COM223e

Writing for Strategic Communication

Tutor-Marked Assignment 1-2

January 2018 Presentation
COM223e Tutor-Marked Assignment 1-2 January 2018 Semester

COM223e
There are 2 TMAs for COM223e Writing for Strategic Communication. TMA01 and TMA02 are
each worth 20% of the overall assessment score. The Pre-class quizzes are worth 10%. Together,
they constitute 50% of the final mark (the exam constitutes the other 50%).

Note: To pass the course, you will need to pass both the continuous assessment component
(i.e. the assignments) and the exam.

Please upload this assignment to Turnitin by Monday, 26 March 2018, 11:55pm.

Resubmissions are allowed before this cut-off time.

It is strongly recommended that you make an early submission to check the originality report
and, if necessary, make amendments to your document for resubmission. Note that the
Turnitin report is usually generated immediately after the first submission, however,
subsequent reports may take up to one day to generate. Do note that Turnitin will not accept
any further submissions AFTER the cut-off time. There is a 12-hour grace period after the
cut-off time, which is not an extended deadline but solely meant for solving any technical
problems that you may encounter while attempting to make a submission before the cut-off
time. Please email Canvas Support immediately (with relevant screenshots and your TMA
attached) and follow up with Canvas Support first thing in the morning to ensure that the
problem is resolved before the grace period is over.

One late submission is allowed only if no prior submissions were made before the cut-off
time. Do note that the Canvas system will automatically deduct penalty marks for every day
that your assignment is late. With this automatic deduction, there will be no need to request
for extensions from your tutor because your tutor does not have the mandate to over-ride the
Canvas system settings. You will need to form your own judgement as to how many marks
you are willing to forego for each extra day that you gain to work on your assignment.

Take care to ensure that you upload the correct TMA document to the correct folder of the
correct course. Requests to transfer incorrectly uploaded documents to the correct folder will
require an official appeal (and an administrative fee).

Backup your TMA at all times. Once you have uploaded your TMA (in Word document
format only), retain the Turnitin digital receipt as evidence of a successful submission. View
your submission to ensure that the entire document has been uploaded successfully.

Plagiarism and Collusion

The assignment is to be completed on your own. You may discuss the TMA with your
course-mates; however, the assignment must be written independently. Do not share your
notes, draft or final TMA with anyone before the marked TMAs are returned to you.
Avoid plagiarism by giving yourself sufficient time to research and understand the material
so that you can write up your assignment in your own words. Quotations should be used
sparingly. Simply citing the source of ‘copied’ chunks of text does not excuse it from
plagiarism. Do ensure that any paraphrasing is done appropriately, even if you use text from
your own work that you have submitted as part of another assignment for the same or another
course.

SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (SUSS) Page 2 of 9

COM223e Tutor-Marked Assignment 1-2 January 2018 Semester

The University takes a very serious view of plagiarism (passing off someone else’s ideas as
your own, or recycling of contents from your own earlier marked TMA from the same course
or another course) and collusion (submitting an assignment which is the same or very similar
to another student’s). Both are very serious academic offences. Please refer to the Student
Handbook on the penalties of plagiarism or collusion. You are strongly advised to submit
your TMA early, check the plagiarism report yourself, and if needed revise and resubmit your
TMA before the submission deadline.

SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (SUSS) Page 3 of 9

COM223e Tutor-Marked Assignment 1-2 January 2018 Semester

TMA01

Question (100 marks)

Singapore is striving towards becoming a smoke-free nation. Recently, a condominium

management company angered its residents by telling them that they could not smoke on
their own balconies. The move did not sit well with residents of the condominium, and many
Singapore netizens joined them in an online debate on the issue of smoking rights in private
properties.

Condo residents fume over ‘ban’ on smoking on their balconies

A dispute is brewing at a condominium in Upper Thomson Road over whether or not

residents can smoke on their own balconies.

The management agent of Meadows@Peirce recently sent out a circular telling residents
they should not smoke on their balconies and in window areas, in addition to common areas
where smoking is already prohibited by the National Environment Agency (NEA).

The advisory cited a clause from the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act
(BMSMA) that prohibits owners from doing anything that can be a nuisance to others.

The move has triggered arguments on the residents’ Facebook group over whether or not the
condominium management has a say in activities on private property.

