Identify the most significant idea of the sentence and move that information to the back of the sentence. Move all modifying information “left” in the sentence.

For this assignment, you will use the complaint letter below(ATTACHED). You will respond to this
complaint letter as if you currently acted as the assistant to the person whom the letter addresses. You
will respond on behalf of your boss and your department.

Consider the problem/complaint this letter has brought to your attention and how your office should
address the problem. You can find actual administrative policies on the John Jay website which you
should research.
This letter should also follow all of the writing criteria of the course and should appear on John Jay
letterhead(ATTACHED)
You will also find a sample response to complaint letter with sidebar comments about the structure of the letter (ATTACHED)

WRITING CRITERIA (The professor is strict about this criteria)
a. Avoid the “to be” verbs (i.e, I am, you are, he/she is, I was , I will be . . .) These passive tenses hide the agent of agent and do not offer the reader an explicit action verb that they can easily imagine in their minds.
b. Replace “to be” constructions with active verbs
2. Eliminate hedging phrases (i.e., I believe, I am writing to tell you, I think)
3. Include specific details rather than generalized information.
4. Reduce the amount of nouns in a sentence. Do not add too many nouns to your sentence. An excess of nouns results in nominalization.
5. Identify the most significant idea of the sentence and move that information to the back of the sentence. Move all modifying information “left” in the sentence.
6. Combine sentences that repeat information or have interrelated ideas. Avoid the “laundry list” of ideas.
7. Discern the importance of your ideas and express them by coordinating and subordinating sentence structures accordingly.
8. Integrate transitional words or phrases (e.g., metacommunicative devices) that move your reader from one idea (or paragraph) to the next.
9. Avoid any non-referential “this” or “that” that does not specifically name to what it refers.
10. Choose phrases that your audience commonly knows rather than unfamiliar, specialized language. Simple language does not mean simplistic ideas.

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