the school, connecting parents and teachers, and helping parents and teachers work together to improve the school) at your child’s school. You have been elected secretary of the group. You are responsible for taking meeting minutes.
The meeting was held on October 25, 20XX.
Tamika Roberts, Larone Segrest, David Merchant, Az Trufant, and Brooklyn Powell were the board members in attendance. Absent board members were Deb Hooper, Kendra Hallvers, Marcus Rhodes, and Dani Weber.
Also in attendance were 20 parents of school students. The meeting started at 6:00 pm.
Addison’s Salads provided snacks for the group to munch on during the meeting.
The organization operates a concession stand at the football games, and at the last football game, the group earned $300. $100 will be deposited in the group’s bank account. $100 will be used to restock the concession supplies for the next home game. $100 will be given to the 10th grade teachers to purchase chemistry supplies for the students.
David Bashir, Charlie Guiterrez, and Barbara Wilson volunteered to work in the concession stand at the next home game.
Ms. Sandra Wright, 11th grade keyboarding teacher, thanked the group for their fund raising efforts which allowed her to purchase three training keyboards for the students to use in her keyboarding class.
Stefanie Schiff, treasurer, reported that the fund raising effort has brought in $4,000, and after purchasing the training keyboards, there is $2,000 left to put into the teacher appreciation fund. Including the concession stand money, the Parent Teacher Association account currently has $8,256.13 in it.
Mr. Skip Gardner, 12th grade English teacher, showed the group a program called Brain Trust. It is a teacher-led plan that coaches students to gain expertise in a subject and then share their expertise with the class in an oral presentation. No money was requested, but rather the purpose of his presentation was to encourage parents and teachers to support the program and have it in the school.
Tamika Roberts noted that the upcoming Spring Bake Sale to benefit the school was being held at the town center during school hours. She asked the group if the time could be moved so that students and teachers could participate.The group discussed the request and agreed that the bake sale needed to be held in the morning to catch the morning town crowd, but that it should also be extended to 6pm to catch people going home. Teachers and students could participate in the extended afternoon hours.
Larone Segrest said that the Fall Family Fest was right around the corner, and solicited ideas for booths and activities for family fun. He shared that the Fest would be held in the same location as last year—the Rupert Street Fair Grounds.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:15 pm.
Incident Report
You work in the kitchen at a family dining restaurant. You were cleaning out the lettuce bin, when you fell on the floor, hitting your arm on the grill on the way down and injuring yourself. You had to go to the hospital.
There was standing water on the floor because the lettuce bin has been leaking for the past few weeks.
You reported the lettuce bin leak on the first day that you noticed it.
You were using a step stool to climb up to pull the old lettuce out of the lettuce bin before replacing it with new lettuce. It was 10:00 am, and you were preparing for the lunch rush. You leaned over to grab a hunk of romaine, and the stool slipped. You put a foot down to steady yourself, but you slipped on the wet floor.
You went to the hospital and were diagnosed with an avulsion fracture in your left arm as a result of the fall. The arm was wrapped in a support bandage, and you were advised to rest and ice it for three days before returning to work.
Directive
Your office is responsible for providing iPads to employees who need them for their job duties. You have a rudimentary inventory system on your computer that logs the employee name, the iPad serial number, and the checkout time period (a default of two weeks) each time an iPad is checked out.
In the past, employees have been able to come directly to your office, request an iPad, check it out, and walk away with it. They then could set the iPad up for their own work themselves or call the IT department to make an appointment for setup.
However, the high volume of iPads being checked out lately, combined with the large number of employees requesting setup from IT, has overrun IT. IT has demanded a change in checkout policy.
It is your office’s job to announce the new policy to the company.
According to the new policy, employees approved for an iPad will request it from your department, and you will perform the checkout on the inventory system. Then, instead of giving the employee the iPad, you will notify IT of the checkout, including the employee’s name and email address. The employee will be informed that he or she will receive an email from IT to set up an appointment for the new iPad to be delivered and set up for the employee. This policy goes into effect the first day of the next month.
SAMPLE MEMO AND FORMAT
You are the head of the production department for the XYZ widget, which is a crucial component in the ABC drive of the Space Age Flivver, a new mode of transportation for speed-loving Earthlings. Recently, you received the following memo via email:
To: [Your Name]
From: Mr. Nikhil Patel
Subject: Production Delays
Date: December 30, 20XX
Dear [You]:
I am writing to let you know that we are experiencing a slowdown in production of the ABC drive for the Space Age Flivver. Specifically, we are unable to obtain enough XYZ widgets to keep up with the demand for production of ABC drives. This slowdown has resulted in disappointment from our customer base and many questions from upper management. Since your department produces the XYZ widget, I am writing to inquire as to what is causing the delays, how long you think the delays will last, and when you believe you will be back to normal production levels. Also, please let me know if there is anything I or my department can do to Help you in returning to normal production levels.
Sincerely,
Nihil Patel
Supervisor, ABC Drive Department
