Writing business letters requires focus
Writing business letters is a requirement for most people and they don’t even
realize it. Just because we find ourselves in an electronic world of e-mails and
attachments doesn’t mean that our correspondence shouldn’t be professional and
business like. It is something that your education
taught you.
Improve your business writing skills with distance learning
programs
The bad news about writing is that you can always improve on it. There is no
such thing as the perfect letter the way there is a perfect math theorem. The
good news is that with distance learning
you have a cornucopia of programs to help you improve your business writing.
Make sure you update your resume to reflect any business coursework you take
yourself to help improve your business
writing.
There are many online distance learning programs that offer courses on business
writing. Some are short--5 days or six week long programs. Others are for
college credit and may require quite a commitment from you in terms of reading
and written assignments.
When writing a business letter, consider the following:
• Determine the purpose of writing the business letter.
• Decide who the real audience of the business letter is.
• Use a basic business letter template (one with date, address, salutation,
body, etc.).
• Use plain language in your business letter.
• Check for basic grammar and any other typos in the business letter.
• Make sure the business letter doesn’t have any content that you would be
embarrassed if it were to get circulated. Don’t put anything in writing that
wouldn’t hold up in court.
• Close the business letter; i.e. include a call to action that you want from
the reader.
Here are some important points to remember when you write a business letter;
Who are the readers of the letter?
Do they already know about the subject?
What do they need to know?
Will they understand technical terms?
What information do they want?
What interests or motivates the reader?
What prejudices do they have?
What worries or reassures the reader?
What will persuade the reader to my view?
What other arguments do I need to present?
How are they likely to react to what I say?
Keep your business letter to the point.
Get the right tone or voice to the business letter.
Use active verbs rather than passive verbs.
Write a strong opening to your business letter.
Write a strong close to your business letter.
Keep your letter short (it keeps the reader awake)
Cut needless words and needless information.
Cut stale phrases and redundant statements.
Cut the first paragraph if it refers to previous correspondence.
Cut the last paragraph if it asks for future correspondence.
Keep your letter simple
Use familiar words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
Keep your subject matter as simple as possible.
Keep related information together.
Use a conversational style.
Keep your letter strong
Answer the reader's question in the first paragraph.
Give your answer and then explain why.
Use concrete words and examples.
Keep to the subject.
Keep your letter sincere
Answer promptly.
Be human and as friendly as possible.
Write as if you were talking to your reader.
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