CHAPTER REVIEW AND ACTIVITIES

1 OBJECTIVE Adapt the three-step writing process to reports and proposals.

To adapt the three-step process to reports and proposals, apply what you learned in Chapters 3 through 5, with particular emphasis on clearly identifying your purpose, preparing a work plan, determining whether a separate research project might be needed, choosing the medium, and selecting the best approach for the specific type of report.

2 OBJECTIVE Describe an effective process for conducting business research, explain how to evaluate the credibility of an information source, and identify the five ways to use research results.

Begin the research process with careful planning to make sure you focus on the most important questions. Then locate the data and information, using primary and secondary research as needed. Process the results of your research, and apply your findings by summarizing information, drawing conclusions, or developing recommendations. Finally, manage information effectively so that you and others can retrieve it later and reuse it in other projects.

Evaluating the credibility of an information source can involve eight questions. (1) Does the source have a reputation for honesty and reliability? (2) Is the source potentially biased? (3) What is the purpose of the material? (4) Is the author credible? (5) Where did the source get its information? (6) Can you verify the material independently? (7) Is the material current and complete? (8) Does the information make sense?

Five ways to use research results are quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing textual material; drawing conclusions; and making recommendations.

3 OBJECTIVE Explain the role of secondary research, and describe the two major categories of online research tools.

Secondary research is generally used first, both to save time in case someone else has already gathered the information needed and to offer additional insights into your research questions. The two major categories of online

research tools are tools used for searching (including various types of search engines, web directories, and online databases) and tools used for automatically monitoring for new information.

4 OBJECTIVE Explain the role of primary research, and identify the two most common forms of primary research for business communication purposes.

Primary research involves the collection of new data, and it is conducted when the information required is not available through secondary research. The two most common primary research methods for business communication purposes are surveys and interviews.

5 OBJECTIVE Explain how to plan informational reports and website content.

Informational reports focus on the delivery of facts, figures, and other types of information. Most informational reports use a topical organization, arranging material by comparison, importance, sequence, chronology, geography, or category.

When developing online reports and websites in general, start by planning the structure and navigation paths before writing the content. Next, make sure you let readers be in control by giving them navigational flexibility. Finally, break your information in chunks that can be scanned and absorbed quickly.

6 OBJECTIVE Identify the three most common ways to organize analytical reports.

Analytical reports assess a situation or problem and recommend a course of action in response. The three most common ways to organize analytical reports are by focusing on conclusions, focusing on recommendations, and focusing on logical arguments.

7 OBJECTIVE Explain how to plan proposals.

The most significant factor in planning a proposal is whether the proposal is solicited or unsolicited. Solicited proposals are obviously expected and welcomed by the recipient, but

they often must follow a specific organization, particularly when they are submitted in response to a request for proposals (RFP). For unsolicited proposals, the writer has flexibility in choosing the most effective organization, format, and content. However, because unsolicited proposals are unexpected, the writer often needs to explain why the solution offered in the proposal is even necessary for the reader to consider. Because of this, the indirect approach is usually preferred for unsolicited proposals.

Test Your Knowledge

To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

1.What are the three basic categories of reports? [LO-1]

2.What is typically covered in the work plan for a report? [LO-1]

3. How does a conclusion differ from a recommendation? [LO-2]

4.Should you use primary research before or after secondary research? [LO-4]

5. How do proposal writers use an RFP? [LO-7]

Apply Your Knowledge

To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

1.Companies occasionally make mistakes that expose confidential information, such as when employees lose laptop computers containing sensitive data files or webmasters forget to protect confidential webpages

from search engine indexes. If you conducted an online search that turned up competitive information on webpages that were clearly intended to be private, what would you do? Explain your answer. [LO-3]

2. Can you use the same approach for planning website content as you use for planning printed reports? Why or why not? [LO-5]

3. If you were writing a recommendation report for an audience that doesn’t know you, would you use the direct approach, focusing on the recommendation, or the indirect approach, focusing on logic? Why? [LO-6]

Practice Your Skills

Activities

Active links for all websites in this chapter can be found on MyBCommLab see your User Guide for instructions on accessing the content for this chapter. Each activity is labeled according to the primary skill or skills you will need to use. To review relevant chapter content, you can refer to the indicated Learning Objective. In some instances, supporting information will be found in another chapter, as indicated.