Mr Ivan Wang is one resident who believes the notice had gone too far. He said he is not
alone in believing that the management has overstepped its boundaries and the definition of
what can be considered a serious nuisance. “But as usual, there are people who just feel like
controlling what other people want to do.”

Ms Karen Law Krygsman said: “Residents are blindsided as they have no idea of the context
of the advisory. The management should send a friendly reminder to all residents first. Only
when repeated reminders fail, then more hardball tactics can be employed. They should also
try to mediate between opposing parties, like HDB does. Using the clause was heavy-
handed - it should not have been invoked so soon.”

Some residents agree with the idea of encouraging residents to refrain from smoking in
open-air areas, but said homes were a different matter. Ms Karen Chan said: “It is a good
thing to have such a notice, but at the end of the day, the balcony is still someone’s private
property.”

When The Straits Times called the management committee at Meadows@Peirce, a

representative said the circular was just meant to urge residents to be considerate towards
one another, and a reminder of NEA guidelines on areas where smoking is forbidden.

Still, the episode has touched on an issue that is increasingly heated as Singapore continues
its move towards being a smoke-free nation. Earlier this year, dozens wrote to ST on the
issue of neighbours smoking in surrounding Housing Board flats.

SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (SUSS) Page 4 of 9

COM223e Tutor-Marked Assignment 1-2 January 2018 Semester

HDB and the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) told ST that smoking in private
residences is legal.

Mr Francis Goh, partner of law firm Eversheds Harry Elias, said there are no criminal
penalties for breaches of the particular clause under the BMSMA, but the management of a
condominium has the option of creating a by-law. The management can then apply to court
for an order to restrain the breach of the by-law and seek appropriate penalties for those who
do so.

When asked, BCA said the management of a condominium may make by-laws. This can be
done through a vote at a general meeting. Every by-law made by the management is binding
on its subsidiary proprietors, lessees and occupiers, said BCA. However, BCA said the
management should seek legal advice on any by-law to ensure it is keeping with the
provisions of the BMSMA.

On the other hand, residents of HDB flats are free to smoke on their balconies. Under HDB’s
ruling, balconies come under private property and are therefore not included in the NEA’s
list of non-smoking areas.

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/condo-residents-fume-over-ban-on-smoking-
on-their-balconies

Assume that you are a reader of The Straits Times and wish to add your perspective on this
issue. Formulate your arguments, and apply the concepts and techniques of rhetoric and
persuasion to demonstrate your competence in persuasive writing.

Write a letter to the Editor to be published in The Straits Times Forum section that lays out
your stance on this issue. Accordingly, in your letter, you need to discuss the issues and
identify your stand either for or against the argument that smoking in open-air spaces of
private property be banned.

The letter you develop should not exceed 800 words, excluding references (if any).

— End of TMA01—

SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (SUSS) Page 5 of 9

COM223e Tutor-Marked Assignment 1-2 January 2018 Semester

COM223e
There are 2 TMAs for COM223e Writing for Strategic Communication. TMA01 and TMA02 are
each worth 20% of the overall assessment score. The Pre-class quizzes are worth 10%. Together,
they constitute 50% of the final mark (the exam constitutes the other 50%).

Note: To pass the course, you will need to pass both the continuous assessment component
(i.e. the assignments) and the exam.

Please upload this assignment to Turnitin by Monday, 16 April 2018, 11:55pm.

Resubmissions are allowed before this cut-off time.

It is strongly recommended that you make an early submission to check the originality report
and, if necessary, make amendments to your document for resubmission. Note that the
Turnitin report is usually generated immediately after the first submission, however,
subsequent reports may take up to one day to generate. Do note that Turnitin will not accept
any further submissions AFTER the cut-off time. There is a 12-hour grace period after the
cut-off time, which is not an extended deadline but solely meant for solving any technical
problems that you may encounter while attempting to make a submission before the cut-off
time. Please email Canvas Support immediately (with relevant screenshots and your TMA
attached) and follow up with Canvas Support first thing in the morning to ensure that the
problem is resolved before the grace period is over.

One late submission is allowed only if no prior submissions were made before the cut-off
time. Do note that the Canvas system will automatically deduct penalty marks for every day
that your assignment is late. With this automatic deduction, there will be no need to request
for extensions from your tutor because your tutor does not have the mandate to over-ride the
Canvas system settings. You will need to form your own judgement as to how many marks
you are willing to forego for each extra day that you gain to work on your assignment.

