Two different prompts, both must be completed:
PROMPT 1:
8.5 Persuasive Request: How to Ask for a Letter of Recommendation (L.O. 1, 2)
E-Mail
As a student, you will need letters of recommendation to find a job, to apply for a scholarship or grant, or to enter graduate school.
Naturally, you will consider asking one or several of your college instructors. You talk to Paul, a senior you know, to find out how to get a busy professor to write you an effective letter. Paul has the following advice:
• Ask only instructors who have had the opportunity to observe your performance and may still remember you fondly. Two to five years after you attended a course of 20 to 40 students, your teachers may not recall you at all.
• Contact only instructors who can sing your praises. If your grades were poor, the endorsement won’t be glowing. Some instructors refuse to write recommendations for mediocre students.
Make it easy for your instructors to agree to your request and to write a solid letter promptly by following these guidelines:
• Make the first request in person; your former instructor will be more likely to remember you.
• Introduce yourself by name and try to point out something memorable you did to help your professor recall your performance.
• Have a hard copy of the job descriiption, scholarship information, grant requirements, or graduate school application ready, or direct the instructor to a website.
• Carry a copy of a recent polished résumé, or promise to e-mail these documents and any other information to help your recom-mender recall you in a professional setting and understand what you need.
• Confirm any agreement by e-mail promptly, and set a firm yet reasonable deadline by which the letter must be received. Don’t expect to get a letter if you ask at the last minute.
• Gently nudge by e-mail to remind the recommender when the deadline is approaching.
Your Task. Write a persuasive request by e-mail asking your instructor (or supervisor or manager) to write you a letter of recommendation for a job application, grant, scholarship, or graduate school application. Provide all relevant information to make it easy for your reader to write a terrific letter. Explain any attachments.
PROMPT 2:
8.8 Persuasive Claim: Overpriced Hotel Breakfast in Las Vegas (L.O. 3)
As regional manager for a national restaurant chain, you and two other employees attended a sales conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.
You stayed at the Aria Resort & Casino because your company recommends that employees use this hotel during annual industry meetings. Generally, your employees have liked their accommodations, and the rates have been within your company’s budget.
Now, however, you are unhappy with the charges you see on your company’s credit statement from Aria Resort & Casino. When your department’s administrative assistant made the reservations, she was assured that you would receive the weekend rates and that a hot breakfast—in the hotel’s Italian restaurant, Carbone—would be included in the rate. So you and the other two employees went to the restaurant and ordered a hot meal from the menu.
When you received the credit statement, though, you saw a charge for $153 for three champagne buffet breakfasts at Carbone. You hit the ceiling! For one thing, you didn’t have a buffet breakfast and certainly no champagne. The three of you got there so early that no buffet had been set up. You ordered pancakes and sausage, and for this you were billed $40 each. What’s worse, your company may charge you personally for exceeding the maximum per diem rates.
In looking back at this event, you remember that other guests on your floor were having a continental breakfast in a lounge on your floor. Perhaps that’s where the hotel expected all guests on the weekend rate to eat. However, your administrative assistant had specifically asked about this matter when she made the reservations, and she was told that you could order breakfast from the menu at the hotel’s Italian restaurant, Carbone
Your Task.
You want to straighten out this problem, and you can’t do it by telephone because you suspect that you will need a written record of this entire mess. Online you have tried in vain to find an e-mail address for guest relations at Aria. Write a persuasive claim to Customer Service, Aria Resort & Casino, 3730 Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV 89158. Should you include a copy of the credit card statement showing the charge