1. Planning: Analyzing the Situation [LO-1] South by Southwest (SXSW) is a family of conferences and festivals in Austin, Texas, that showcase some of the world’s most creative talents in music, interactive media, and film. In addition to being a major entertainment venue for a week every March, SXSW is also an increasingly important trade show, an opportunity for companies to present products and services to potential customers and business partners. You work for a company that makes music training equipment, such as an electronic keyboard with an integrated computer screen that guides learners through every step of learning to play the keyboard. Your manager has asked you to look into whether the company should rent an exhibition booth at SXSW next year. Prepare a work plan for an analytical report that will assess the promotional opportunities at SXSW and make a recommendation on exhibiting. Include the statement of purpose, a problem statement for any research you will conduct, a description of what will result from your investigation, the sources and methods of data collection, and a preliminary outline. Visit the SXSW website, at http://sxsw.com, for more information.16

2. Research: Documenting Sources [LO-2] Select five business articles from a combination of print and online sources. Develop a resource list, using Appendix B as a guideline.

3.Research: Conducting Secondary Research [LO-3]

Using online, database, or printed sources, find the following information. Be sure to properly cite your sources, using the formats discussed in Appendix B.

a.Contact information for the American Management Association

b.Median weekly earnings of men and women by occupation

c.Current market share for Perrier water

d.Performance ratios for office supply retailers

e.Annual stock performance for Hewlett-Packard (HP)

f.Number of franchise outlets in the United States

g.Composition of the U.S. workforce by profession

4.Research: Conducting Secondary Research [LO-3]

Select any public company and find the following information.

a.Names of the company’s current officers

b.List of the company’s products or services (or, if the company has a large number of products, the product lines or divisions)

c.Some important current issues in the company’s industry

d.The outlook for the company’s industry as a whole

5. Research: Conducting Primary Research [LO-4] You work for a movie studio that is producing a young director’s first motion picture, the story of a group of unknown musicians finding work and making a reputation in a competitive industry. Unfortunately, some of your friends leave the screening saying that the 182-minute movie is simply too long. Others say they can’t imagine

270 Unit 4: Longer Business Messages

any sequences to cut out. Your boss wants to test the movie on a typical audience and ask viewers to complete a questionnaire that will help the director decide whether edits are needed and, if so, where. Design a questionnaire that you can use to solicit valid answers for a report to the director about how to handle the audience’s reaction to the movie.

6.Research: Conducting Primary Research [LO-4]

You’re conducting an information interview with a manager in another division of your company. Partway through the interview, the manager shows clear signs of impatience. How should you respond? What might you do differently to prevent this from happening in the future? Explain your answers.

7.Message Strategies: Informational Reports [LO-5]

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires all public companies to file a comprehensive annual report (form 10-K) electronically. Many companies post links to these reports on their websites, along with links to other company reports. Visit Dell’s website, at www.dell.com, and find the company’s most recent annual 10-K and Year in Review reports. Compare the style and format of the two reports. For which audience(s) is the Year in Review targeted? Who besides the SEC might be interested in form 10-K? Which report do you find easier to read? More interesting? More detailed?

8.Message Strategies: Informational Reports [LO-5]

You’re the vice president of operations for a Florida fast-food chain. In the aftermath of a major hurricane, you’re drafting a report on the emergency procedures to be followed by personnel in each restaurant when storm warnings are in effect. Answer who, what, when, where, why, and how and then prepare a one-page outline of your report. Make up any details you need.

9.Message Strategies: Informational Reports [LO-5]

From your college library, company websites, or an online service such as www.annualreportservice.com, find the annual reports recently released by two corporations in the same industry. Analyze each report and be prepared to discuss the following questions in class.

a.What organizational differences, if any, do you see in the way each corporation discusses its annual performance? Are the data presented clearly so that shareholders can draw conclusions about how well the company performed?

b.What goals, challenges, and plans do top managers emphasize in their discussion of results?

c.How do the format and organization of each report enhance or detract from the information being presented?

10.Message Strategies: Informational Reports [LO-5]

Assume that your college president has received many student complaints about campus parking problems. You are appointed to chair a student committee organized to investigate the problems and recommend solutions. The president gives you a file labeled “Parking: Complaints from Students,” and you jot down the

essence of the complaints as you inspect the contents. Your notes look like this:

■Inadequate student spaces at critical hours

■Poor night lighting near the computer center

■Inadequate attempts to keep resident neighbors from occupying spaces

■Dim marking lines

■Motorcycles taking up full spaces

■Discourteous security officers

■Spaces (usually empty) reserved for college officials

■Relatively high parking fees

■Full fees charged to night students even though they use the lots only during low-demand periods

■Vandalism to cars and a sense of personal danger

■Inadequate total space

■Harassment of students parking on the street in front of

neighboring house

Now prepare an outline for an informational report to be submitted to committee members. Use a topical organization for your report that categorizes this information.

