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Title: Developing A Negative Response/News Letter/Email

Purpose: The following project enables the student to demonstrate their written communication for a particular setting. For our purposes here, this negative response/news message will take the form of a letter or email.

Goal of the Project: To demonstrate an ability to write a Negative Response/News Letter or Email.

INSTRUCTIONS: You are the Manager for a Travel Agency. The Travel Agency is open 6 days a week (closed on Sundays). You book approximately 20 trips per day. You handle flights, cruises, tours, car rentals and hotel reservations.
You have a new client, Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Through the Travel Agency, they have booked an Anniversary Trip to the Red Frog Beach Resort on an island which is part of Panama and is 30 miles on Cost. There is only one flight, daily, out of Newark, N.J., which flies directly to Panama. All other flights have at least one layover which, if taken, would end up taking about 9 -15 hours to finally arrive in Panama. Due to health issues, Mr. and Mrs. Smith need to take the direct flight which has a quicker arrival time. Five days before the trip, the airline notifies you that due to an unusual mechanical problem with the plane, the airlines have canceled Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s flight and will offer them a refund. The airline does not know when they will be able to offer that particular flight again. Their villa rental, bus, ferry and restaurant reservations have not been canceled.

Prepare a Negative Response/News Letter or Email informing Mr. and Mrs. Smith that their flight has been canceled. Use positive language and offer suggestion(s)/solution(s) to how they may still celebrate their Anniversary.
Process: Write a negative response/news Letter or Email to Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Be sure to offer solution(s) or suggestion(s) to make them feel like they are gaining something to celebrate their Anniversary and to help alleviate their possible disappointment.

Note: You may choose to use either a letter or email format. At the end of your paper, explain why you chose the format for your communication that you did.
If choosing the email format, be sure and set up the heading of your email – as an email would be set up:
From:_________ , To: _______, Date and Time:___________ Subject Line:_____________

Consider some of the following when planning your Negative Response/News letter or email:
1. What is the purpose of your message? Be sure that your message’s purpose is clearly established in your written communication.
2. What is your audience like?
3. What is your anticipated audience reaction to your message?
4. How can you use positive language to explain the reasons for proposed solution(s)/suggestion(s)?
5. What reasons can you give to support your solution(s)/suggestion(s)?
6. Will you format your Negative News Message as a Letter or Email and why?

When you have finished your letter or email, attach a separate piece of paper explaining how you planned out and organized your letter or email. For instance, did you start out the planning process with the end in mind? Did you recall or research any basic concepts of communication related to how to present Negative messages in communication? If so, what were they? Include any communication tips you used in writing your Negative Response/News Letter or Email.