Reference no: EM132377200

200817 Business Communications Skills Assignment - Western Sydney University

Assessment 1: Summary

a) Write a ONE SENTENCE summary of the following paragraph. Your summary sentence cannot exceed 30 words.

Australians have been told to immediately check their super balances after a young woman was charged over her alleged role in a major fraud syndicate that hacked some of the country's biggest superannuation funds and stole the identities of thousands of consumers. More than $10 million was ripped from retirement and share-trading accounts in the scam, Melbourne Magistrates Court was told as 21-year-old Jasmine Vella-Arpaci was charged with 53 fraud offences. Court documents show computers at major superannuation funds REST Super and HESTA were allegedly accessed by a fraud ring as it siphoned off people's super. The country's biggest retail sharebroker, CommSec, was also allegedly hacked by the ring and customers' data accessed.

b) Write a TWO SENTENCE SUMMARY of the following two paragraphs. Your summary sentences cannot exceed 60 words in total.

The Reserve Bank has admitted it has yet to see strong evidence that the Morrison government's tax cuts are finding their way into the economy, while warning that wages growth appears to have ‘‘stalled'', paving the way for more interest rate cuts. As the government prepares to confirm the budget is back in balance for the first time in a decade, the RBA used the minutes of its latest meeting to highlight growing economic risks that may force it to take official interest rates below 1 per cent. The combination of rate cuts in June and July plus the tax cuts that started flowing into bank accounts over recent months was expected to deliver a much-needed boost to cash-strapped households. But the RBA noted retail sales had been weak through the June quarter and the value of sales fell in July, with no signs that shoppers were using their extra cash.

‘‘The low- and middle-income tax offset was expected to boost household income and thus support consumption growth in coming quarters,'' the minutes showed. ‘‘However, the bank's liaison with retailers suggested that this had yet to lift spending noticeably.'' A key issue continues to be wages, with the RBA saying there were now few indications that wages pressure was building. ‘‘Wages growth had remained low and the upward trend in wages growth appeared to have stalled,'' the minutes showed.Consumers are seemingly also becoming more concerned about the state of the economy, with the weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan measure of consumer sentiment falling 3.5 per cent over the past seven days to its lowest level in two years.Confidence is now down by more than 8 per cent since its spike soon after the June rate cut and tax refund cheques started flowing into bank accounts.

c) Write a summary of the following article. Your summary cannot be more than 410 words. Do not forget to use Western Sydney Harvard to reference the article.

GREENWASHING: DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE BUYING?

Author(s): Richard Dahl

Source: Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 118, No. 6 (JUNE 2010), pp. A246-A252

In a United States where climate change legislation, concerns about foreign oil dependence, and mandatory curb-side recycling are becoming the "new normal," companies across a variety of sectors are seeing the benefit of promoting their "greenness" in advertisements. Many lay vague and dubious claims to environmental stewardship. Others are more specific but still raise questions about what their claims really mean. The term for ads and labels that promise more environmental benefit than they deliver is "greenwashing." Today, some critics are asking whether the impact of greenwashing can go beyond a breach of marketing ethics - can greenwashing actually harm health?