11. Message Strategies: Analytical Reports [LO-6] Of the organizational approaches introduced in the chapter, which is best suited for writing a report that answers the following questions? Briefly explain why.

a.In which market segment—energy drinks or traditional soft drinks—should Fizz Drinks, Inc., introduce a new drink to take advantage of its enlarged research and development budget?

b.Should Major Manufacturing, Inc., close down operations of its antiquated Bellville, Arkansas, plant despite the adverse economic impact on the town that has grown up around the plant?

c.Should you and your partner adopt a new accounting method to make your financial statements look better to potential investors?

d.Should Grand Canyon Chemicals buy disposable test tubes to reduce labor costs associated with cleaning and sterilizing reusable test tubes?

e.What are some reasons for the recent data loss at the

college computer center, and how can we avoid similar problems in the future?

12. Message Strategies: Proposals [LO-7] Read the step- by-step hints and examples for writing a funding proposal at www.learnerassociates.net/proposal. Review the entire sample proposal online. What details did the writer decide to include in the appendixes? Why was this material placed in the appendixes and not the main body of the report? According to the writer’s tips, when is the best time to prepare a project overview?

13. Message Strategies: Proposals; Collaboration: Team Projects [LO-7], Chapter 2 Break into small groups and identify an operational problem occurring at your campus—perhaps involving registration, university housing, food services, parking, or library services. Then develop a workable solution to that problem. Finally, develop a list of pertinent facts that your team will need to gather to convince readers that the problem exists and that your solution will work.

Expand Your Skills

Critique the Professionals

Company websites function as multidimensional informational reports, with numerous sections and potentially endless ways for visitors to navigate through all the various pages. Locate the website of a public corporation with a fairly complex website. Imagine that you are approaching the site as (a) a potential employee, (b) a potential investor (purchaser of stock), (c) a member of one of the local communities in which this company operates, and (d) a potential customer of the company’s products and services. Analyze how easy or difficult it is to find the information each of these four visitors would typically be seeking. Using

whatever medium your instructor requests, write a brief analysis of the information architecture of the website, describing what works well and what doesn’t.

Sharpen Your Career Skills Online

Bovée and Thill’s Business Communication Web Search, at http://websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com, is a unique research tool designed specifically for business communication research. Use the Web Search function to find a website, video, PDF document, podcast, or presentation that offers advice on conducting research for business reports. Write a brief email message to your instructor or a post for your class blog, describing the item you found and summarizing the career skills information you learned from it.

CASES

Learn how to get started on Facebook. Visit http://real-timeupdates

.com/bce6, click on “Student Assignments” and then click on “Facebook Screencast.”

INFORMATIONAL REPORTS

1. Message Strategies: Informational Reports [LO-5]

Success in any endeavor doesn’t happen all at once. For example, success in college is built one quarter or semester at a time, and the way to succeed in the long term is to make sure you succeed in the short term. After all, even a single quarter or semester of college involves a significant investment of time, money, and energy.

Your task Imagine you work for a company that has agreed to send you to college full time, paying all your educational expenses. You are given complete freedom in choosing your courses, as long as you graduate by an agreed-upon date. All your employer asks in return is that you develop your business skills and insights as much as possible so that you can make a significant contribution to the company when you return to full-time work after graduation. To make sure that you are using your time—and your company’s money—wisely, the company requires a brief personal activity report at the end of every quarter or semester (whichever your school uses). Write a brief informational report that you can email to your instructor, summarizing how you spent your quarter or semester. Itemize the classes you took, how much time you spent studying and working on class projects, whether you got involved in campus activities and organizations that help you develop leadership or communication skills, and what you learned that you can apply in a business career. (For the purposes of this assignment, your time estimates don’t have to be precise.)

2. Message Strategies: Informational Reports [LO-5]

You’ve put a lot of work into your college classes so far—make sure you don’t have any glitches as you get ready to claim your certificate or degree.

