BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE PROJECT
Frequently Asked Questions

 
I’ll update this page if/when more questions roll in.
General BCP Qs and As
Feedback Team Peer Review Qs and As

 

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

about the Business Correspondence Project, Feedback Team Draft Exchange, etc.
Q. Should I assume the persona of my character when I write my correspondence? In other words, should I pretend to be [Michael/Dwight/Jim/Pam]?

A. No. You should not pretend to be Michael/Dwight/Jim/Pam—you should not assume the persona of the character. In other words, if you’re a Michael, you should NOT say insensitive, dumb things like Michael Scott—the character on the TV show—might say.

The characters were/are just a way to assign different contexts to different people. I could have used colors, or numbers, or random names.

Q. Should we use our character’s name or our own name at the bottom of letters and emails (or in the “From” part of the heading on memos and emails)?

A. It absolutely doesn’t matter. Use your name or the character’s name or another name altogether.

Q. I know we’re doing peer review and feedback, will you also be providing feedback on our correspondence drafts?

A. I’ll provide general feedback to the whole class after reading all the drafts—things most students need to check for, work on, and/or improve.

I’ll also provide whole-class feedback specific to some individual scenarios. In other words, if a lot of students are struggling with the Michael negative scenario, I’ll provide some feedback about how to approach that particular scenario, common “mistakes” students are making, etc.

But, no. I won’t perform general reviews or provide comprehensive feedback to individual students on each of their drafts.

However…

if you have specific questions (such as…)
I’m not sure which scenario details to include and which to exclude from my correspondence.
Is this subject line specific enough?
if you have some broad/er area of concern (such as…)
I’m having trouble with ‘you-view’ in this negative correspondence.
I’m not sure how to order my paragraphs.
if you’re struggling with a concept or strategy (such as…)
I know I have too many weak verbs, but I can’t figure out how to fix them.
I’m not sure if I’ve met the needs and expectations of the audience in this memo.

…in those cases, I’m happy to review your work and answer your questions, address your concern, and/or offer advice about your application of a concept or employment of strategy.

Q. For Tuesday (9/22), do I have to do all 3 scenarios (the positive/neutral/informational, the negative, and the persuasive)?

A. No. For Tuesday 9/22—the first Feedback Team Peer Review draft exchange deadline—you only need to complete a polished draft of your positive/neutral/informational PAGOS plan and correspondence draft.

While the BCP (all three scenarios) is one big project, we’re doing draft exchanges and peer review in stages.

Q. Is there a difference between positive, neutral, and informational contexts?

A. For our purposes, no—positive, neutral, and informational are all one context.

Additional Explanation about Language Changes on Canvas, in Course Materials, etc.

There are three broad contexts for professional correspondence: 1) positive/neutral/informational, 2) negative, and 3) persuasive.

That first context—positive/neutral/informational—is one context. In other words, positive = neutral = informational.

I realize my language for positive/neutral/informational was inconsistent. Sometimes I called it “positive,” sometimes “positive/neutral,” and sometimes “neutral/informational.”

I’ve gone back through everything on Canvas and all my course materials, notes, and readings (linked from the course schedule) and corrected every instance of inconsistent language I found.

You should now see “positive/neutral/informational” everywhere.

However, there may be a few stray instances of inconsistent language that I missed. If you come across one of these, just know that positive, neutral, and/or informational all mean the same context. Think of it as positive/neutral/informational.

What should we name our draft files?

For the first Feedback Team draft exchange assignment, If you’ve already attached your draft file to your Feedback Team Group discussion board (before 11:30pm on 9/21), you probably named your file “LastName-PosDraft.docx.”

Since then, I’ve updated the requested file name to “LastName-PositiveNeutralInformationalDraft.docx” to reflect the language consistency correction.

To be clear, either file name is fine.

Q. What positive/neutral/informational context should I write to?

A. Depends on your character.

Q. What is my Feedback Team? Who is in my Feedback Team?

A. BCP Feedback Teams and character assignments are listed for Section 002 and Section 008.

Q. What is my character?

A. BCP Feedback Teams and character assignments are listed for Section 002 and Section 008.

Q. When writing our correspondence draft, are we required to write in a certain form like email, letter, memo, or any?

A. Yes. You are required to write your correspondence as a correspondence genre—email or memo or letter.

Based on your understanding of correspondence genre conventions and what’s presented in the scenario text, you need to make a purposeful decision about which genre to write within.

Take a a rhetorical approach and use your PAGOS plan to guide your decisions. In the PAGOS plan, genre asks:

  • What genres might be appropriate in this situation?
  • If there is more than one appropriate genre, what are the benefits and drawbacks of each?
  • Which genre is best (or which do you choose)? Why?
Q. My scenario doesn’t say whether I should write an email, memo, or letter. How do I know which one to choose?

