In ENGL 420Y, Business Writing – Distance Education, teams of two students read through documents regarding product recalls and produced their own documents in response to the same business situation. By creating both internal and external documentation that coincides with the complex rhetorical situations presented in this case study, students gained experience in composing appropriate and informative documents in response to timely issues.

In reading the documents related to automobile recalls, students analyzed a set of documents from Mitsubishi regarding automatic transmission air cooler pipe assemblies on 2010 Galant models. Then, groups shifted focus to producing memos and letters regarding both the 2007/2009 recall of floormats in 2007 Toyota Camrys and later a 2010 recall of accelerator pedal assemblies in the same model. Students also gained experience writing rhetorically specific memos and letters. During the drafting and creation of these documents, students also commented on other students’ work and had their own work commented upon. The project ended with a memo to the instructor that explained the many choices that were made in composing the documents in this project.