CHAPTER 5
SOLUTIONS
Short Workplace Messages and Digital Media
Critical Thinking Discussion Guide
11. The eminent sociologist Zygmunt Bauman had this to say about social media: “Most
people use social media not to unite, not to open their horizons wider, but on the
contrary, to cut themselves a comfort zone where the only sounds they hear are the
echoes of their own voice, where the only things they see are the reflections of their
own face. Social media are very useful, they provide pleasure, but they are a trap.”
Do you agree? Why or why not? How do you use social media networks? (L.O. 5)
Answers will vary as students may be inclined to share their online experience and describe
uses of the Internet and social media. Some are likely to concur that social media foster
12. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, four Oklahoma State University students tweeted a
group selfie; two of the students were wearing blackface, causing outrage on
campus. In another incident, several students were expelled from a Texas university
for posting a Snapchat video of a peer in blackface, wearing baggy clothes, sporting
exaggerated lips, and making offensive racial jokes. Comment on these incidents in
the light of the students’ eventual job search. What advice would you give your peers
about posting on social media? (L.O. 5)
Tastelessness and poor ethics aside, posting sensitive information or questionable images
13. Are common abbreviations such as lol and imho and all-lowercase writing acceptable
in texting or instant messaging for business? (L.O. 2)
14. Traditional mainstream media act as so-called gatekeepers that vet the news and
decide what kind of content gets published. However, social media networks have
changed the game. Now anyone with an Internet connection can publish anything,
even fake news, and reach vast audiences in mere seconds. What are the benefits
and dangers of this unprecedented access and speed of distribution? (L.O. 5)
Among the benefits are the following: Social media have democratized access to media.
Artists can turn to their audiences directly and promote their music on the Web, as U2 and
15. Some marketers employ machines to inflate the number of likes and fans online. So-
called bot networks (botnets) operate large numbers of fake accounts on Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter. A rental agency based in Washington, D.C., went from two
fans to almost 15,000 within a few days. How do you feel about companies and their
brands pretending they have actual traffic on their sites and buying likes? (L.O. 5)
Most upstanding marketers find the practice unethical. They point out that it violates the
terms of use on platforms such as Instagram. Answers from students indicating their
Radical Rewrites
5.1 Radical Rewrite: Information E-mail—Hastily Written Message Needs Drastic Revision
(L.O. 1)
Weaknesses
a. Fails to provide a clear subject line.
b. Does not open directly with a statement summarizing the message or with the most
important question.
c. Buries the call to action at the end of the first paragraph instead of at the end of the
message where readers expect to find such information.
d. Reduces readability by failing to list concise questions in bulleted form.
e. Suffers from wordiness and imprecision throughout.
Revision
To: Danika Benoit <dbenoit@bien.com>
From: Nathan Weintraub <nweintraub@bien.com>
Subject: Please Answer Questions About Starting an Intern Program
Hi, Danika,
Should we start an internship program here at Bien? I’m asking you and other members of our
management team to consider the following questions and to come to the next management
meeting prepared to express your views.
5.2 Radical Rewrite: Information E-Mail—Tips for Conferencing
Weaknesses
a. Fails to include a meaningful subject line that summarizes the main idea.
b. Should have used Dear Ms. Staiger or Dear Samantha if the sender knows the receiver
well. Full names should be used only when the recipient’s gender is not obvious.
Revision
To: Samantha Staiger <sstaiger@realtopublications.com>
From: Gabriel Lugo <gabe@gabesworldblog.com>
Subject: Sending Tips for Your Networking Voices Article
Dear Ms. Staiger:
I appreciate this opportunity to contribute to the article that you are preparing about Web
conferencing for Networking Voices.
Web meetings have become quite popular as an alternative to in-person meetings. You asked
me to provide brief advice for Web conferencing. Here are five concise tips that your readers
may find helpful:
• Plan ahead. Before the conference, notify all participants of the date, time, and duration of
the conference. Provide log-ins, passwords, and necessary printed documents by e-mail.
Activities and Cases
5.3 Instant Messaging: Live Chat Training at TransGlobal Airlines (L.O. 2)
Communication Technology
Rep 1 exhibits extreme carelessness; he is the superbly laid-back type. Rep 2 sounds
Discussion Guide
Rep 1
Rep 2
Rep 3
Keeps typing badly. Punctuates
Sounds scripted and stuffy.
understand the problem. Offers
Seems distracted by another
open chat window. Amateurishly
shows surprise at the
Sounds robotic and aloof
instead of showing genuine
Is not fazed by the customer’s
frustration; overlooks errors and
an angry tone; appears
experience with the chief
technology officer on his blog.
customer share the negative
experience with the chief
experience with the chief
technology officer on his blog.
Adopts a very casual tone and
types carelessly throughout.
Offers an unprofessional
greeting. Uses millennial slang
The tone is stuffy, overly formal.
The rep doesn’t sound like a
real human being. The writing is
grammatically correct, but
The rep strikes the right tone.
After exchanging a pleasantry,
gets to the point, wishing to be
helpful.
Following is a possible revision of chat with Rep 3:
Representative 3
Rep: Hello, Alex, thank you for calling TransGlobal Airlines. How are you doing?
Alex: Hi, I’m okay.
Rep: I’m glad to hear that. How may I help you today?
Alex: Your award-travel system sucks!! I’m so tired of wasting time on your website!
