COMM 1340 SECTION 09

Persuasive Strategy Assignment 20%

This assignment is in two parts. In Part I, you will respond to a series a short-answer questions in full sentences, and in Part II, you will write a persuasive email following the scenario below.

Use of any sources (such as other students, online samples, AI, or research materials) is not allowed; you must write an original message in your own words. While you will be considering the details from the scenario below and from our materials to help write your responses and your email, all work for this assignment must appear in your own words.

The Scenario:

You are a supervisor at a privately-owned coffee shop (non-franchised). As someone who interviews and hires the front-line staff, you have noticed an increase in staff turnover over the last year. You have personally hired and trained 12 new staff, and then you have watched 9 of them leave the company. You are concerned for the owner, who cannot afford to keep losing team members, some of whom have gone on to work at other franchised businesses like Starbucks. It is very costly to keep hiring, training, and then losing people.

You decide to email the owner (Shelley) to voice your concerns and propose a solution: increasing the hourly wage by $2.00. You feel that this will be an incentive to attract and retain good staff, and this will make you more competitive with some of the bigger franchises. Even though this will increase the budget for wages, you feel that the reduction in turnover will save money in the long run.

*Be careful with tone throughout; you dont want the reader to perceive you as aggressive or negative.

Formatting Requirements For Your Document

In a new Word document, type your responses to Part I on the first page (use full sentences), and then start your Email (follow our notes in Week 13/the template provided here for formatting) on the second page. In other words, youll have 2 pages to submit as a single Word file. Please add your name and student number to the top of the document.

Your email should still follow block format: the text is flush left (not justified), with no indented paragraphs and once space between paragraphs, and no longer than one page (aim for about of a page), with single-spaced text. Use 11- or 12- sized font, Times or Calibri.

*NOTE: You are not actually emailing me any part of this assignment; rather, you are typing out your message in your Word document to post to Blackboard. Please follow the email template on page 4 to help with email format.

Part I: Analyze Audience & Purpose (5 marks)

Keeping in mind the information provided in the scenario (plus any additional information you feel should be included create any necessary details), type your answers to the following questions in complete sentences. Please number your answers. Consider what the audience needs to know to accept your message.

1. As a supervisor, why are you writing this email? What is the purpose of the message overall?

2. What logical and emotional appeals can you give to the reader to help them accept your idea? This will help create some of the detail for the Interest section.

3. What possible objections would they have to your idea? What reader benefits can you give? This will help create some of the detail for the Desire section.

Part II: Compose the Persuasive Email (15 marks)

Write a Persuasive Strategy Email for this scenario, creating the detail you need, including the email header information (such as email addresses).

Your email will

use clear Persuasive Strategy (AIDA Model) to organize the content into four paragraphs.

follow the guidelines for email formatting discussed on page4 and in our notes, using block format.

be careful of negative information, language, and tone.

be no longer than one page in length youll probably have about 3/4 of a page including the header.

follow the outline on page 5 closely: it will help with key details to include