The point of the e-mail that the President
sent to Ms. Jarmer was to get donations for his campaign. His letter was
written in a very informal way. I think that this was an important part of the
strategy to get donations. He kept the e-mail short and to the point and
addressed the reader as a friend instead of addressing her as Ms. Jarmer.
“Obama” also titles the e-mail as “hey”, as if it were addressing a friend of
his or a causal conversation. I feel like the e-mail gave the reader the opportunity
to feel important. The letter is “signed” and dated and probably gives the
reader the idea that the president actually cares about them, which could result
in a donation by the reader, or they just thought that the e-mail was just some
form of spam. The one thing that could potentially hurt the author is the fact
that he didn’t include a reason why the reader should donate the three dollars.
I don’t think the author wanted to come out and say that the money was for the
campaign, but the reader may not know where his/her money is going to, and they
might not like that.
If this e-mail were sent to me, I
probably wouldn’t want to donate three dollars. Why? Well because I don’t really
know where it’s going. The reader may be able to make an educated guess and
decide that it’s for Obama’s campaign, but that was never clearly stated in the
e-mail. The e-mail clearly says “If you can, please give $3 or more today”, why
three dollars? Would they not accept two dollars? Overall, I think the author
of this e-mail had a good idea and a strategy that had some potential, but I also
think that this e-mail should have had more of a body. I would have deleted
this e-mail right after I read it, just because none of it captured my
attention. If this author’s strategy was to make this e-mail personal and
friendly, they did that, but they could have gone farther. They make the reader
feel like they matter, but they should have went into more detail instead of
giving them a link to a website that clearly wasn’t created by Mr. Obama.
Breanna H.(380 words)
I agree with you saying that the letter from Obama had potential, because it did, but not enough time was spent in writing the letter. It is very short and to the point but at the same time doesn’t really tell you much at all. It asking for 3 dollars or more seems a little random. You make a good point by saying “would they now accept 2 dollars?” I didn’t even think of something like that. The letter is signed my Obama, which is trying to make it seem more personable, but the way it is set up it just seems like it was done in a rush. You are just referred to as friend, and the message in it is set up more like an advertisement, and there is no thank you. Same as you, I probably would have deleted it right after seeing it, plus I would not want to donate any money just because of how it was worded. Another thing you mentioned that I did not think about was the idea of it potentially being spam. After reading that and going back and reviewing the letter, it is set up very similar to how a spam email would be written. (205 words)
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