Your task Prepare an interim progress report that details the steps you’ve taken toward completing your graduation or certification requirements. After examining the requirements listed in your college catalog, indicate a realistic schedule for completing those that remain. In addition to course requirements, include steps such as completing the residency requirement, completing all necessary forms, and paying fees. Use a memo format for your report and address it to anyone who is helping or encouraging you through school.

WIKI SKILLS / TEAM SKILLS

3. Message Strategies: Informational Reports; Media Skills: Wiki Writing [LO-1], [LO-2] The use of social networks by employees during work hours remains a controversial topic, with some companies encouraging networking, some at least allowing it, and others prohibiting it.

Your task Using the free wiki service offered by Zoho (www.zoho.com/wiki/) or a comparable system, collaborate on a report that summarizes the potential advantages and disadvantages of allowing social network use in the workplace.

BLOGGING SKILLS / TEAM SKILLS

4. Message Strategies: Informational Reports [LO-5]

If you’re like many other college students, your first year was more than you expected: more difficult, more fun, more frustrating, more expensive, more exhausting, more rewarding— more of everything, positive and negative. Oh, the things you know now that you didn’t know then!

Your task With several other students, identify five or six things you wish you would’ve realized or understood better before you started your first year of college. These can relate to your school life (such as “I didn’t realize how much work I would have for my classes” or “I should’ve asked for help as

272 Unit 4: Longer Business Messages

soon as I got stuck”) and your personal and social life (“I wish I would’ve been more open to meeting people”). Use these items as the foundation of a brief informational report you could post on a blog that is read by high school students and their families. Your goal with this report is to help the next generation of students make a successful and rewarding transition to college.

WEB WRITING SKILLS

5. Message Strategies: Online Content [LO-5] As you probably experienced, trying to keep all the different schools straight in one’s mind while researching and applying for colleges can be rather difficult. Applicants and their families would no doubt appreciate a handy summary of your college or university’s key points as they relate to the selection and application process.

Your task Adapt content from your college or university’s website to create a one-page “Quick Facts” sheet about your school. Choose the information you think prospective students and their families would find most useful. (Note that adapting existing content would be acceptable in a real-life scenario like this, because you would be reusing content on behalf of the content owner. Doing so would definitely not be acceptable if you were using the content for yourself or for someone other than the original owner.)

ANALYTICAL REPORTS

6. Message Strategies: Analytical Reports [LO-6]

Mistakes can be wonderful learning opportunities if we’re honest with ourselves and receptive to learning from the mistake.

Your task Identify a mistake you’ve made—something significant enough to have cost you a lot of money, wasted a lot of time, harmed your health, damaged a relationship, created serious problems at work, prevented you from pursuing what could’ve been a rewarding opportunity, or otherwise had serious consequences. Now figure out why you made that mistake. Did you let emotions get in the way of clear thinking? Did you make a serious financial blunder because you didn’t take the time to understand the consequences of a decision? Were you too cautious? Not cautious enough? Perhaps several factors led to a poor decision.

Write a brief analytical report to your instructor that describes the situation and outlines your analysis of why the failure occurred and how you can avoid making a similar mistake in the future. If you can’t think of a significant mistake or failure that you’re comfortable sharing with your instructor, write about a mistake that a friend or family member made (without revealing the person’s identify or potentially embarrassing him or her).

7. Message Strategies: Analytical Reports [LO-6]

Assume that you will have time for only one course next term. Identify the criteria you will use to decide which of several courses to take. (This is the yardstick approach mentioned in the chapter.)

Your task List the pros and cons of four or five courses that interest you and use the selection criteria you identified to choose the one course that is best for you to take at this time. Write your report in memo format, addressing it to your academic adviser.

8. Message Strategies: Analytical Reports [LO-6] Visit any restaurant, possibly your school cafeteria. The workers and fellow customers will assume that you are an ordinary customer, but you are really a spy for the owner.

Your task After your visit, write a short letter to the owner explaining (a) your actions and observations, (b) any possible violations of policy you observed, and (c) your recommendations for improvement. The first part of your report (what you did and what you observed) will be the longest. Include a description of the premises, inside and out. Tell how long it took for each step of ordering and receiving your meal. Describe the service and food thoroughly. You are interested in both the good and bad aspects of the establishment’s décor, service, and food. For the second section (violations of policy), use some common sense: If all the servers but one have their hair covered, you may assume that policy requires hair to be covered; a dirty window or restroom obviously violates policy. The last section (recommendations for improvement) involves professional judgment. What management actions will improve the restaurant?

