Today, class will meet online only, because of a last-minute family obligation that has come up for me. I asked you to read Chapter 9, “Writing Correspondence” for today. The chapter covers writing letters, memos, and email messages.

From what you have told me about your career goals, I don’t expect you to be writing the kinds of claims or adjustments letters that are highlighted in the book, but you may well need to help customers and clients with issues that come up in relationship to the projects you work on. As a result, I want you to focus for now on the section in the chapter about memos.

• Pay attention to your memo headers. Your first writing project is a memo, so note the options for the headers for your memo on page 230. Remember that you always need to include all four: To, From, Subject, and Date. You have some leeway in the order however, as the examples on that page show.
• Provide a clear, easy-to-read organization. Apply the Guidelines for Organizing a Memo, on page 232, to your draft of Project 1. For this project, there is not a prominent recommendation to include at the end, but the other four guidelines apply to your work.
• Use the Writer’s Checklist for Memos. Ensure that your first project has everything that it needs by applying the checklist for memos, on page 239, to your work before you turn it in on Friday.

In-Class Writing

For today’s in-class writing, go to “Tests & Quizzes” in Scholar and complete today’s in-class writing, “02/09 Memo Revision.” Since we will not meet in the classroom, I’m giving you until 11:55 PM on Tuesday, 2/11 to get your work in.

Homework

Keep working on your first project. I am in the process of checking your rough drafts, and have left comments on the Google Doc when appropriate. I am only a third of the way through the alphabet at this point. If you submitted your rough draft on time, watch for notification from Google that I’ve added comments to your draft and let me know if you have any questions by using the Reply function in the Google Docs comments.

There is no additional reading for Wednesday, 2/12. We’ll review the requirements for the first project, look at some example texts, and address any questions or concerns you have. Remember that the due date for the project is Friday, 2/14. You will work on your reflection memo in class that day. If you decide to take advantage of the grace period, the last day you can submit your project is 2/21.