DESCRIPTION

• "feel good about the part you have played in working to find a cure for cancer!"
• Format of thanking, asking for more and thanking again at the end.
• "we do have a spot we can winter plants over and have them ready for our sale in the spring."
• "Entire BSU Relay for Life Team!"
• Just over $3580, why not put exact amount when rounding that close.
• BSU Campus Community
• bang in subject line
• volunteer gardners "if you want"
• "continued support anad generosity"
• Not quite genuine is how I would decribe it. It is a shallow thank you and command to feel good followed by a request for contined support. Instead of just stating that they are collecting plants and pots for next years sale, they go out of their way to describe how convinient they will make it for you. From picking up come things to finding volunteer gardners to come to your house, it is all very convenient to make you feel like crap if you don't give.
• Very controlled use of capitalization to reinforce the idea of BSU being a Team and a Community.
• Grammer usage is questionable, "winter plants over" sounds awkward
• guilt for those who did not donate implied "Feel BAD about the part you DIDN'T play in working to find a cure for cancer!"

ANALYSIS

• Capitalization of Team and Community throughout the e-mail.
• The writers chose to capitalize certain words to build comradery and motivate/force people to give out of guilt. Both words imply that the entire listserv is responsible for the advancement of the American Cancer Society and their efforts. I think that they could not personally thank everyone since they didn't keep a detailed log of who bought a plant or attended a luncheon. It is almost cult building that you are part of something, the new Relay For Life Team Cult. Mirriam-Webster Online says in one definition that a cult is " great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book.)"

INTERPRETATION

The message appears to be less than genuine going out to a predominently uninterested group. The writers mainly write in a propagandistic manner seeming like President Bush's post 9/11 address to rally the nation to support. The language is purposeful to encourage support and condemn the nonconformists.

The greater meaning implies that the individual efforts were not noted enough to suggest the use of a paper mailing, but were significant enough that the e-mail be edited purposefully to make the reader "feel good about" what they may or may not have done.

Although the interpretation of the message appears to be harsh and unforgiving, the implied motivations behind the message appear to have been thought through. The message was sent for a reason beyond simply asking for more.

KathleenHollinger