Rep: I’m sorry to hear that, Alex. We have been having some service disruptions. What
happened?
Alex: What happened is that I keep getting an error message just before I click Purchase. I tried
many times.
Alex: What point are award miles when they can’t be redeemed??
Rep: Please describe how the error occurs. If all fails, I will try to make the booking for you and
will waive the live booking fee.
5.4 Information/Procedure Message: Parking Guidelines With a Smile (L.O. 1)
Date: Current
To: All Employees
From: Adelle Justice, Director, Human Resources
Subject: Review of Parking Policies
Please review the parking policies described below. They are designed to give everyone fair
access.
All Employees
• Register your car with Employee Relations.
• Place the white registration sticker on your back bumper on
Day-Shift Employees
• Park in your assigned space in Lots A and B.
5.5 Information Message: Announcing Floating Holidays (L.O. 1)
To: All Employees (Distribution List)
From: Your Name <Your E-Mail Address>
Subject: Announcing Floating Holidays
You will be pleased to know that, effective immediately, you can take two floating holidays per
year whenever you need them.
A floating holiday is a paid day off that you may take for any reason. Typical reasons are to
celebrate family events, vote in an election, attend parent-teacher days, enjoy a holiday
8
5.6 Information Message: Establishing Wiki Rules (L.O. 3)
Date: May 20, 2019
To: All Employees
From: Your Name
Subject: Introducing Helpful Wiki User Rules
Here are a few guidelines that should ease the upcoming launch of our first company wiki and
make you a valued contributor. Now, you all are familiar with Wikipedia, the ubiquitous online
encyclopedia. Unlike Wikipedia, our yet-to–be-named wiki will not be open on the Internet but
will reside on our intranet for use in-house. Some vendors will be allowed occasional access.
The following general rules will get us off to a good start until we formulate detailed policies:
• Be informed. All new users will need to read and follow the guidelines for contributors.
5.7 Information Message: Rescheduling Interviews (L.O. 1)
Date: Current
To: Pete Rollins
From: Your Name
Subject: Rescheduled Project Manager Interviews for August 29
As you requested, the project manager interviews that were scheduled for Thursday, August 22,
have been rescheduled for Thursday, August 29. Here is summarized background information
for each candidate as well as the day’s interview schedule:
Time Candidate Background
9:30 a.m. Maya Oliva Senior project manager,
6 years, High Point Industries; MA degree
5.8 Instant Messaging: Practicing Your Professional IM Skills (L.O. 2)
Communication Technology
This activity can also be accomplished with the help of Blackboard’s chat function, but AIM,
Skype, and the other IM tools are often more versatile and sophisticated or have a more
pleasant interface. It’s important that all students download the same client because many
software platforms are not designed to work with others. IM aggregators Trillian and Pidgin
5.9 Analyzing a Podcast (L.O. 3)
E-mail responses to this assignment would enable students to respond to the assignment more
fully and in greater detail. However, composing concise yet informative professional texts or
tweets is also a valuable skill. Summarizing is often not students’ strong suit, and this activity
may provide playful practice.
If you are understandably reluctant to give away your cell phone number, create a Google Voice
account, which will provide you with a phone number you can give out and access online or
As for the style used in the Money Girl podcasts, they clearly appeal to young people because
Potential tweet or concise text message:
You get the most favorable tax treatment when you have a legitimate business—you can
even deduct your overall business losses in years you don’t make a profit. (133
characters with spaces)
5.10 Recording a Simple Audio Podcast (L.O. 3)
Answers will vary. Consider helping students select business topics and prepare brief scripts.
Some of these steps could be done in class in small groups or as a peer editing exercise.
Students could be asked to present a local company, introduce a business idea, discuss a new
5.11 Blogging: Learning From Master Bloggers (L.O. 4)
Answers will vary. As an alternative to a blog entry, students could be asked to analyze in a
5.12 Composing a Personal Blog Entry (L.O. 4)
This assignment is purposely limited to a recent survey or study to ensure academic honesty
and discourage copying from the Internet. The added benefit is that the students will become
5.13 Reviewing Corporate Blogs (L.O. 4)
This assignment allows for a variety of activities. Students could be asked to evaluate a blog
verbally or in writing—in memo form, in an e-mail, as a blog entry, or as a concise social media
5.14 Monitoring Twitter Feeds and Facebook Posts (L.O. 5)
Ask students to obtain a Twitter account if they don’t already have one. The so-called digital
natives may not be as obsessed with social media after all. Of the 61 percent of millennials who
have a Twitter account, 19 percent say they rarely or never use it. This means that almost 40
percent don’t have a Twitter account at all; 54 percent aren’t on Snapchat. Although 89 percent
5.15 Social Media: Quitting Cold Turkey? (L.O. 5)
Answers will vary, but most students will probably agree that they would consider it a hardship
to relinquish their cell phones even for a day. In the Maryland study, students felt that giving up
Communication Workshop: Social Media
Should Employers Curb Social Media, E-Mail, and Other Internet Use?
Many employers resign themselves to the fact that employees will spend a certain amount of
time during the workday online shopping and visiting social media sites. Some have accepted
that workers goof off approximately one hour a day. Although they understandably dislike this
personal use of company time, they realize that Internet use is increasingly tougher to enforce.
Arguments for allowing personal use of social media on the job:
Depending on the job, workers take their work home and on the road. Asking them to stay away
Arguments against allowing personal use of social media on the job: