Santa Monica College Bad News Messages Letter Discussion

Please follow these steps in preparing for this assignment.

• Study Chapter 11 to completely understand how a negative news message should be given.
• Review my Summary Notes on Bad News Messages in Announcement.
• Go over the Teacher’s PowerPoint slides I posted in Announcement.
• Write a refusal letter to a job offer. Read all directions below very carefully and see the Grading Criteria.

DIRECTIONS

The Situation

Ms. Hamilton, the Personnel Director at Standard Enterprise located at 1300 Wilber Street in Los Angeles, California, 90006, who interviewed you recently for an open position, has extended a job offer to you. You would have jumped at this offer yesterday, but just today you received another offer from a company that you had interviewed with a while back. This new offer promises much higher pay and better benefits, and you love it!Now you must turn down Ms. Hamilton’s offer.

The Assignment

Write a letter to her to let her know that you’re no longer interested in joining her company, but have decided to accept an offer from another company. Keep it simple, but make sure to use all the techniques discussed in Chapter 11for Bad News Messages, my summary notes, and the PowerPoint.

Use the indirect approach. Make sure to use a buffer in the opening of your letter, as explained in this chapter.

Opening Paragraph: Start with a buffer statement—something positive or neutral.Use only two to three brief sentences for the opening.

Body of Message or Middle Paragraph: Offer reasons for the bad news—build up to the bad news. Give (here it means imply) the bad news in a clear, brief statement; however, don’t just openly say, “I can’t accept your offer”, that is not implying the bad news. Give the Bad News at the end the middle paragraph with a positive statement. Cushion the bad news. Use no more than six to seven brief sentences in this paragraph.

Closing Paragraph: Write a personal, forward-looking statement that does not repeat the bad news. Restrict this to two sentences at most.

Avoid using words such as “sorry, regret, unfortunately,”in your negative letter.In the business world those words often open up doors to law suits as they indicate acknowledgement and confession. Keep it simple and brief.

End with Sincerely, then click Enter/Return four times and type your name. The space above will be for your signature space. Review again my Letter Format document attached below for reference.

NOTE: You can make up your (the sender’s) address, but use the address given in the Directions for the recipient.

GRADING CRITERIA TOTAL = 50 points

Content = 15 points

(followed the above instructions correctly on what to write, sentence limit on the opening and closing paragraphs, used the AIDA principle as shown in Chapter 10 reading, etc.)

Format = 15 points

(followed the letter format carefully as shown in the above links, and other format directions such as proper spacing, using U.S. MS Word Times Roman 11 or 12 only, etc.)

Grammar = 5 points (four or more errors = -5)

Spelling = 5 points (four or more errors = -5) Use www.dictionary.com to check spelling.

Work posted either as .docx or converted to PDF file when posting in Canvas = 5 points

TurnItIn Similarity Report less than 30 percent = 5 points; (30 percent or above similarity = –5 points)

Review the document below again if necessary on how to format a business letter.