Take care to ensure that you upload the correct TMA document to the correct folder of the
correct course. Requests to transfer incorrectly uploaded documents to the correct folder will
require an official appeal (and an administrative fee).

Backup your TMA at all times. Once you have uploaded your TMA (in Word document
format only), retain the Turnitin digital receipt as evidence of a successful submission. View
your submission to ensure that the entire document has been uploaded successfully.

Plagiarism and Collusion

The assignment is to be completed on your own. You may discuss the TMA with your
course-mates; however, the assignment must be written independently. Do not share your
notes, draft or final TMA with anyone before the marked TMAs are returned to you.
Avoid plagiarism by giving yourself sufficient time to research and understand the material
so that you can write up your assignment in your own words. Quotations should be used
sparingly. Simply citing the source of ‘copied’ chunks of text does not excuse it from
plagiarism. Do ensure that any paraphrasing is done appropriately, even if you use text from
your own work that you have submitted as part of another assignment for the same or another
course.

SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (SUSS) Page 6 of 9

COM223e Tutor-Marked Assignment 1-2 January 2018 Semester

The University takes a very serious view of plagiarism (passing off someone else’s ideas as
your own, or recycling of contents from your own earlier marked TMA from the same course
or another course) and collusion (submitting an assignment which is the same or very similar
to another student’s). Both are very serious academic offences. Please refer to the Student
Handbook on the penalties of plagiarism or collusion. You are strongly advised to submit
your TMA early, check the plagiarism report yourself, and if needed revise and resubmit your
TMA before the submission deadline.

SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (SUSS) Page 7 of 9

COM223e Tutor-Marked Assignment 1-2 January 2018 Semester

TMA02

Question (100 marks)

You are Head of Corporate Communications at the Singapore subsidiary of Bellavita, one the
world’s leading nutrition, health and wellness companies. Bellavita, headquartered in the
United Kingdom, is represented in 70 countries around the world, and owns over 800 popular
health food brands, including baby formulas, cereals and dietary products. Bellavita’s long-
term goal is to enhance the quality of life and contribute to a healthier future by harnessing
the most-up-to-date technology and science-based expertise in the manufacture of its
products and running of its business operations.

This morning, your Chief Executive Officer, Max Weber, called you into his office to inform
you that he had received notice from the company’s Board of Management in the UK that it
was going to implement new digitised business processes and ways of working at all
Bellavita factories and offices around the world.

You gathered the following information:

 Bellavita is committed to seeking innovations, new technologies and business solutions to

improve products and processes
 Drive to revamp and modernise business operations are a vital part of company’s plan for
future
 Aim is to create a modern digital workforce by providing employees with cloud-first,
mobile-enabled, flexible business platforms
 Digitisation process to be rolled out across all regions
 Target go-live date scheduled for end of 2018
 Initiative meant to help standardise, simplify and unify data and processes
 Unrelated to company’s plans to consolidate operations in light of Brexit in March 2019
 Some existing job roles and functions will be made redundant by digital processes
 Approximately 10% of Bellavita’s Singapore workforce likely to be affected
 Bellavita employs 57 executive and managerial support staff at company’s corporate
office at Changi Business Park, and >1,500 workers, engineers and nutritionists at
manufacturing facilities and research centre in Tuas
 All affected employees to receive outplacement support
 Company plans to engage outplacement agency for career coaching and counselling
 Also to help with resume writing and social media profile creation
 Ministry of Manpower (MOM) already notified of impending retrenchment exercise

Your CEO has asked you to draft a professional business memo to inform Bellavita’s
Singapore staff of the developments. You need to deliver the news with transparency and tact,
bearing in mind the sensitivities involved.

For this TMA, you are required to apply the concepts and techniques of organizational
writing to demonstrate your ability to write a professionally written business memo to convey
the difficult news.

SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (SUSS) Page 8 of 9

COM223e Tutor-Marked Assignment 1-2 January 2018 Semester

Identify and include any additional information that will help you develop the format of a
professionally written business letter.

The memo you formulate should not exceed 800 words, excluding references (if any).

— End of TMA02—

SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (SUSS) Page 9 of 9