Writing a Negative Message for an Academic Assignment

The Seven Goals for Delivering Negative News

The purpose of this assignment is to write a negative message. Communicating unfavourable news doesn’t have to result in bad feelings. Strategic negative messages are unique in their special attention to content, structure, context and tone.

There are seven goals to keep in mind when delivering negative news, in person or in written form:

1. Be clear and concise in order to not require additional clarification.
2. Help the receiver understand and accept the news.
3. Maintain trust and respect for the business or organization and for the receiver.
4. Avoid legal liability or erroneous admission of guilt or culpability.
5. Maintain the relationship, even if a formal association is being terminated.
6. Reduce the anxiety associated with the negative news to increase comprehension.
7. Achieve the designated business outcome.

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

• Create digitally-written professional communications for readability, coherence, clarity, conciseness and tone.
• Apply research tools to enhance communication

Ensure you are aware of the College policies on Academic Honesty and also Plagiarism. Academic dishonesty and plagiarism are taken very seriously at the College even if the dishonesty or plagiarism is unintentional. Please also know that taking credit for work you did not contribute to as it is also considered Academic Dishonesty and will be reported.

When you submit your assignment, it will go through Turnitin. Turnitin is a webbased service that checks the assignment against its database of materials that contain other learners’ work as well as electronic academic materials. It is highly recommended that you use the Turnitin tool to make improvements to your paper before you submit the final version. Be aware of the due date for the assignment. Submit your first draft long before the deadline and allow yourself time to make changes. Then, submit your final version by the deadline.

Learners find the Turnitin report useful for editing papers. The report will include incorrect use of referencing, too many quotes, and paraphrases. If the Turnitin report, for your first draft, shows a high percentage of matching text, this will give you an opportunity to review and edit your assignment for proper citations and more original analysis. Once you make your edits, it is possible to submit your work to Turnitin again. Turnitin will know not to match the text in your second draft with text in your first draft, and so on. It is advisable to wait at least 24 hours before you submit the second draft.

Faculty find Turnitin useful as a tool to teach learners proper citation practices and highlight the need for more learner originality. Faculty can also use Turnitin as a tool to detect possible instances of plagiarism and academic dishonesty.

You are a medical office assistant at the Richmond Road Diagnostic and Treatment Centre. Recently, a breach of health records of 178 patients was discovered at the Richmond Road Centre. As per provincial legislation, the affected patients must be notified. One of the physicians you work for, Dr. Kathryn Stansky, has asked youto draft a letter to be sent to the affected patients notifying them of the breach. The letter will be signed by Dr. Stansky. The contact information for the Richmond Road Diagnostic and Treatment Centre is:

Medical Data on 178 Patients Wrongly Accessed by Former Employee: AHS The health records of 178 patients were wrongly accessed by a Alberta Health Services staffer, the AHS said Friday.

The privacy breach occurred from February to July this year at Calgary’s Richmond Road Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, the AHS’s Calgary Zone Clinibase system and the Alberta Netcare records system, they said.

Data accessed by the staff member employed at the Richmond Road centre included treatment, diagnostic and care information.

Parent care and data accuracy weren’t affected by the violations, said AHS officials, adding patients whose records were accessed are being notified this week. “This privacy breach is unacceptable and disappointing, especially given the extensive work AHS has done over the past several years to build awareness and understanding among staff of the importance of appropriately collecting, using, disclosing and protecting their health information,” said Todd Gilchrist, the AHS’s vice-president people, legal and privacy.