file:///C:/Users/lewis/Downloads/Formal%20Essay%201%20Assignment%20Prompt%20_Fix%20It-A%20Letter%20of%20Complaint%20(2).html
Joey Nicoletti CWP 101: College Writing I Essay 1: Fix It! A Letter of Complaint Assignment Description For your first assignment, you will write a letter of complaint to a person who has the power to resolve the issue. After you have written the letter itself, you will analyze the choices you made in writing the letter. As you begin this assignment, there are many directions you can go with it: serious, realistic, humorous, sarcastic, or even angry. There are also just many ways it can be organized. To this end, it might be a sage idea to consider real letters of complaint that you think are well written. This assignment will build on the analytical and argumentative skills you are developing while discussing the readings and class activities. Your skills in identifying rhetorical approaches and appeals will have made you vigilant, curios, and ruminative critical readers. You will have learned not just to read to comprehend as a believer, but also to question as a doubter, to analyze, and to apply the ideas in the readings, both in the context of school and your own lives. Use those same critical thinking skills to analyze your own experiences through your writing. As with all successful audience-oriented writing, your assignment must have an argument that you want to prove with credibility, conviction, and cogency. Part I: Letter of Complaint People have issues problems with products, services and people all the time. These letters can serve many purposes from blowing off steam, to writing a “strongly worded opinion”; nevertheless, at the root, there are two main goals: to have the issue heard (or read) and understood, and to get the problem resolved. Start by determining what issue you want to have resolved. Perhaps you are annoyed that the lenses of your $300.00 sunglasses pop out easily when you wear them and you want Mr. Rayban to change the designs. Maybe your landlord hasn’t repaired the electricity to the kitchen and you’ve had no light there for two months and you want it fixed immediately. In any case, the letter must be addressed to a living person about an important and specific issue. Be sure that you are professional, that you include all proper means of addressing your audience (i.e., their tile, their business address, and the like). Be thoughtful, carefully planned, cogent, and be professional in the manner in which you go about seeking a resolution to an issue at hand. Next, determine who the audience is for the letter. This must be a living human being: your target audience must be someone who is alive and has the power and authority to make the change(s) you seek. Learn what you can about this person so you know what he or she values, believes, and why. Once you have analyzed your audience, choose the rhetorical appeals you will use to persuade your audience of your position and to make changes. Generally, these are the parts to a letter of complaint: a statement of the problem, an explanation of why this problem matters, a plausible resolution to the problem, and an explanation of why that resolution is appropriate. Do not rant. Find a solution and get a response. After this assignment has received point totals and comments, You will be sent to the person you’re writing to. This is an essential part of the assignment, so be sure that you think your letter through; that you are vigilant about being clear, precise, credible, mindful of your audience, and cogent. Practice your rhetorical skills; your ability to address an audience with your feelings, ideas and words for positive change. Part II: Rhetorical Analysis (The RA) In addition to the letter of complaint, you will write a short rationale in which you explain the rhetorical choices you made in writing your letter. This print composition should carefully consider the rhetorical concepts you have studied in class as well as any other research that will help you make rhetorical choices and understand these choices. The RA must be 500-750 words (of text) in length, no more or less. Be sure that you include your word count total at the bottom of the page. Requirements · Conduct any research necessary to understand the issue or product adequately. · Address the letter of complaint to a real human being (Not “Sir or Madam”), one who is alive, and who would have the power to effect change: the landlord, the person in charge of iPhone troubles, etc. · Letter of Complaint: 250-400 words in length, typed, single-spaced. · Be sure that you have a proper heading on your letter (The date, the person being addressed and his or her title, their business address, and so forth). · The RA: 500-750 words in length, double-spaced. Be sure that it has a title and a proper heading (Your name, the course title, the instructor’s (my) name, and the date of submission. · The title of your RA. Use something other than “RA,” “Essay 1,” “Fix it,” or “A Letter of Complaint,” as all of these titles have been taken. Create your own original title for the RA. · One copy of the comments you receive in our first peer response workshop session. Everyone will review at least one of our class community participants’ assignment. Everyone will have access to an assignment rubric and make their evaluations on this sheet. Please note that only students enrolled in our course can fill out a critique sheet for you. We will determine the date of our peer response workshop session on Monday, September 28th, 2020: next week’s class session. · The final draft will be revised using the input you received during peer response and is due on Saturday, October 3rd, 2020, by 11:59 pm. · The assignment dropbox will open on Thursday, October 1st, 2020 at 9:00 am. · Submitting the Final Draft: Submit your project as a .doc or .docx file. The file will be compiled of the three items in the following order with each one starting on a new page: 1) The letter of complaint. 2) The RA. 3) A completed copy of the Peer Critique Sheet. · This assignment will be submitted via Blackboard. When you submit the project, title the file using this formula: Lastname_project1. Example (i.e., don’t use): Nicoletti_ThisCarDidn’tTakeMeTooFar · You will receive additional feedback from me and complete a final revised letter for your portfolio due on the day of our CEP session. Should you have any questions or issue, please don’t hesitate to HMU, as I am here to help you in any possible way that I can. Until such time, have good researching, thinking, decision-making, and writing. I look forward to reading your work, as always. Onward!