Business Communication Skills: Assessment 1 - Email & Letter Writing

This assignment assesses email and letter writing skills in a business context. It includes drafting a sick leave email, organizing sentences into paragraphs, and writing good and bad news letters. The assessment requires applying direct and indirect approaches, considering letter writing protocols, and addressing specific business scenarios, such as informing an advertising agency of a contract renewal decision. The assessment emphasizes proper formatting, grammar, and the strategic use of communication to convey information effectively within a professional setting, focusing on scenarios relevant to a marketing manager in an insurance company.

Assessment 1
This is an individual assessment task and all work must be your own. will check for plagiarism and
collusion and any work that shows any similarity to another person’s work will be investigated and
action will be taken if academic misconduct is identified.
Insert your name and student number
Student Name:
Student Number:
Email Writing (6 points/question)
1. You are employed by ABCD Limited as a full-time permanent employee. Your immediate
supervisor is Kristine Williams and her
As a full-time permanent employee, you are entitled to claim for 10 days sick leave per year.
Your company has a policy that any employee who is absent for 2 or more consecutive days
must provide a medical certificate to support any claim for sick leave. The policy further
extends to any absence on a Friday or Monday regardless of the number of consecutive days
absence. Any request for sick leave must be sent to the Manager of Human Resources. It is
also company policy that you advise immediately of any absences to your immediate
supervisor.
It is Monday morning and you are unwell today and absent from work. In order to request
sick leave from your employer you must draft an email that follows the protocols as for leave
of absences at ABCD Limited. Use the following template to draft your email.
Your email should follow the MADE structure (Message, Action, Details, Evidence).
Answer:
From:
To:
Subject:

2. A basic paragraph structure usually consists of five or more sentences: the topic sentence,
three or more supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence. But the secrets to paragraph
writing lay in four essential elements. Organise these jumbled sentences into paragraphs by
numbering them in the order they should follow:
To secure a booking, a deposit of $200 is required within seven days.
We look forward to hearing from you.
The cost of a two bedroom villa is $600 per week and a three bedroom is $800
per week.
Unfortunately you will not be able to bring your two dogs.
In addition to this rental cost, a cleaning fee of $150 is charged.
Thank you for your enquiry about a holiday booking for Golden Sands Villas
from 22 January to 29 January.
The owners have a strict policy that does not allow any pets to be kept in their
holiday premises.
We are pleased to tell you we have two and three bedroom villas available on
the dates required.
You may copy and paste the new paragraph construct into the box below.
Answer:

Letter writing (6 points/question)
3. What is the approach for writing a good news letter and why is it better to use this approach
to convey good news rather than the one you might use to convey bad news?
Answer:
Basically, direct approach is used and aspect that it must involves are:
 Illustrate goal along with make it specific
 Share the valuable content
 Choose primary call-to-action
 Make use of good and optimised images
 Track the metrics by making use of KPIs
 Use of catchy headline
This is the better way to reach individuals and time when these are being sent must also be
considered, the reason behind this is that it will provide entity with precise information. Like by
making use of heading it becomes easy to understand what is written then latter can either opt
for reading it or not. But when this is not done then individual might not read it. This approach is
apt for conveying good news.
4. Assume that you are the marketing manager for Perennial Insurance. You have been unhappy
with your long-time advertising agency and have been privately interviewing representatives
of six other agencies. Perennial is trying to build up its customer base with younger clients,
and is developing new products in health insurance, accident insurance, employment
interruption insurance and computer equipment insurance. After much deliberation, you and

your colleagues have finally opted for JJC Limited, an energetic outfit that specialises in
television advertising featuring computer-generated special effects.
Write a letter to Miranda Styles, CEO of JJC Limited (address is 101 Smith Street, Smithfield
NSW 2164) telling her of the good news of their being given a two-year contract to do all of
Protector’s advertising business. The contract with your current advertising firm has only
another four months to run and you want to get together with representatives of JJC Limited
as soon as possible to start planning campaigns for the 12-month period starting on the
completion of that four months. JJC Limited’s letter writing protocol includes using Justified
text.
Your letter must contain all of the elements of a letter and be checked for grammar and
spelling errors. As a good news letter your letter must follow the direct approach.
Answer:
5. You are still marketing manager for Perennial Insurance. Write a bad news letter to Maurie
Chen, Managing Director of AdverTies Limited, the agency that has handled Perennial’s
advertising for the past seven years. Their contract is up for review in four months and you
are not going to renew it.
Your letter must contain all of the elements of a letter and be checked for grammar and
spelling errors. As a bad news letter your letter must follow the indirect approach.
Answer:
Managing Director
AdverTies Limited
14th December 2020,

Marketing Manager
Perennial Insurance.
Subject: Non-renewal of contract
Dear Sir,
We are thankful for the contract that was there between us with reference to handling of
advertising that was handled by you from last seven years. It is found that there are four
months and after this the contract has to be renewed.
But we regret to notify you that this time we will not renew the contract because we need
to have some innovation within the way in which services are illustrated within the
marketplace. Along with this, the price on which agreement has been occurred is not
justified in terms of satisfaction levels.
We would like to end up the contract when it will be completed.
Yours faithfully
Mr. ABC
Marketing Manager
Perennial Insurance