Letters

Letters are used when communicating with people outside your organization. Letters are more formal documents that establish or transmit information. Although more formal, letters are considered more personal because of the greeting, tone, and signature, and the fact that it’s the old fashioned, which takes time to print, sign, and mail. While admittedly, letters have largely been replaced by other forms of communication in the workplace, you do need to be aware of the conventions—because, when you do have to write a letter, you’ll want to make it count.

Letters are one of the oldest forms of business communication and, because of their long history, readers have certain expectations about the form. Writers have been taught to follow certain guidelines.

Uses

Letters are generally used for the following purposes:

• Request or inquiries
• Introductions or personal recommendations
• Claims
• Adjustments
• Orders
• Sales
• Credit
• Collections
• Goodwill
• Announcements
• Records of agreement
• Follow-up to telephone conversations
• Transmittal of other technical documents
• Job applications

Some of these uses often are handled by email or memos, but you may attach your letter to an email. It all depends on your organizational setting, your purpose, and your audience.

Format

Letters differ from memos in a couple of important ways. First, letters have a salutation and a signature at the end. At the top of a business letter, you need to include the following:

• Date
• Your address
• Recipient’s name and address
• Subject line (when applicable)
• Salutation

However, when writing a letter on the job, your address is probably omitted since the company you work for will have standard letterhead that includes this information in another format.

Letters (see Figure 30) have a more formal structure than memos. The organization sections that follow should help you understand the format.

Orgnization for Good News

Good/neutral newsletters are typically written in three parts:

• Why: a statement of context and purpose
• What: description of the issues
• Action: a request that some action be taken.

Why

In the first paragraph, you must set up your context and purpose. You will present any good news up front in this paragraph.

What

The second part of the letter presents your objective. Are you trying to persuade, to inform, to advise, and/or to get your reader to act? In this section, you describe the situation that contextualizes your objective. You should also explain how your news benefits the reader. Be specific and address all questions you think the reader may have. Depending on the situation, you may have one body paragraph or several. Typically, persuasive letters require several body paragraphs so that you can clearly establish the situation necessitating action, what the necessary action is, and why it’s important to the reader to act.

Action

Your final paragraph should establish goodwill (see Goodwill in “Style”), include a call to action, and provide a way for the recipient to get back to you. Sometimes the action will be substantial (e.g., to write a recommendation or fix a problem), and sometimes all you will ask for is follow-up with questions or read an attachment. Whether the action is big or small, you always want to make your- self available to the reader if they require assistance or have questions. In other words, when you close your letter, you want your readers to feel good about you and your message, to know what you need them to do, if anything, and to be able to contact you via phone or email, if they want to follow up.

Organization for Bad News

Bad news letters are typically written in three parts:

• Common ground or buffer
• Why: the reasons/justifications and What: the bad news
• A goodwill ending

Common Ground

Because you want your audience to read your entire letter, including the reasoning behind the bad news, you need to begin with a neutral statement. This statement will establish “common ground” between you and your reader. In other words, it will be a statement that you and your readers can agree upon—a shared priority or common goal, for example—but must not mislead your readers into thinking that you’ll present good news. The goal is to make a connection with the reader, not to obscure the facts or minimize the significance of the situation.

Note: Some writers choose to omit the buffer statement. In some situations, and/or organizations, a buffer statement might be seen as condescending or trite. You must know your audience and practices of your organization to design an effective letter that accomplishes your purpose.

Why and What

You need to tactfully present the justification for and/or reasoning behind the bad news. Begin with pertinent, favorable information followed by more unfavorable facts. Because you are trying to prepare your readers for the bad news, the bad news should come after the justification/reasoning section, so it is clear how the bad news is related to circumstances that actually happened. You are presenting the justification/reasoning first so that it doesn’t appear to your reader that the bad news is coming out of nowhere. You also will want to state the bad news as positively as possible to maintain the goodwill of your readers. This section could be several paragraphs in length, depending on the situation.

Good Will Ending

You want to end on a positive note because, even if you have given bad news, you want your reader to see you positively. You could choose to share any of the following with your reader: appreciation, invitation to future action, alternative to the current circum- stance, clear statement of change or improvement, or willingness to help. Your goal is, as much as is appropriate in the situation, to establish reader benefit and close the letter with a feeling of goodwill.

Style

When writing a letter, many of the business communication conventions discussed in the “Style” chapter apply, including the following:

• Use direct language
• Incorporate “you” attitude
• Avoid exclusionary or sexist language
• Be careful of your tone
• Build goodwill