Once again, you may need additional information that isn't provided in the scenario. You may not change the facts in the scenario, but may add needed information. For this message, I particularly encourage you to consider the role that research (e.g., examples from other companies, advice from communication experts, etc.) can play in persuasive correspondence. You should cite any research that you use. Along similar lines, carefully consider what forms you-attitude and positive emphasis will take in the message.

You have hands-on experience with a wide range of social media tools, having used them to collaborate on school projects, to become involved in your local community, to learn more about various industries and professions, to research potential employers during your job search, and to stay in touch with family and friends. In fact, without social media, you might've never heard about your current employer in the first place. Moreover, your use of social media on the job has already paid several important dividends, including connecting with peers in other companies to share ideas for working more efficiently and learning about local business initiatives that have led to community partnerships. While you don't work in the sales department, you have also found potential sales contacts at two large companies which you referred to the sales department.

You hoped that by setting an example through your own use of social media at work, your colleagues and company management would quickly adopt these tools as well. However, just the opposite has happened. Waiting in your e-mail inbox this morning was a message from CEO Mateo Hernandez announcing that the company is now cutting off access to social networking websites and banning the use of any social media at work for all employees except employees in the sales, marketing, and public relations departments. The sales, marketing, and public relations departments retain access to all social media tools in the new policy. The message says that for other employees using company time and company computers for socializing is highly inappropriate and might be considered grounds for dismissal in the future.

Your task: You fight the urge to fire off a hotly worded reply to the CEO about how social media is used by other departments to support and promote the company's success. Instead, you decide to send an email to your immediate superior Sophia Montserrat that explains why you believe the new policy should be reversed. Using your supervisor's favorite medium, write an email explaining why Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking technologies are valid and valuable business tools and ask for action within your reader's scope of power.

Tips:

• This situation or scenario is the most complex of the ones you have completed this semester. Notice that you're writing to an immediate supervisor about a policy that someone at an even higher level (the CEO) wrote. For this situation, take time to consider the power levels of everyone involved. In particular, consider carefully what your request for action should be and how you should phrase it.
• Along similar lines, consider what kinds of details would be most persuasive to your primary and potential secondary readers and how to order those details.
• Finally, part of persuasion is considering (and overcoming) reader objections. To that end, consider why the CEO may have put this policy in place in the first place and how those concerns could be handled without completely banning social media for most of the company.