9. Message Strategies: Analytical Reports [LO-6] Imagine you are a consultant hired to improve the customer service of your campus bookstore.

Your task Visit the bookstore and look critically at its operations. Then draft a letter that could be sent to the bookstore manager, offering recommendations that would help the store service customers more effectively, perhaps suggesting products it should carry, hours that it should remain open, or added services that it should make available to students. Be sure to support your recommendations.

10. Message Strategies: Analytical Reports [LO-6] Spurred in part by the success of numerous do-it-yourself (DIY) TV shows, homeowners across the country are redecorating, remodeling, and rebuilding. Many people are content with superficial changes, such as new paint or new accessories, but some are more ambitious. These homeowners want to move walls, add rooms, redesign kitchens, convert garages to home theaters—the big stuff.

Publishers try to create magazines that appeal to carefully identified groups of potential readers and the advertisers who’d like to reach them. The DIY market is already served by numerous magazines, but you see an opportunity in the homeowners who tackle the heavy-duty projects. Case Tables 10.1 through 10.3 summarize the results of some preliminary research you asked your company’s research staff to conduct.

Your task You think the data show a real opportunity for a “big projects” DIY magazine, although you’ll need more extensive research to confirm the size of the market and refine the editorial direction of the magazine. Prepare a brief analytical report that presents the data you have, identifies the opportunity or opportunities you’ve found (suggest your own ideas, based on the data in the tables), and requests funding from the editorial board to pursue further research.

CASE TABLE 10.1 ROOMS MOST FREQUENTLY REMODELED BY DIYERS

CASE TABLE 10.2 AVERAGE AMOUNT SPENT ON REMODELING PROJECTS

CASE TABLE 10.3 TASKS PERFORMED BY HOMEOWNER ON A TYPICAL REMODELING PROJECT

PROPOSALS

EMAIL SKILLS

11. Message Strategies: Proposals [LO-7] One of the banes of apartment living is those residents who don’t care about the condition of their shared surroundings. They might leave trash

all over the place, dent walls when they move furniture, spill food and beverages in common areas, destroy window screens, and otherwise degrade living conditions for everyone. Landlords obviously aren’t thrilled about this behavior, either, because it raises the costs of cleaning and maintaining the facility.

Your task Assume you live in a fairly large apartment building some distance from campus. Write an email proposal you could send to your landlord, suggesting that fostering a sense of stronger community among residents in your building might help reduce incidents of vandalism and neglect. Propose that the little-used storage area in the basement of the building be converted to a community room, complete with a simple kitchen and a largescreen television. By attending Super Bowl parties and other events there, residents could get to know one another and perhaps forge bonds that would raise the level of shared concern for their living environment. You can’t offer any proof of this in advance, of course, but share your belief that a modest investment in this room could pay off long term in lower repair and maintenance costs. Moreover, it would be an attractive feature to entice new residents.

12. Message Strategies: Proposals [LO-7] Select a product you are familiar with and imagine you are the manufacturer, trying to get a local retail outlet to carry it. Use the Internet and other resources to gather information about the product.

Your task Write an unsolicited sales proposal in letter format to the owner (or manager) of the store, proposing that the item be stocked. Use the information you gathered to describe some of the product’s features and benefits. Then make up some reasonable figures, highlighting what the item costs, what it can be sold for, and what services your company provides (return of unsold items, free replacement of unsatisfactory items, necessary repairs, and so on).

13. Message Strategies: Proposals [LO-7] You are a sales manager for Air-Trak, and one of your responsibilities is writing sales proposals for potential buyers of your company’s AirTrak tracking system. The system uses the global positioning system (GPS) to track the location of vehicles and other assets. For example, the dispatcher for a trucking company can simply click a map display on a computer screen to find out where all the company’s trucks are at that instant. Air-Trak lists the following as benefits of the system:

t .BLJOH TVSF WFIJDMFT GPMMPX QSFTDSJCFE SPVUFT XJUI NJOJmal loitering time

t i(FPGFODJOHw JO XIJDI EJTQBUDIFST BSF BMFSUFE JG WFIJDMFT leave assigned routes or designated service areas

t 3PVUF PQUJNJ[BUJPO JO XIJDI GMFFU NBOBHFST DBO BOBMZ[F routes and destinations to find the most timeand fuelefficient path for each vehicle

t $PNQBSJTPOT CFUXFFO TDIFEVMFE BOE BDUVBM USBWFM

t &OIBODFE TFDVSJUZ QSPUFDUJOH CPUI ESJWFST BOE DBSHPT

Your task Write a brief (unsolicited) proposal to Doneta Zachs, fleet manager for Midwest Express, 338 S.W. 6th, Des Moines, Iowa 50321. Introduce your company, explain the benefits of the Air-Trak system, and propose a trial deployment in which you would equip five Midwest Express trucks. For the purposes of this assignment, you don’t need to worry about the cost or technical details of the system; focus on promoting the benefits and asking for a decision regarding the test

