For this assignment, you will write a memo to your workplace boss, your boss's department head, and several members of the marketing department. Use the correspondence checklist on Pages 164 and 165 of your textbook as guidance. The company is interested in pursuing contracts in international markets. Therefore, they plan to send some marketing and sales representatives to other countries and meet with representatives from other companies. As you learned from your textbook readings, different cultures often conduct business in very different ways than in North America. For this memo, write a list of considerations that your company's representatives will need to bear in mind when they open negotiations with a firm in a different part of the world. You may use specific regions or nations as examples, but your goal is to provide general considerations. Based on the information you provide, the team will begin developing training to help sales and marketing representatives know what to expect and how to interact with others from different cultures. This assignment requires you to think about who will read your memo, what information they need to know, and how to provide it in a clear, concise manner.

Correspondence Checklist

Correspondence Checklist

Planning

What is your subject and purpose?

What do you want to have happen as a result of your correspondence? What will you do to achieve your objective?

Who are your primary readers? Who are your secondary readers? Do your primary and secondary readers have different needs? How will you satisfy the different needs of all your readers?

Why will your readers read your correspondence?

What is the attitude of your readers toward you, toward your subject, and toward your purpose?

If you are addressing international readers, do you understand their cultural practices? What adjustments in your correspondence will their cultural practices require?

Will you write an e-mail, text, memo, or letter?

How will you make your message accessible for all of your likely readers?

Revising

Are your subject and purpose clearly identified?

Have you satisfied your readers purpose in reading?

Have you adopted a style suitable to your readers culture? Have you avoided jargon and clichs?

Is your message concise, concrete, complete, correct, courteous, and clear?