The goal of this exercise is to help you polish your writing by following Chapter 8's guidelines for developing an effective style.

The Exercise

In the memo below, the writer notifies users that corrupted data has been found in a computer system and, as a result, asks all users to begin following stricter security procedures when they use the system. However, the writer could have improved the impact of the memo by following the guidelines presented in Chapter 10.

Identify places where the writer has ignored the guidelines, then improve the memo by rewriting it according to the advice in the chapter.

The Memo

MEMORANDUM

Date: May 17, 20—
To: All System Users
From: Central IS
Support Subject: System Security

It has come to my attention as of late that several instances of unauthorized system access have occurred in this department during the past two months. These breaches of security, which have been caused by users not logging off of the computer system in a timely manner, have caused unauthorized users to access the data in the database and corrupt it.

It is my desire to have all users follow some general, basic procedures to end corruption of data of this type. The first procedure I would like to discuss is this: users, when they finish working on a terminal or leave the confines of their workstation for an extended period of time, should always log off of any and all systems. Doing so will greatly decrease the chances that your logon session will be used by someone else for their own private work.

Users can also cut down on unauthorized access by not participating in the practice of sharing of their passwords with anyone. Responsibility of work is tracked according to your ID and account number by the system administrator, so for this reason you want to be sure all of your work is indeed your own.

Finally, in relation to the topic of passwords just discussed, users need to make sure their passwords are changed every other week, or, at the very least, once a month. Words that are included in a dictionary do not lend themselves to good passwords, since a program can be written by a hacker to discover these passwords. A better password would be the first letters from a favorite song, which would be almost impossible to guess, or the first letters from a book title or movie you are fond of.

Please implement these security procedures at the earliest possible date. Accurate company data is relied upon by all of us to do our jobs in an efficient and correct manner.