Corporate Communication Project

Project Summary:

The Corporate Communication Project asks students working in groups to identify, analyze, and respond to a real-world corporate crisis. Groups will do research to locate a recent corporate crisis and produce three separate but related texts from the company's perspective for three specific audiences: a press release for news media outlets; an internal memo for employees; a recorded (audio or video) message for customers. These documents should address the crisis in a professional, ethical, rhetorically-effective manner. This project allows students to get practical experience with corporate communications in textual and multimedia formats both online and offline.

It is possible to identify recent corporate crises by searching outlets such as Google News. For learning purposes, the class will examine the grounding of several JetBlue airplanes due to ice storms in February 2007 as a case study.

Instructor's Note: It is likely that some of the corporate crises groups select already have corresponding responses online (such as press releases). This may present the temptation to borrow heavily from these documents while writing. However, this project requires groups to produce original documents as a learning experience, so I will check for similarities between any official and student versions of these texts. (This of course does not mean that groups are forbidden to draw rhetorical strategies from official materials or other professional models.)

Groups:

Project Sequence and Grading:

1. Effect Analysis (10% of project grade—draft due Friday 9/25, final due Wednesday 10/21)
   Each group will produce a two to three page report for the corporation summarizing the crisis and then capturing its effect by researching the reactions of customers, investors, competitors, etc. The report should reference specific texts that react to the crisis, such as newspaper and periodical articles, television reports, YouTube videos, blogs, etc. The report should strive to capture accurately the overall characterization of the crisis by assessing the significance and prevalence of various perspectives. Excellent effect analyses will succinctly portray this depiction in an effective way, and will be in a finished, polished format suitable for a corporate readership, including appropriate grammar and mechanics.
   
   
   
   
2. Gantt Chart (10% of project grade—due Wednesday 10/21)
   Each group will produce a Gantt Chart—a visual project management document depicting the division of labor. Gantt charts should clearly delineate project tasks and deadlines, as well as who is responsible for their completion (a specific individual or the group). Excellent Gantt Charts will be through, professional, and in keeping with the parameters covered in readings and class discussion.
   
   
   
   
3. Proposal Report (10% of project grade—draft due Wednesday 9/30, final due Wednesday 10/21)
   Each group will produce a proposal report that explicates how their texts address the crisis appropriately. The report should incorporate rhetorical elements by discussing the texts' audiences, contexts, purposes, media, strategies, and arrangements. Essentially, this report uses rhetorical elements to establish why the group's approach will be effective. This is a form of design plan, and as such it will guide the creation of the three texts, but it will also evolve to reflect changes in them. Each group will produce a draft version of the report early in the project and a final version when the other final texts are due. Excellent proposal reports will account thoroughly for all of the rhetorical elements established in CDA and present a coherent narrative rather than a collection of disconnected parts. Excellent proposal reports also will reflect the corresponding finished texts, and be in a finished, polished format suitable for a corporate reader, including appropriate grammar and mechanics.
   
   
   
   
4. Press Release (20% of project grade—draft due Wednesday 10/7, final due Wednesday 10/21)
   (The class-produced rubric is here.)
   Using the reading materials and following the models provided, student groups will craft a press release for news media outlets. Student groups must make decisions about the tone, content, vocabularly and rhetorical strategies that will be both commercially and ethically effective. Excellent press releases should be between 250-500 words and follow the standards of clarity, conciseness, correctness, audience awareness, and professionalism discussed in the course.
   
   
   
   
5. Recorded Message for Customers (20% of project grade—draft due Monday 10/12, final due Wednesday 10/21)
   (The class-produced rubric is here.)
   Student groups will recored one audio or video message for customers that could be deployed on a corporate website. Group members may stand-in as representatives for the company, customers, shareholders, etc. Groups will make decisions about how to construct an appropriate tone for the message. Excellent messages will be in keeping with the precepts and examples discussed in the course, and should be concise and effective.
   
   
   
   
6. Internal Memo (20% of project grade—draft due Wednesday 10/14, final due Wednesday 10/21)
   (The class-produced rubric is here.)
   Using the reading materials provided, student groups will craft an internal memo for employees that addresses the current crisis. Because they are targeted to a different audience, memos should be markedly different from press releases. Excellent memos should follow the standards of clarity, conciseness, correctness, audience awareness, and professionalism discussed in the course.
   
   
   
   
7. Postmortem (10% of project grade, individual to each group member—due Wednesday 10/21)
   (The postmortem form is available here.)
   Each student will produce a reflective postmortem that provides insight into the contributions of group members and the global performance of the group. Postmortems will be used to assign group members individual grades for this project component. Excellent postmortems will account thoroughly for all sections of the postmortem form, thereby providing valuable insight into project development, successes, challenges, and lessons learned. Excellent postmortems will be in a finished, polished format, including appropriate grammar and mechanics.