ENGL510 Foundations of Professional Communication
Writing Assignment 3 — Bad News Message
Instructions
In this assignment you will complete a collaborative project designed to solve the problem of
delivering bad news. Communicating bad news is one example of a complex workplace
problem. Incorporate strategies for analyzing group dynamics, resolving conflict, and
communicating in a multicultural environment to complete the project. Each group has a
dedicated discussion area to work on the assignment which begins with an individual effort.
Situation: Giving Bad News to a Customer
You are the sales manager at Easy to Be Green. One of the company’s services is to design and
install energy-efficient heating, cooling, and insulation systems in both new and existing
buildings. Because these systems are custom-designed and involve a variety of sub-contractors,
no changes can be made to the design after a date specified in the contract.
This morning one of your sales people, Chris, comes to you with a problem. The construction
manager at Greenfield Community College, a new client with a huge campus and many ongoing
construction and renovation projects, has written to Chris requesting a change in the location of a
venting apparatus to accommodate a change in the campus’s overall design plan. The request
was made two weeks after the date specified in the contract and a month before the planned
beginning of the installation.
Chris contacted EBG’s design engineer who said that the change could be made even though it
was past the deadline, though making the change at this point would add about $5000 to the
overall cost. “Great,” you say. “Forget the deadline, and we might even absorb the added cost.
We want to make this customer happy.” “Not so fast,” says Chris. Apparently there is a zoning
restriction on this kind of venting location. This restriction is not well enforced, and many
businesses in the area violate it. EBG naturally has a policy against violating zoning restrictions.
The engineer told Chris that occasionally they have bent the rules on this particular restriction
since it is so weakly enforced and since it doesn’t have environmental implications; the
restriction has more to do with the visual profile of the building.
Chris consulted the legal department to get their input, which was not encouraging. The
company lawyer told Chris that EBG was currently working with city council members to have
some (unrelated) environmentally-friendly but controversial legislation passed, and it would not
look good for the company to be found in violation of another city ordinance while this other
legislation was being debated. The opponents of the legislation would certainly bring any
company violations to the public’s attention and make the most of the situation.
You know that the answer will have to be no, and the client will not be happy, nor will Chris. In
fact, Chris asks you to communicate the bad news to the client, and you agree that this is a good
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idea. It’s important for Chris to maintain a good relationship with the client, and this will be
easier if the decision comes from someone else.
You ask Chris to stop by in the morning, along with the design engineer, to help draft the letter.
You want to write this letter carefully because a lot could be at stake.
Assignment
Write a one-page letter to Greenfield’s construction manager informing him/her that you cannot
make the requested change. Note that you have chosen to write a letter rather than simply
making a phone call or writing an email because this message might be considered a kind of
addendum to the contract; therefore, you want a written record and you want it to be more formal
than an email.
One of the most important features of a bad news message is the reason for the bad news, which
ideally should be airtight and should not cause you to lose the good will of the recipient. The
best reason in terms of maintaining good will is the zoning rule because that takes the decision
out of your hands, but this client may know that the rule is often not enforced. However, you
certainly can’t get into an explanation of why the company cannot bend the rule at this point.
The most airtight explanation is the contract deadline, but customers never like to be told no on
the basis of “policy,” and clients who are spending a lot of money are accustomed to having
exceptions made in their favor. You want to explain the negative decision in a way that will
allow you to keep the good will of this client, and both of the possible reasons that you could
give have both strengths and weaknesses.
As you think about how to write this message, you need to consider what reason(s) you will give
for saying no, how to present the reason(s), and whether you will offer anything to this client to
soften the blow of the bad news. As you draft the message, you need to consider how you will
write the buffer, reason, bad news, any other needed explanations, any alternatives, and a closing
aimed at maintaining good will.
Note that in writing this message, you will need to select the necessary information to include
(as in the other writing assignments, some of the information is provided as background but
would not be appropriate to include in the message), organize this information effectively for a
bad news message, and put the information as much as possible in your own words and
sentences.
Planning and Drafting
Bad news messages often start with a buffer that establishes goodwill with the reader. This is
immediately followed by a clear and carefully worded statement of the bad news. The rest of the
message provides support in the form of additional reasons, potential positives, possible
alternatives. A bad news message concludes with any follow up actions for the reader or from
the writer, and ends on a cordial note to re-establish the goodwill of the reader.
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Use the following format:
Block letter formatting (see textbook)
One-inch margins all around
Left-only justification
12-point regular Times New Roman font. (Although 11-point Calibri is Word’s default
font, serif fonts like Times New Roman are more reader friendly for longer texts because
the serifs draw the eye forward, while sans-serif fonts like Calibri are more effective for
very brief texts in which you want to hold the eye.)
Please save the assignment draft that was agreed upon by the group as a Word document and post
it in the Week 5 Bad News Message Draft Dropbox by midnight Sunday.
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