Business Summary

Your first assignment is to write a business summary. This assignment would be considered a routine message.

Summarize in 300 to 500 words -- roughly two pages doubled spaced

Double - spaced -- NO PDF upload,  Submit as a Word document only

 Background

Our events company is looking to name a new car race event. We discovered that someone else owns the name we want.  During our search for our event's name, we turned up multiple uses of the name.

We asked our attorneys, Honigman, to render an opinion about what we can do to either secure the name we want or switch to another. Below is their response. The CEO doesn't want to "wade" through four pages of legal opinion.

Your Job (The Assignment) Summarize the legal opinion and put it into your best business writing.  Write a business summary of the Honigman letter from Julie Reitz. Following the lessons from writing routine letters, write a business summary of what she said to the CEO.

THIS INSTRUCTION IS IMPORTANT

You are NOT the lawyer, so avoid legalese and making legal judgments r interpretations. Do not recite the legal opinion. Tell us what she says in a brief informational way. This memo, like most business communication it is a mixture of information and persuasiveness.

You are not the lawyer giving advice.  You are the businessperson providing actionable information to the CEO. That means you must carefully choose what is essential to the CEO and what is not. You should have an intro, body, and conclusion.

You must capture all the pertinent information and write a summary to the CEO in 300 to 500 words. This assignment is a memo format: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/professional_technical_writing/memos/sample_memo.html (Links to an external site.)

Organize, organize, organize! Sentences and paragraphs are your organization tools. Use sentences and paragraphs to manage your thoughts, and coherence to make sense.

Sentences should be a simple sentence and not a compound. To achieve this, write merely using only one thought in the sentence. You know you are on the wrong track if you use punctuation such as colons or semicolons, dash or dots, or any other device. Do not ADD another thought or topic to your sentence.

Paragraphs to organize your thoughts into topics. Paragraphs are designed to have a single topic. When you switch topics, you change the paragraph. Use transition and segues to lead people into the next paragraph.

You must think about what the reader needs and wants from this memo. You must put yourselves in their "shoes" and write an impactful and informative message to the CEO. NOTE: AVOID legalese!

Facts are statements that can be proven. If you refer to a "fact" (in the letter), it may be a quote that you use or paraphrase the quote to lend persuasiveness to the document.

Coherence is organizing the ideas to make sense to the reader. Coherence is the tool you use to lead the reader from sentence to sentence, topic to topic.

• This memo should be three paragraphs.

o An intro

o A body

o A conclusion

• Remember to use a topic sentence to begin each paragraph (tells the reader what they are about to read).

• Use transitions between sentences and segues between paragraphs for coherence

• Sentences should be simple construction (see above reference) 10-15 words.

• Avoid the use of passive voice. Use the present tense, active voice.

• Support your statement of fact with quotes or data from the original letter.

• 300 to 500 Words Max

• Strategy for writing routine messages.

o An opening, a body, and a close

 Place your main idea in the body, use the body to explain all relevant details, and close cordially

 Use the direct approach for positive messages

 Prepare your audience for the detail that follows your positive message with the main idea or good news.

 Look for ways to present negative information in a positive context.

 Make sure audience members understand what to do next and how that action will benefit them.

Apply the three-step process to routine and positive messages.

• Step 1: Plan a routine or positive message.

o Analyze the situation, gather information, select the right medium for the messages. In this case, write an email (memo format)

• Step 2: Writing a routine or positive message

o Open by stating the main idea.

o Give necessary details in the body (support for your thinking)

o Close with a cordial statement or a request for a specific action.

o Step 3: Completing a routine or positive message

 Revise, produce, proofread, and distribute it.

 Pay attention to tone, assume your audience will comply, be specific.