WRTG 293 students,
Your first writing assignment will be a persuasive email message. The situation you are
responding to in your message is described below.
________________________
You are the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Johnson College. As a growing online school,
your institution offers hundreds of classes, and thousands of sections, online.
Johnson College changed its learning management system (LMS) two years ago. As CTO, you
oversaw the change to the new LMS. You adopted LEO as your new LMS at that time.
However, in the two years of using LEO, you have found several problems with LEO. You have
communicated the concerns with the President of Johnson, the Provost of Johnson, the Dean of
The Undergraduate School, and the Dean of the Graduate School. These four individuals have
asked you to write an an email message to Mr. Robert Kurzwell at LEO, Inc. in which you
propose three changes to the LEO interface and suggest a meeting to discuss your proposed
changes.
In writing your message, please come up with the three changes you would like to make to LEO.
Some examples could be the following. Keep in mind that these are only examples. You can use
them if you would like to, or you may come up with your own issues.
•
•
•
•
The LEO interface leaves much space at the right and the left of the screen. Significant
“real estate” is wasted as a result. This problem makes various aspects of the class
difficult to navigate or follow.
The LEO interface allows an instructor to post an audio clip using LEO’s functions.
However, the audio clip is limited to two minutes. Limiting audio clips to two minutes
limits their usefulness in an online class.
The LEO interface does not feature a video function. You feel that the ability for
instructors to make short video clips would enhance the classroom, and the LEO
interface.
The LEO quiz function does not offer the possibility of making a drag-and-drop quiz.
Please note that your institution is a major customer for LEO, Inc. However, you are not its only
customer. You have some negotiating power, but your concerns have to be considered in light of
the other 85 institutions to which LEO, Inc. provides its learning management system.
The goal of your email message is to set up a phone meeting with Mr. Kurzwell and perhaps
other members of his team to discuss your concerns. It is possible that you will terminate your
contract with LEO, Inc. if your concerns are not addressed, at least partially. However, you have
not determined whether you will change your LMS or, if you did, what other LMS you will
change to.
___________________________
Strategies to Consider for this Assignment:
For general information on formatting and organizing a business email message of this type, you
might explore a wikibook on professional writing.
Consider your audience. Your primary audience is Mr. Kurzwell. However, it is very likely that
members of his staff will read your message as well. Moreover, you are representing the
President, Provost, and two Deans at your school. Therefore, they can be considered a secondary
audience, as you would not want to write an email message that they would not support.
What to submit:
When submitting this assignment, you should post your email message in a Word document.
Please indicate the following:
To: rkurzwell@leo.com
Subject: fill in your subject line
the message itself
.
Length of your message:
Your message should be 300-450 words in length. A message longer than 450 words would probably lose the audience. However, a message shorter than 300 words would not describe your
concerns thoroughly enough to the audience.
Due Date:
Your instructor will notify you of the due date.
