Investigation on Textbook Case in Communication Course-1234

DATE: 5th November 2018
TO: Kelly Book
FROM:
SUBJECT: Investigation on Textbook Case
The investigation carried out was based on the emerging issues that arose in issuance and receipt of
textbooks in the Department of Communication for the Communication Course-1234. Following your
guidelines, we carried out interviews from different stakeholders in this department. They include;
Dave Black, the bookstore manager
Matt Hoan, instructor, Effective Writing Strategies
Hector Mead, Administrative Assistant
The response that was gathered from this investigative piece helped point out some of the challenges
that this department is grappling with. It also helped us to suggest some of the solutions that can help in
bringing efficiency in the issuance of textbooks to students.
Issues arising
It was discovered that by the time of carrying out this research, the department’s main publisher,
Oxblood Publishing had already published the fourth edition of Writing Effectively. The policy between
the department and the publisher states that the unsold copies need to be returned before the next
edition is released. It was however discovered that the third edition was still needed for the coming
semester. The department has, however, been given two weeks’ time to return the unsold copies failure
to which they won’t be accepted back by the publisher. There are also charges that the department has
to pay for the late return of the unsold copies. This is why the bookstore manager seems to be in haste
to return the third edition copies even when it is evident they will be still in use in the coming semester.
Matt Hoan, the instructor has indicated that the fourth edition that cannot be adopted to the
Communication Course-1234. This means that there was no consultation between the department and
the publisher.
Analysis
According to the investigation that was carried out, few issues came to the fore. The response that we
got from Dave Black, Matt Hoan and Hector Mead, there is a conflict between the third and fourth
edition from the extra chapter added to the later. The third edition has, therefore, has to be used since
the time remaining to the next semester is little to adopt the new chapter in the fourth edition. Since
the publisher has already produced the fourth edition and is recalling the unsold copies of the third
edition, this has the potential of creating confusion. This is because the students might buy the latest
edition but not useful to the semester.
There is proof that there was no effective communication between the stakeholders in this department.
The bookstore manager seems not to be having the data on the number of students to be enrolled in
the coming semester. The instructor, on the other hand, realizes the mistake in the fourth edition after it
has been published. This is a clear indication that there was no consultation between the department