Corporate Communication Project

Project Summary:

The Corporate Communication Project asks students working in groups to analyze and respond to a real-world corporate crisis. Groups will select a recent corporate crisis (within the last five years) and produce three separate but related texts from the company's perspective for three distinct 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.)

Project Components and Grading:

1. Crisis Analysis (10% of project grade, individual grade, due 1/15)
   Each student will produce a two-page report that summarizes a particular corporate crisis and its effects. The audience for this report will be the affected corporation itself. (Students should consider themselves part of the corporation's PR team, and they should write as though the crisis is occurring now.) Students should research involved parties including customers, investors, and competitors. Reports should reference specific texts from these parties that react to the crisis—such as newspaper and periodical articles, television reports, YouTube videos, and blogs—as evidence for their statements. Reports should strive to characterize the overall crisis accurately by assessing the significance and prevalence of various perspectives. Excellent Crisis Analyses will succinctly portray the situation in an appropriate way, and will be in a finished, polished format suitable for a corporate readership, including appropriate grammar and mechanics. The class will select a limited number of corporate crises to pursue in groups. Selected authors will receive individual bonus points and function as group leaders.
   
   
   
   
2. Gantt Chart (10% of project grade, group grade, due 2/10)
   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, and specify who is responsible for their completion (be it a particular individual or the whole group). Excellent Gantt Charts will be through, professional, and in keeping with the parameters covered in readings and class discussion.
   
   
   
   
3. Design Plan (10% of project grade, group grade, due 1/27)
   (Design Plan criteria available here.)
   Each group will produce a design plan that explicates how its three documents address the crisis appropriately. The audience for this design plan will be the affected corporation itself. The design plan should incorporate rhetorical elements by discussing the documents' audiences, contexts, purposes, media, strategies, and arrangements. Essentially, this document argues that the group's approach will be effective by revealing the intended outcomes and showing how the documents accomplish them. Excellent design plans will account thoroughly for all of the rhetorical elements established in Compose, Design, Advocate and present a coherent narrative rather than a collection of disconnected parts. Excellent design plans also will be in a finished, polished format suitable for a corporate readership, including appropriate grammar and mechanics.
   
   
   
   
4. Press Release (20% of project grade, group grade, due 2/10)
   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 will be between 200-500 words and follow the standards of clarity, conciseness, correctness, audience awareness, and professionalism discussed in the course.
   
   
   
   
5. Internal Memo (20% of project grade, group grade, due 2/10)
   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.
   
   
   
   
6. Recorded Message for Customers (20% of project grade, group grade, due 2/10)
   Student groups will record one audio or video message for customers that could be deployed in an appropriate venue. Group members may stand in as representatives for the company, customers, shareholders, etc. Excellent recorded messages will be long enough to demonstrate appropriate engagement, but still concise enough to fit the situation appropriately. Excellent recorded messages will be effective, and in keeping with the precepts and examples discussed in the course.
   
   
   
   
7. Postmortem (10% of project grade, individual grade, due 2/10)
   (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.