Writing Advice

Letter Writing Tips

In my career I have written literally thousands of letters for just about every type of letter writing situation imaginable.

One thing I have noticed time and time again is that many people (and sometimes even large companies) don’t understand the importance of writing the appropriate letter for a particular situation AND how critical it is to write a good letter.

One thing for certain; if anything is going to hurt your business and/or personal credibility it’s a poorly written letter. It’s a very avoidable mistake, so don’t make it.

Based on my decades of letter-writing experience, below I have listed what I consider to be the 5 key points that you need to keep in mind whenever you write that next letter:

5 Key Letter Writing Tips

Keep it short and to the point.
Letters involving business (personal or corporate) should be concise, factual, and focused. Try to never exceed one page or you will be in risk of losing your reader. A typical letter page will hold 350 to 450 words. If you can’t get your point across with that many words you probably haven’t done enough preparatory work. If necessary, call the recipient on the phone to clarify any fuzzy points and then use the letter just to summarize the overall situation.
Focus on the recipient’s needs.
While writing the letter, focus on the information requirements of your audience, the intended addressee. If you can, in your “mind’s eye” imagine the intended recipient seated across a desk or boardroom table from you while you are explaining the subject of the letter. What essential information does that person need to know through this communication? What will be their expectations when they open the letter? Have you addressed all of these?
Use simple and appropriate language.
Your letter should use simple straightforward language, for clarity and precision. Use short sentences and don’t let paragraphs exceed three or four sentences. As much as possible, use language and terminology familiar to the intended recipient. Do not use technical terms and acronyms without explaining them, unless you are certain that the addressee is familiar with them.
Re-read and revise it.
Do a first draft of the letter, and then carefully review and revise it. Put yourself in the place of the addressee. Imagine yourself receiving the letter. How would you react to it? Would it answer all of your questions? Does it deal with all of the key issues? Are the language and tone appropriate? Sometimes reading it out loud to one’s self, can be helpful. When you actually “hear” the words it is easy to tell if it “sounds” right, or not.
Check spelling and grammar.
A letter is a direct reflection of the person sending it, and by extension, the organization that person works for. When the final content of the letter is settled, make sure that you run it through a spelling and grammar checker. Sending a letter with obvious spelling and grammar mistakes looks sloppy and unprofessional. In such cases, the recipient can’t really be blamed for seeing this as an indication as to how you (and your organization) probably do most other things.

Above all else, your goal in all letter writing, regardless of the subject, should be to keep it short, factual, and to the point. Don’t write it more than one page in length, unless there is some compelling reason to make it longer.

Studies have shown that busy business people do not like to read beyond the first page. If your letter is longer, there is a good chance it will be dumped in a “read later” pile, which often ends up never getting read.

The above basic letter writing tips are mostly common sense. Nevertheless, you would be amazed how often these very basic “rules of thumb” are not employed when people are writing letters.

Letter Writing Resources
If you have come directly to this page you may have missed my main letter writing resources page. To go there click on this link:
http://writinghelp-central.com/letter-writing.html

Go With The Flow:
Use Transition Words and Phrases

One of the most common weaknesses I see in day-to-day writing is poor logical flow from one idea or point to the next.

This usually takes the form of a bunch of seemingly unrelated phrases thrown together with little or no sense of sequence, continuity, or relativity.

Although the overall subject may be obvious, the words to describe it seem to be scattered on the page like an almost random set of unconnected thoughts.

On a regular basis, I see letters and reports in which each phrase seems to be independent of the one before and the one after, when in reality, there is an actual sequential and/or logical flow.

Consider the following three sentence example:

The entire building had to be searched.
They started the search on the third floor.
It took three hours to complete the search.

Notice that the three separate statements are all valid sentences. They convey the bare essential facts of the situation, but nothing more. In fact, they raise almost more questions than they answer. For example:

– Was it a serious incident?
– Had it ever happened before?
– Why did they start on the third floor?
– What about the first two floors?
– Is three hours a long time for that?
– How long does it usually take?

These are all logical (and obvious) questions that the average person might ask when reading a paragraph made up of the three sentences above.

Let’s transform these now, using transition phrases:

“UNLIKE the previous minor incident, this time the entire building had to be searched. BECAUSE the fire was still smoking on the first two floors, they started on the third, working upwards, covering the first two last. CONSEQUENTLY, it took them a full three hours before they finally completed the typical two-hour job.”

Notice the use of the transition words: UNLIKE, BECAUSE, and CONSEQUENTLY. Using these three words has allowed us to easily connect the three independent sentences and give them a sense of chronological order and logical flow. They also allow us to answer ALL of the obvious questions, either with the transition word itself, or by adding a couple more words.

In short, transition words/phrases have turned three dry independent phrases into a little story that makes sense to the reader.

These types of words/phrases are ideal for allowing one to easily connect thoughts, and create logical sequences between sentences and paragraphs. They are usually inserted at the beginning of a sentence and normally refer directly back to the previous sentence and/or paragraph without repeating the specific subject.

The following paragraphs list some of the more common transition words and phrases that will help make your text more understandable and interesting to the reader. For each one, I have included a typical example of how the word/phrase might be used in a typical sentence.

Note that I have capitalized the transition words/phrases for emphasis and easy identification.

CAUSE AND EFFECT…
THEN, he moved on to the next work station.
AS A RESULT, the team lost the game.
FOR THIS REASON, she always went home for the weekend.
THE RESULT WAS always predictable.
WHAT FOLLOWED was as painful as it was inevitable.
IN RESPONSE, he quickly upped the ante.
THEREFORE, the aircraft overshot the runway.
THUS, it was just a matter of time.
BECAUSE OF THIS, the results were always the same.
CONSEQUENTLY, he was no longer friends with Frank.
THE REACTION to this event was swift and decisive.

