.
Writing and Structuring
. Checking that the letter meets the writer’s and reader’s needs. Many people would say that style should be individual. This is true. It is very difficult to write to committee standards as letters go out of date very quickly and sound impersonal to the reader. On the other hand, a good writing style must primarily be designed to help the reader understand and act. In the end, the good letter is read and the bad letter gathers dust in the tray. In all organizations, we judge our writing by the results achieved.
Planning
Even a short letter needs to be planned in advance. The extra thought before putting pen to paper is likely to help save your time in writing and the reader’s time in reading. It will also ensure you achieve the objective of the letter.
Why?
It is easy when writing the routine letter to forget precisely what your purpose is. Letters are normally written for one or more of the following reasons:
. To give information and ideas
. To get a specific action or series of actions
. To persuade or sell
. To put a situation right
. To clarify a situation
. To create a good impression of ourselves and our organization Most letters contain one or more of these objectives. Be very clear which is the most important. If you do not have a precise understanding of what you want to achieve, then you will fail and the reader will not understand your letter. All business letters should create a good impression. It is also worth asking: Why write a letter? Perhaps a telephone call would be better in that it can provide instant feedback. A letter, on the other hand, can provide clear details and can be kept as a record.
Who?
To whom are you writing? It helps to know as much about the reader as possible. If you are writing to people whom you have never met, you should still be able to build up a picture of them. You should find out:
. How much they know about you and the situation.
. What is their level of understanding?
. Their attitudes and feelings towards your organization.
. Their objectives. What do they want?
. Their authority. Are they in a position to respond?
How?
It is important to think about how you want the letter to sound. It is closely related to the purpose and who you are writing to. Letters used to be very formal. Styles have now changed, become far less formal and closer to the way we would speak. If the image of your organization is to be friendly, professional and efficient, then that must be reflected in the tone of the letter. It is worth looking at the letters we receive and thinking about the image that they present. We all have individual styles which reflect our background and personality. It is also important to think not just how we like to express things but how our readers would like to see them expressed. That is the test of good communication.
When?
Letters often take longer to write than we think. There is time for writing, typing, checking and ending. Be realistic about this. Leave time if necessary to rewrite it if you feel the end product is unlikely to achieve its objective. It is also important to take the reader’s timetable into account. When are they most likely to read it? How quickly can they respond?
What?
After getting the answer to the above questions, you can then decide what to write. Collect
relevant facts, details, names, dates, past history and check them. Then make a list of the
“relevant” items and put them in sequence.
A very simple method is to do a pattern plan or spider diagram.
Example:
Imagine you are writing to a theatre to book some tickets. Telephone bookings are not accepted. You have to ensure all the details are correct.
.
Take a plain sheet of paper and write the subject in the centre.
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