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Writing Assignment Guidelines:
You are one of 20 interns at COMPANY X, and because of all of the corporate crises in the news lately, your boss has given each of you an assignment: pick a past corporate crisis, and write an analysis of how the company involved responded to the crisis. Specifically, you must write a five-paragraph essay that argues whether your chosen company managed its crisis EFFECTIVELY or INEFFECTIVELY—you must choose one or the other— and identifies three specific reasons to justify that assertion.
That is, you will choose ONE of the following stances:
Crisis management was… Because
EFFECTIVE
Pick three reasons why the company was effective at managing the crisis and successful at repairing its reputation.
INEFFECTIVE
Pick three reasons why the company was ineffective at managing the crisis and consequently failed to repair its reputation.
Background:
After a crisis that negatively affects stakeholders, a company often has to rebut damaging media reports and present itself as positively as possible to repair its image. You will assess whether the company you are analyzing was effective or ineffective, and why.
Structure of this five-paragraph essay/analysis
Introduce your company and crisis; provide enough detail about what happened so that your reader understands the crisis. End paragraph one with a thesis. The thesis can be one, longer sentence or a bulleted list; regardless, it must articulate your three claims as to why the company effectively or ineffectively managed the crisis. See “Thesis Guidelines” below.
Each of the three internal paragraphs must start with a topic sentence that reiterates one of your claims from your thesis sentence. The paragraph then must include evidence and analysis of why the company’s action was either effective or ineffective. The evidence must be an explanation of the company’s response (and why that response was needed); the analysis must include a crisis communications expert (either one of the crisis readings provided on Blackboard, or some other corporate crisis communication source found on the internet or through TU Library).
Concluding paragraph restates your thesis and briefly discusses how the company fared in the long term (i.e. did the company recover from the crisis; what are the long-term consequences; etc.).
Thesis Guidelines
You must assert a thesis—one sentence—arguing your three claims articulating why the company effectively or ineffectively managed its crisis (NOTE:Each strategy claim—you’ll have three total—consists of both ACTION and ASSERTIVE RATIONALE as to why it was effective or ineffective)
Example: “Johnson & Johnson effectively managed its crisis in the following ways: first, Chairman James Burke became the company’s spokesperson and gained media support through his open, candid communication; second, the company responded quickly by preemptively recalling Tylenol nationwide; third, the company’s adherence to its corporate credoimplied selflessness and financial sacrifice to ensure public safety.”
Example using a bulleted list:Johnson & Johnson effectively managed its crisis in the following ways:
• Chairman James Burke, as spokesperson, gained media support through his open, candid communication
• The company responded quickly by preemptively recalling Tylenol nationwide
• The company adhering to its corporate credoimplied selflessness and financial sacrifice to ensure public safety.
Formatting Requirements
1. Cite all sources using APA Style. An APA style guide is on Blackboard (Only the citations need to be in APA style; the paper itself does not need to be written in APA style.)
2. No more than 4 pages (not including Works Cited page, which can be a fifth page)
3. 12 point Times New Roman or Calibri font, double spaced
4. 1-inch page margins for top/bottom and left/right
5. Your header should appear at the top of the first page,RIGHT JUSTIFIED and SINGLE SPACED – see example bolded below:
(Student Name)
BA 2196 Section (identify)/(Professor Name)
Writing Assignment: Crisis Communication
