Persuasive Communication
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.
The 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.
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.”
