Professional Electronic Communication
Objectives
• Evaluate the appropriate uses and implications of casual versus professional language
• Evaluate the implications of language used in a public forum
What’s in it for me?
Electronic communication is increasingly becoming the way we do business and communicate with our friends via SNS and e-mail. Because we can’t hear the words in an electronic communication, we can’t transmit nuances that can clarify intent. That missing element allows for greater misinterpretation when messages are sent without careful regard.
What About the Widgets?
Section I: The Scenario
What a piece of junk! Your product is completely worthless! You’re so incompetent, I’ll bet you can’t even read this message, much less manufacture a widget that actually works. I demand my money back plus 10% for the pain and suffering your worthless widget has caused me.
If I don’t hear from you immediately, the next message you get will be from my attorney!
Aiden Grey
Imagine that you own and operate an online company that sells widgets. You receive the following e-mail:
Tip!
Try to separate what the writer wants from the way he’s expressing himself. Also consider what you need to find out from this writer.
Section II: Letter to Customer
Directions: As owner of the online company, analyze the customer’s message and write an appropriate response on a separate sheet of paper or in your eNotes. Your goal is to make your customer happy and feel like he is treated fairly and with respect.
Uhhh maybe perseverance/working hard to reach a goal because she decides to work out to lose weight in order to be on the cheerleading team.
Answer:
Walton’s letters to his sister form a frame around the main narrative, Victor Frankenstein’s tragic story. Walton captains a North Pole–bound ship that gets trapped between sheets of ice. While waiting for the ice to thaw, he and his crew pick up Victor, weak and emaciated from his long chase after the monster. Victor recovers somewhat, tells Walton the story of his life, and then dies. Walton laments the death of a man with whom he felt a strong, meaningful friendship beginning to form.
Walton functions as the conduit through which the reader hears the story of Victor and his monster. However, he also plays a role that parallels Victor’s in many ways. Like Victor, Walton is an explorer, chasing after that “country of eternal light”—unpossessed knowledge. Victor’s influence on him is paradoxical: one moment he exhorts Walton’s almost-mutinous men to stay the path courageously, regardless of danger; the next, he serves as an abject example of the dangers of heedless scientific ambition. In his ultimate decision to terminate his treacherous pursuit, Walton serves as a foil (someone whose traits or actions contrast with, and thereby highlight, those of another character) to Victor, either not obsessive enough to risk almost-certain death or not courageous enough to allow his passion to drive him.
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QUIZ: Can You Guess the Fictional Character from a Bad One-Sentence Description?
Explanation:
