Van Noy
English 307
7 February 2002

Assignment One

You are working in the Corporate Communications Department at Exxon. It’s March 26^th, 1989. You already know that one of Exxon’s oil tankers, the Valdez, ran aground and ruptured in Prince William Sound, Alaska, two days ago. Reports of the accident have been all over the television and radio news broadcasts, and you’ve read the news [we'll search for this info on February 19 in Walker 225]. Besides, everyone at the corporate headquarters is talking about the accident, although there has been no official statement from the company to its employees about the incident.

Karen McArdle, who runs Corporate Communications, sees you at the copy machine and asks you to come into her office. "I’m sure you’ve heard about this mess in Alaska," she begins. You nod, but before you can say anything, she goes on. "We’ve got to get some kind of statement on this situation out to all of our employees. People are starting to call the company – not just the Customer Service Department, but all of our departments and offices – with questions and accusations about this accident. Our employees need to know how to handle the calls. I need you to write a memo that we can distribute to them ASAP. I’d like a draft on my desk by the end of the day today. You can put my name on it.

"So exactly how should employees handle these phone calls?" you ask.

"Well, first they should try to say as little as possible. We need to figure out what’s going on up there, and why. We don’t want anyone saying something that we might regret later. Our official position at this time is that we are accepting full financial responsibility for the results of this spill. We are doing everything possible to contain the spill and to minimize its effects; in fact, we don’t expect that there will be significant environmental damage when all is said and done."

Karen’s plan to send out a formal statement on the accident to all the employees seems like a good idea to you. Otherwise, everyone will just get the information through the grapevine. You ask, "Should the memo contain any information about exactly what happened up there? We want to make sure that all our employees have their facts straight, don’t we?"

"Good point," Karen responds. "Why don’t you pull together the basic facts: the date and time of the accident, the location, and the fact that the ship came so close to Bligh Reef in order to avoid ice in the shipping lane. Things like that."

You expect Karen to go on, but she seems finished. So you ask, "Should we give any specifics about how we’re dealing with the spill?"

"Well, you can emphasize the fact that we have a wide range of effective technologies at our disposal." Karen looks down at some papers on her desk, skims them, and then continues. "The response plan says that we first try to contain any spill with booms, and then skim the oil. If that isn’t completely effective, we use chemical dispersants."

"But which techniques are we currently employing? How quickly did we put them into action? How well are they working?" you ask. You have always felt good about Exxon’s environmental record, and you are very anxious to find out how the company is responding to this accident. You feel certain other employees, not to mention the callers, feel the same way.

"We really don’t need to get into that level of detail," Karen replies sternly. "We don’t want our employees to get into extensive discussions of this situation with callers."

"One last question," you say. You can tell Karen is losing patience, but there’s something else bothering you. "I’ve heard rumors that the captain of the Valdez might have been drinking before the accident. I’ve seen in the paper that the Coast Guard is conducting blood-alcohol level tests on the captain and some crew members. What if callers ask about that?"

"I suppose we should say something about it in the memo," Karen says thoughtfully. "If you’ve heard this rumor, it must be all over. If any callers ask if Hazelwood had been drinking, employees should say that he absolutely was not. Anyone could have had this accident; oil spills happen all the time. It’s part of the oil business." Karen’s phone rings, and after she picks it up and begins talking, she turns to her computer screen. You can tell she’s finished with you for now.

Your task is to write the draft memo you would give to Karen to approve. First, sketch out a planning worksheet (we'll do this in class) analyzing this writing situation.