English 113/Informational E-mail Message Assignment

Assigned: September 28th

Due: October 10th

Please be sure to forward the completed assignment to me via e-mail at palmers4@cnc.bc.ca by

the end of day, October 10th. I will confirm that I have received the assignment by sending a
reply e-mail. If you have not received the confirmation e-mail, that means that I have not
received the assignment and that the onus is on you to get it to me.

As reporter Lisa Friendman points out: “shortly before 10 p.m. on April 20, 2010, an explosion
ripped through the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, unleashing the worst
offshore oil spill in United States history and triggering what were supposed to be systemic
changes to ensure such a disaster could never happen again.”

Read both Tony Hayward’s attempt to address the crisis in his press release (see Microsoft word
document posted on moodle) and offer assurances to the public as well as Lisa Friedman’s New
York Times article (see Microsoft word document posted on moodle) outlining the extent to
which attempts to make regulatory changes have been hampered by a lack of government
initiative, a consequence of partisan politics.

The Assignment: You have been appointed by Tony Hayward to help manage and direct the
company’s handling of the unfolding crisis. Hayward’s priority obviously is to protect the image
of his company by underscoring what action needs to be taken to assure the public that BP will
not only stop the oil from flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, but help to clean up the environment
and begin the process of investigating what changes within corporate culture need to be made to
prevent this from happening again. Using the information from the sources that I have provided,
construct an informational e-mail message in which you state specifically what action you think
management and employees need to take to protect the reputation of the company moving
forward. You can consult additional sources to learn more about BP’s response, but this is not a
research assignment per se; you may also want to watch the film Deepwater Horizon as it will
give you insight with respect to BP’s flawed corporate practices, especially concerning safety.
Once you have a clear understanding of what you plan to layout in your e-mail, consult the
review principles on page 154 of your text as well as the sample memo by David Reilly. This
will give you a clear idea of how to format your message, and what you should include in it.
Should you have any questions or concerns, please do let me know.