274 Unit 4: Longer Business Messages

project. (You can learn more about the Air-Trak system at www

.air-trak.com.)17

Improve Your Grammar, Mechanics,

and Usage

You can download the text of this assignment from http:// real-timeupdates.com/bce6; click on Student Assignments and then click on Chapter 10. Improve Your Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage.

Level 1: Self-Assessment—Dashes and Hyphens

Review Sections 2.7 and 2.8 in the Handbook of Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage and then complete the following 15 items.

In items 1–15, insert the required dashes (—) and hyphens (-).

1.Three qualities speed, accuracy, and reliability are desirable in any applicant to the data entry department.

2.A highly placed source explained the top secret negotiations.

3.The file on Marian Gephardt yes, we finally found it reveals a history of late payments.

4.They’re selling a well designed machine.

5.A bottle green sports jacket is hard to find.

6.Argentina, Brazil, Mexico these are the countries we hope to concentrate on.

7.Only two sites maybe three offer the things we need.

8.How many owner operators are in the industry?

9.Your ever faithful assistant deserves without a doubt a substantial raise.

10.Myrna Talefiero is this organization’s president elect.

11.Stealth, secrecy, and surprise those are the elements that will give us a competitive edge.

12.The charts are well placed on each page unlike the running heads and footers.

13.We got our small business loan an enormous advantage.

14.Ron Franklin do you remember him? will be in town Monday.

15.Your devil may care attitude affects everyone involved in the decision making process.

Level 2: Workplace Applications

The following items may contain errors in grammar, capitalization, punctuation, abbreviation, number style, word division, and vocabulary. Rewrite each sentence, correcting all errors. If a sentence has no errors, write “Correct” for that number.

1.Commerce One helps its customer’s to more efficiently lower administrative costs, improve order times, and to manage contract negotiations.

2.The intermodal bus vehicle seats up to 35 passengers, but is equipped with a 20 feet standardized container in the rear. The same container one sees on ships, trains and on planes.

3.“The American Dream of innovation, persistence, and a refusal to except the status quo has just created, in our

opinion, Americas newest and most exciting company to watch,” said James Gaspard President of Neoplan USA.

4.This new, transportation paradigm may have a global affect and the barriers to entry will be extremely costly too overcome.

5.Autobytel also owns and operates Carsmart.com and Autosite.com as well as AIC Automotive Information Center] a provider of automotive marketing data and technology.

6.Mymarket.com offers a low cost high reward, entry into e-commerce not only for buyers but also suppliers.

7.Eclipse Aviation’s main competitor are another start-up Safire Aircraft of west Palm Beach, Fl.

8.After identifying the factors that improve a industrial process, additional refining experiments must be conducted to confirm the results.

9.The fair labor standards Act regulates minimum wages, establishes overtime compensation, and it outlaws labor for children.

10.The Chinese government are supporting use of the Internet as a business tool because it is seen by it as necessary to enhance competitiveness.

11.At a certain point in a company’s growth, the entrepreneur, who wants to control everything, can no longer keep up so they look mistakenly for a better manager and call that person a CEO.

12.City Fresh foods is paid by City health agencies to provide Ethnic food to the homebound “elderly” in the Boston Area.

13.Being in business since 1993, Miss Rosen has boiled down her life story into a 2-minute sound bight for sales prospects.

14.Anyone that wants to gain a new perspective on their product or service must cast aside one’s own biases.

15.If I was Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, I’d handle the Federal government’s antitrust lawsuit much different.

Level 3: Document Critique

The following document may contain errors in grammar, capitalization, punctuation, abbreviation, number style, word division, and vocabulary. As your instructor indicates, photocopy this page and correct all errors using standard proofreading marks (see Appendix C) or download the document and make the corrections in your word processing software.

As you all know the process of recruiting screening and hiring new employees might be a legal minefield. Because we don’t have an inhouse lawyer to help us make every decision, its important for all of us to be aware of what actions are legally acceptible and what isn’t.