Capstone College One of your duties as the program assistant for the Digital Arts Department at Capstone College in San Francisco is to inform students who have applied to one of the department’s programs that they have not been accepted. Until recently, a very abrupt and unnecessarily dismissive refusal letter was sent to unsuccessful applicants. Fortunately, the new department head recognizes that these letters do not build goodwill for the department. He asks you to revise the current refusal letter so that it uses the five-paragraph refusal letter structure. To complete this case study, you rewrite the refusal letter.

1. Open the file Case1_06.docx located in the Project.06 folder included with your Data Files, and then save the document as Digital Arts Refusal Letter in the same folder.

2. Read the letter and note its dismissive and unpleasant tone.

3. Write a new first paragraph that consists of two sentences. The first sentence should thank the reader for applying to a program in the Digital Arts Department at Capstone College on a particular date, and the second sentence should extend goodwill. Note that you can use placeholders to indicate where variable information will be inserted.

For example, [PROGRAM NAME] could be a placeholder since it will vary from letter to letter. Most refusal letters can be written as from letters so long as care is taken to include some personalized information.

4. Write a new second paragraph that provides the context for the refusal. Here is some information you might want to adapt:

• The Digital Arts Department at Capstone College receives approximately 300 applications every year for 30 places in each of its three programs.

• Applications come from all over the country, even from Canada and Mexico.

• Most of the successful applicants have already had professional exhibitions; many have work experience in the digital animation field.

Make sure that the second paragraph leads the reader slowly toward the no but that the reader can understand that the refusal is fair and reasonable.

5. Write a third paragraph that says no politely and respectfully.

6. Write a fourth paragraph that provides the reader with a positive alternative. You can refer the reader to the Web site of other colleges or programs that offer preparatory courses that the applicant could take before applying again for another term.

7. Complete the letter with a positive closing.