The goal of this exercise is to help you learn to apply Chapter 5's guidelines for taking your readers' concerns and questions into account when writing on the job.

The Exercise

You are a new chemical engineer hired by Northwest Engineering Consultants (NEC) to oversee the chemical processes used in their circuit-board lab. Because your job responsibilities involve several departments' operations, you are assigned to the staff of Ellen Prentice, Vice President for Engineering, and you report directly to her. Ellen has recently read a report detailing the damaging effects of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) on the ozone layer and is concerned about their use within the company. You have investigated all operations in the engineering group and have discovered only one area where CFCs are used: the circuit-board lab uses CFC 113 as a solvent in their board-cleaning process.

In your research on this subject, you have also found several alternative cleaning solvents that do not harm the atmosphere, but each has some disadvantage, being either more expensive or more difficult to use and dispose of than CFCs. You also know that technicians in the circuit-board lab like using CFC 113 because it is effective, easy to use, and easy to dispose of ("It can be poured down the drain, or it just evaporates!"). Nevertheless, Ellen has ask you to find the best alternative, and, after careful investigation, you have recommended a solution of alcohols (ethanol and isopropanol) to replace CFC 113.

Ellen has accepted your recommendation and has asked you to write a memo for her signature directing the changeover. However, she doesn't want the memo to sound like a "bossy directive." Instead, it should be very persuasive and should convince the circuit-lab technicians that the switch to alcohol is the right thing to do.

Here are some other data you found in your research:

• Although somewhat less effective, the alcohol solution meets all specifications for cleaning circuit boards.
• After a fixed cost to convert the cleaning process to alcohol, recurring costs are much lower than CFC 113.
• Alcohol is safe to use and can be disposed of in the sewer.
• Alcohol does not deplete the ozone layer.
• An international agreement, called the Montreal Protocol, will require a significant worldwide reduction in the use of CFCs.

Your Assignment

There are several steps to complete to prepare to write the memo:

1. Determine the concerns that you anticipate your readers might have .
2. Determine any additional information you think your readers will need to make their transition as trouble-free as possible.

After you make a list of the above items, complete the following tasks:

1. Refer to the guidelines in Chapter 5 and decide which strategies you will use to make your memo as persuasive as possible.
2. Write the memo.