A. You should make the best choice based on your understanding of the genres, the scenarios, and other elements of your PAGOS plan (purpose, audience, [genre], organization, and style).

Q. When we write our PAGOS plans for the BCP project, should we do what we did for the “PAGOS Practice” assignment?

A. The PAGOS plan is a heuristic—part of a rhetorical approach.

As a heuristic, it’s supposed to be flexible—not formulaic or fill-in-the-blank. So, ideally, you write about what’s important in each of the five areas—purpose, audience, genre, organization, and style.

You don’t have to download the prompts or follow the examples exactly, but you can if you want to be sure you don’t miss anything.

And to be clear, a “good” PAGOS plan isn’t about “answering” each of the prompts, or writing the most… it’s about thinking through the rhetorical situation in a way that asks you to consider the possibilities and make the best choices in your correspondence.

Q. For Feedback Team draft exchange, should we put our PAGOS and correspondence in one file? Or two?

A. Copy/paste the scenario text into your file first, then your PAGOS plan, and then your correspondence draft.

It might be helpful to let each part of the document fall on a new page, but it’s not necessary.

If you need an example of file assembly, I put together a sample file of a scenario, PAGOS, and correspondence draft—something that would be exchanged during feedback team peer review.

Q. What if one of my team members didn’t submit a draft for peer review?

A. If a group member didn’t submit a file, they won’t get a peer review.

Q. Only one of my team members submitted a draft—will I be penalized if I can only do one peer review?

A. No. You will not be penalized if you can only do one peer review.

Q. One of my team member’s files is missing parts. What should I do?

A. It depends.

If your peer’s file is missing the scenario text (I asked everyone to copy and paste it at the top), then use the link on the Course Schedule to go to the BCP Project Outline; click on the scenario title to read the scenario.

If your peer’s file is missing the PAGOS plan, then just complete the peer review on the correspondence draft. (you could also point out to your group member that since their PAGOS is missing, you can only review what you have)

If your peer’s file is missing the correspondence draft, maybe take a closer look at the PAGOS plan, provide a few comments/feedback where you can, and you’re done. (you could also point out to your group member that since their correspondence draft was missing, you could only give feedback on the PAGOS plan.

In general, do the best you can to review what you have.

Q. One of my team member’s files is missing something, so I can’t do a full peer review. Will I be penalized?

A. Who hurt you? Seriously. I want the name of the professor who hurt you.

Of course not. I wouldn’t penalize you for someone else’s error.

Q. What if one of my team members submitted their draft late? Should I still complete a peer review for them?

A. The draft files were due at 11:59pm on Tuesday, 9/22 (with a grace period until 2:00am). So, if your group member submitted their draft to the discussion board after 2:00am on Wednesday 9/23, technically, you don’t have to do a peer review.

But depending on the circumstances, you probably should still do one.

Hypothetical #1: Your group member submitted their draft at 2:15am on 9/23 (10 minutes after the grace period).

Are you required to give them a peer review? No.

Should you give them a peer review? Yes, of course you should.

Hypothetical #2: Your group member submitted their draft at 11:30pm on Wednesday, 9/23 (almost 24 hours after the deadline).

Are you required to give them a peer review? No.

Should you give them a peer review? If the file was there went you went to download it, then yes—you should probably do a peer review.

Hypothetical #3: Your group member submitted their draft at 12:00pm (noon) on Friday, 9/25 (waaaay late). You already did a review for one group member who submitted a file, and there’s only 12 hours until the peer reviews are due. You have other work today, and you have plans to make dinner and watch a movie tonight with your sister.

Are you required to give them a peer review? No.

Should you do the peer review? Heck no.

Here’s the bottom line: If a group member submitted her or his draft late (after 2am on 9/23), technically, you aren’t required to review it. However, if—depending on how late it was and your own schedule—it’s still reasonable for you to review it, you should.

Q. What if one of my team member’s drafts is really good?

A. Prove it.

In my experience, student peer reviewers in this class (ENC 3213) who write little more than “Great job!” at the end of an author’s text is usually just being lazy.

In my experience, students correspondence drafts need a lot of work.

But, perhaps you’ve read one of your peer’s drafts and it’s really good. Perhaps there are only a few minor things to improve.

If that’s the case, instead of identifying issues and offering suggestions purpose and audience, then write a few sentences about why the author’s text would accomplish its purpose, and briefly discuss the ways the text is effective in communicating to the specific audience. Write a sentence about why the subject line is effective (if it has one), and/or explain why the organization is effective for the context. Say something about the use of reader-centered writing and great professional writing style (how is it reader centered? where and how is it clear and concise?