djfgiERIO
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 Posted: Fri 10:42, 25 Mar 2011 Post subject: Cheap Max 2011 How to Write Better Business Letter |
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OPENING PARAGRAPH
Writing business letters may be one of the best skills a business person can possess, especially during these times when few people possess it. The following tips will help you to construct better business letters. You can also adapt these principles to write better business e-mails, in terms of both format, style and tone.
Since the principle point of your business letter is to grab and keep the reader’s attention,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], you’ll need to focus on the opening, the first (and sometimes only) opportunity you have to grab the recipient’s attention. The opening also sets the tone for the entire letter, so it must be as strong and characteristic as possible.
Writing business letters is a forgotten art. The Internet has made us lazy writers. With a few keystrokes, we can kick off a short e-mail without thinking much about content, much less formatting. Have you ever reviewed your own e-mails and discovered misspellings, incomplete sentences, formatting mistakes, and grammatical errors? Usually we think nothing about how our lazy writing negatively affects our e-mails; other people e-mail us the same type of junk all the time. But, still, writing lousy e-mails should not give us the excuse to be lazy writers all the time, online or offline.
DO write like talk. This doesn’t mean using informal slang or profanity, but why lapse into business speak when it’s trite and boring? Chances are, you aren’t a 19th century British gentleman, so don’t write like one! Use a conversation, yet respectful, tone and try to phrase things similarly to how you’d actually say them.
COMPONENTS AND FORMATTING
The style of formatting will dictate how these elements are situated on the page. The three most common formatting styles are:
SEMI-BLOCK: Exactly like modified block, except each paragraph is indented, not left-justified.
This is the meat of the letter, where you’ll fully explain the ideas introduced in the opening. It’s easy to lose momentum here, but this part must be every bit as strong as the opening.
DO get straight to the point. Your recipient doesn’t need a bunch of unnecessary info., especially not right up front. If it doesn’t pertain to or bores them, they’ll just stop reading.
MODIFIED BLOCK: The opening,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], body and closing paragraphs are left-justified and single-spaced, but the date, closing and salutation are center-aligned.
DON’T start with cliché phrases like “I am writing or “With regards This simply appears that you don’t know where to start. The real message won’t start until after those phrases, so why not eliminate the unnecessary and uncreative words?
BODY
DON’T get longwinded. Keep the opening short and to-the-point, use the best words possible, and never make the reader work for the point of the letter.
Regardless of which style you choose, you’ll also need to consider the font; your choice is important, as fancy fonts are sometimes unreadable. The most commonly used and widely accepted font is Times New Roman,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], size 12. It’s readable, professional, and universally used for business letters. It’s not outside the realm of possibility, however, to take liberties here; you can really use any readable font (Arial, Verdana, Helvetica), but always consider what your recipient would like to see.
Date
Recipient’s name and address
Salutation
Opening paragraph
Body
Closing paragraph
Closing
Your name and address
DO use strong, active verbs. This keeps the focus on the reader and makes the letter far more interesting. For instance, instead of writing “this offer is being extended to you for a brief period of time,” try “we’re briefly extending this offer to you.” See how much easier that is?
All business letters are comprised of the following elements, in this order:
DON’T lose th
BLOCK: Each part of the letter is left-justified, and the text is single-spaced, except double-spaced paragraph breaks.
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