Technical Writing 5

Question 17 .1

The tone of this writer is blunt and authoritarian . He begins with a formal and impersonal statement It has come to my attention ' which sounds pompous . He stresses the violation ' irregularities breaches ' which exaggerates the severity of the incidents and he threatens the readers with the phrase if they recur , they will be dealt with harshly . He sounds like a dictatator who is only concerned about himself , because he uses the pronoun I , so often . He wants people to obey , and shows no consideration for the way colleagues might

br see the issue

The examples he gives are all anonymous and they describe events which look as if they might breach the rules . Some of them , such as the use of a personal credit card look as if they might be clear cut examples of rule breaking . Other instances , like the taking of a cab rather than a shuttle bus , for example , are more debatable , since the writer does not say , and does not even know , perhaps , whether the traveller was rushing to get to a meeting , or the plane was late , or some other circumstance that required the traveller to get there fast

The writer has effectively communicated what the rules are , what he thinks are breaches of the rules , and how he intends to deal with future breaches . He has not done much to encourage people to abide by the travel policy , however , because he suggests that the only reason they should do so is to...