Letter to Cru.

Let's initiate some action!

Insert name here,
I wish to call to your attention a problem that I see in your organization. Many of your Outreach Team members come off as aggressive in their advertisement of Campus Crusade for Christ. I have noticed it myself rarely, but on a number of occasions my peers have complained about the same thing to me. The reason I bring this up, is because I have attended Cru before, and I thought it was fun and enjoyable place, and I want Cru to expand and flourish. Yet, when members present themselves by badgering other students, it dissuades prospective attendees, and it shows the organization in a very bad light. To me, this seems a completely unfair representation, because Cru is supposed to be an incredibly calm and relaxed atmosphere instead of a harsh, vindictive one.

The incidents where people feel threatened are usually in their dorms. I have never heard of a public display, but several people have told me that Cru’s outreach teams have loitered in the dorms’ hallways, not permitting anybody to pass until receiving some information about Campus Crusade for Christ. My friends view these acts as threatening because the dorms are supposed to be where they are safe and at home, and to take that safety away from them severely affects their comfort level, causing them to respond with hostility, which makes any later attempt of persuasion on them pointless.

I recommend that you correct this by the education of your Outreachers on how to persuade and argue effectively. There are several advertising consultants here in Blacksburg that I urge you to contact. They are listed in your Blacksburg Yellow Pages under “advertising consultant.” Alternatively, you could find a private tutor, hold some form of seminar, or send your people off to classes here at Virginia Tech. The most important thing to keep in mind through all of this is that if you can argue your points and persuade your audience properly, instead of inconveniencing and irritating them, your numbers should increase, because you won’t scare off anyone on the border-line of attending a Cru session. This is my honest hope, because I believe that your mission is a good one, and I want to see you reach as many people as you can at this institution.

Sincerely,
Conrad Pflasterer






These are the people who the letter could be mailed to.
Contact info
Jeff Highfield- Campus Directorjeff.highfield@uscm.org
Jordan Peace jordan.peace@uscm.org
Chris Luhrman chris.luhrman@uscm.org
Julie Harrisonjulie.harrison@uscm.org

Campus Crusade for Christ at Virginia Tech211 Draper Rd. NWBlacksburg, VA 24060phone:540.808.5040

http://www.vtcru.org/contact_us.html

Student Campus DirectorsChad Wilkins and Aicel Reyeswilkinsc@vt.eduadreyes@vt.edu
Outreach TeamJason Jenkins and Caroline Terryjason115@vt.educterry10@vt.edu

How to whine

A quick pile of stuff on how to write a complaint letter.

http://www.howtocomplain.com/info/cl-template.shtml#gen
This site is utterly worthless to me, except for its tips:
Try to make sure your letter is sent to the right person or department
Try and keep your letter shortBe polite as sarcasm or rudeness will not help your cause!
Say what you want for your complaint to be resolved
Give a reasonable timetable for action to be taken before you will consider other options
Keep a copy of letters you write

These appear to be all of the conventions of the genre, however, mine will be less of a general complaint as it will offer a solution to the problem. This field is usually frequented by whiners and dissatisfied consumers, because it is far more common to get a bad can of peaches than to be pestered by a college student. Freedoms: oh yes. Great success. As long as they understand that they have displeased people, you have accomplished your goal, but if they enact your strategy or suggestions... epic victory.

Nov 11 assn

Yeah, I'm just gonna put this here for now, that way I can keep an eye on it.

Audience: Cru’s advertisers? Anyone who is going to spread the word has to see this.
Purpose: To be more effective in persuading people.
Why?: A number of over aggressive Crumen psyche people out and give them the wrong idea.
Genre: Essay, it doesn’t take much time to read, and you don’t need special media to play it.

Topic

Wow, I'm cutting this one close as you can see by the time stamp. I didn't get a chance to speak with the higher ups in my community, but thankfully I got some good suggestions in class for what I should do, and I am NOT above any help.

In short, one of my classmates noted that some of the people beating the war drum for Cru can be a bit... aggressive? To say the least. My action will be directed towards my community and more specifically towards these individuals, in an attempt to get them to tone it down.

I plan to appeal to the reason and then the emotions (to a more limited extent) of the audience, slyly starting out with methods of persuasion, and their effectivness, moving on to a comparison of current methods to these, and then finally offering up a few suggestions for good measure.

Yeah, I guess that covers it. See you in class.

Essay Revision Letter

First, I'd like to thank Allison for her feed back on my essay. A lot of the suggestions are very helpful, because I had noticed most of them, but couldn't correct them... beeeecause I have the same view point as myself. Basically, it's nice to have someone see it from the outside to give you new ideas.

Essays

The readings about essays seemed to state that essays have no set form, as there are so many different kinds. What I thought was a little humorous about the writings was that the collection of quotations was so broad, about all they could agree on was that essays are not uniform. One thing I thought was interesting though, was in Encountering the Essay when he talks about the word root. Basically, "attempt, trial, or experiment." These all suggest that socially the role of the essay is to get a reaction or convince of a point. Or at least, that's what I take it to mean.

In my essay I attempt to persuade people to join my community. Shameless, I know. But in writing my essay and reading our assignments, I have drawn a new conclusion about essays. There are many, they are not long, and they express one or several points. They can be vauge, digressive, and meandering, or they can be consice, quick, and immediate. The content also may change from a simple presentation of facts or view-points to very personally oriented arguments.

For this class I think a more human essay is what is called for, as it seems the robotic presentation of facts is dull and makes poor subject matter. In this case, I'll need to paint better mental pictures and appeal more to the emotions of the reader instead of just stating facts and hoping they figure out the rest for themselves. So, yeah, I'll give that a shot then.