Writing for Business Success/Effective business writing/Tasks

Learning challenge: Write a company blog about a legal aspect of business writing

This learning challenge is based on a scenario. When doing the learning challenge tasks, you need to imagine that you are in the situation described in the scenario.

Scenario

You are an executive assistant in a large company. Your boss, a senior executive, is concerned that recently some staff have been writing communications on behalf of the company that do not show awareness of the possible legal implications. She is worried that this could lead to the company being taken to court one day - a costly process that could also damage the company's reputation. Your boss has therefore asked you to start writing a series of blogs on the company's internal website, where each month you will highlight one aspect of law that staff need to be aware of.

Your tasks

Your tasks for this learning challenge are:

1. From Legal implications of business writing 1 or Legal implications of business writing 2, choose an aspect of law that particularly interests you.
2. Do an internet search to find a reliable resource that gives a basic but clear explanation of your chosen aspect of law. This resource should be suitable for someone who is not a legal specialist and should ideally relate to your own country. Look at the stimulus resources for examples of the sort of material to search for. The websites of relevant government departments or business advisory services are good places to start your search.
3. Draft the first blog post of this series. The blog should:
   • Be no longer than 300 words
   • Explain to your colleagues:
     • what the reason for the blog series is, and
     • that this is the first post in a series
   • Draw your colleagues' attention to the aspect of law that you have just researched
     • Give a brief (one paragraph) explanation of this aspect of law
     • Direct your colleagues to the introductory resource that you have found on the internet and encourage them to read it.

Note: You are not expected to have a deep understanding of any area of law for this activity (because all law is very complex, and detailed knowledge is beyond the scope of this course), but you should be able to explain briefly what the law is about and how it might be relevant to your business.

When drafting your blog post, remember to pay attention to all the qualities of good business writing that we have covered in this learning pathway. Consider who your audience is and what writing style (formal, informal, or conversational) is most appropriate for this context. Then, as you write, think carefully about your choice of words and tone, concision, clarity, emphasis and bias-free writing.