Document Development Exposition: Correspondence

ENGL 2116

Explain in detail your document’s development from planning to finish, describing your
challenges, how you overcame them, and what you learned.

Planning
For my correspondence packet I was initially lost regarding how I wanted to approach the
assignment. When I began my initial concepting, I considered what the goals of the packet were.
Noting that it was a Direct Request letter and a Solution-Finding email made the assignment really
approachable. This basic understanding combined with the recent completion of the visualization
assignment made the leap from brainstorming to concept a fluid transition. Using the concepts from
my visualization exercise as a springboard for this assignment. The concepts I arrived at were a direct
request letter for additional funds via a donation and a solution-finding email detailing how a drop in
overall donations was a solvable issue.

First Draft (for peer editing)

My initial drafts both focused heavily on researching my given concept, the internal and public facing
documents for the Appalachian Regional Healthcare System. I researched my company extensively,
even going so far as to find out how this company relates to the issue from my visualization project
(marginalized people as they pertain to my topic, mountains). I found tax records, names of their
programs and subgroups, list of board members, etc. Furthermore, I researched existing examples of
business emails and donation request letters on the internet.

Second Draft (for your packet)

While I only had feedback for my email, it was helpful in the editing process. The feedback let me
know that I was right on track regarding the overall tone of the document, but minor edits were
suggested to the overall flow of the document. One suggestion that I didn’t heed was the notion that
my subject line might have been too negative in relation to the tone of my document. I thought it
was important to be eye-catching and direct without making the reader too secure.

Final Draft (for your portfolio)

Two of the biggest changes were the addition of headings and a proper ending goodwill statement at
the end of the email. This broke up the space visually and enhanced the tone of the document
respectively. Additional changes were made based on instructor feedback, ex. Linebreaks,
parenthesis, etc.