IN CONTRAST TO…
UNLIKE last year, this one was highly profitable.
DIFFERENT from this, was our approach to manufacturing.
IN SPITE OF the dot com bust, the company prospered.
ON THE OTHER HAND, earnings per share have increased.
ON THE CONTRARY, the impact was less than expected.
OPPOSING that idea was the move to new technologies.
HOWEVER, that approach may actually prove better.
CONTRARY to his findings, the revenue picture is good.
NEVERTHELESS, something still appears to be missing.

SEQUENCE AND RELATIVITY…
THEN, each one followed in numerical sequence.
IN ADDITION, a fourth material was added to the mix.
TO ENUMERATE, first there was the car, second the boat,…
NEXT in the series was the “outrigger” brand line.
BESIDES THAT, there were two other possible sources.

SIMILARITY AND COMPARISON…
LIKE always, he took the company on a dangerous course.
SAME as before, he managed to meet all of the requirements.
SIMILAR things were known to happen at certain times.
CLOSE to that was the result of the second round of voting.
LIKEWISE, they made similar changes in the factory.
ALSO, there were the worker’s families to consider.
NEAR that one, was where we found the faulty component.

EXPLANATION AND EXAMPLE…
FOR EXAMPLE, last year’s model was underpowered.
ONE SUCH occurrence was last week’s power outage.
FOR INSTANCE, earnings this year are higher than last.
TO ILLUSTRATE, he went to Chicago just to make his point.
ALSO, there is a new approach to sheet-metal moulding.
THAT TOO, just goes to make my point even stronger.
TO DEMONSTRATE, I will use the new model throughout.

The above are just examples, and there many other such transition words and phrases that are used in everyday conversation or writing. In my opinion, appropriate use of these words/phrases is the number one technique for making any type of writing flow logically and clearly.

Bottom line: Smooth, orderly and logical transitions from one thought to the other, one sentence to the next, and one paragraph to another are key to creating clear meaning and flow in any document. Transition words and phrases will achieve this for you.

When To Say Thank You In Writing

When I first started tracking the information preferences of people visiting my Writing Help Central Web site I was surprised to find how many folks were seeking information on how to write thank you letters. In fact, “thank you letter” information and sample templates are the fifth ranked destinations at that Web site.

However, I caution you to be careful if you conduct a “thank you letter” keyword search using an engine such as google or yahoo. Those top 10 or 20 search results will definitely give you the wrong idea about thank you letters in the broad sense. Looking at those results alone you’ll find that the vast majority of “so-called experts” seem to think that there is essentially only one kind of thank you letter – one written after a job interview. However, that is just not the case – by a long shot. In fact, there are many different types of thank you letters.

The purpose of this article is to tell you the whole story on when to write “thank you letters”, as they apply to a wide variety of situations – both personal and business…

In reality, that common belief that “thank you letters” are mostly employment-related, is a very narrow view that fails to recognize the literally dozens of real-life situations for which these letters are often warranted. I believe that this proliferation of references to “employment-related” thank you letters is simply a reflection of the massive number of Web-based businesses involved in the online career and job hunting services industry.

WHEN TO SAY THANK YOU IN WRITING
The purpose of a thank you letter is self-explanatory. Write one when you want to formally thank a person, company or institution for something they have done for you or your organization; normally, something which you consider to be out of the ordinary.

Simply receiving a contracted service as requested does not normally warrant a formal thank you. However, service provided to you above and beyond your normal expectations can often call for a special thank you letter. Normally, it should be a clear case of “above and beyond the call of duty”, as the saying goes.

And yes, thank you letters can also be important follow-up mechanisms in certain employment-related situations.

TYPES OF THANK YOU LETTERS
Generally speaking, there are two main types of thank you letters – business thank you letters and personal thank you letters.

Business Thank You Letters
There are many situations in business that can warrant a thank you letter. Here are a few generic examples of thank you letter situations for businesses and institutions:

Appreciation for any type of special consideration extended by another organization.
Thanking a speaker for a presentation at an annual board meeting.
Customer appreciation letters – thanking them for their patronage.
Thank you letters to employees for exceptional service or performance.
Thanks to an individual or organization for a customer referral.
Commendations to volunteer service workers for their personal contributions.

These are just a few typical examples. I’m sure you can think of many more situations that might demand a thank you letter from a business or institution.

Personal Thank You Letters
As with business situations, there are many instances in day-to-day life that can warrant a formal thank you letter. Following are a few typical situations that often require a personal thank you letter:

As a follow-up after a job interview and/or job offer.
To a company or institution in appreciation for exceptional customer service.
Letter of appreciation to a teacher for a positive influence on your child.
To friends and/or neighbors for their exceptional support during a difficult period.
Thanks to a service club or agency for support given to your family.
Social occasion thank yous, for a wide variety of social situations.

Again these are just examples. New situations similar to these arise on a regular basis in our daily lives that call for a formal thank you letter.

Sending thank you letters when appropriate is important in both business and personal life. Individuals and companies that do not send thank you letters are seen as ungracious and perhaps not worthy of future good deeds or special treatment.

So, whenever it’s warranted, make sure you send an appropriate thank you letter. Invariably, thank you letters are very well received and appreciated by recipients, and the sender’s reputation is generally enhanced in their eyes.

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