Corey Sandler - 1001 Business Letters for All Occasions: From Interoffice Memos and Employee Evaluations to Company Policies and Business Invitations - Templates for Every Situation

1001

Business Letters
for All Occasions

From Interoffice Memos and Employee Evaluations
to Company Policies and Business Invitations
Templates for Every Situation

COREY SANDLER and JANICE KEEFE

Copyright 2008 by Word Association, Inc.
All rights reserved.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any
form without permission from the publisher; exceptions are
made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.

Published by Adams Media, an F+W Publications Company
57 Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322. U.S.A.
www.adamsmedia.com

ISBN 10: 1-59869-454-5
ISBN 13: 978-1-59869-454-3
eISBN: 978-1-44051-472-2

Printed in the United States of America.

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Dedication

To our fathers, Herb and Dan, who conducted their business in style.

Dear Reader,

Thank you for your patronage. Were glad to have you as a customer and we look forward to meeting your needs now and in the future.

We are pleased to provide you with this book, which includes 1,001 business letters and e-mails that you can use in whole or in part, or as the model for your own communication.

Some of you may be familiar with another book weve written, 1001 Letters for AllOccasions, (Adams Media) which concentrates on personal letters to friends with a smattering of basic letters to employers, schools, and government agencies.

This new book is strictly business.

What does that mean? A personal letter is intended to convey feelings, deliver news, or deal with matters within the family or amongst friends. You can be chatty, you can be deeply informal, and you can even write for no other purpose than to say hello.

On the other hand, a business letter is designed with a specific goal: to sell something, to buy something, to inquire about an available job, to send information on a company policy, or to address a community need.

When you get down to business, your writing should be direct and to the point: here is why I am writing, here are the specifics of my request or my offer, and here is what I am asking you to do.

That doesnt mean that you have to write like a lawyer or a bureaucrat. Business communication can (and should) be clear and easy to comprehend. And theres nothing wrong with being polite and friendly in most communications.

In general, the best letters are written versions of what you might say to a person if you were sitting across the from him or her. When you are seeking to communicate directly with someone, you can refer to yourself as I and to your reader as you. Thats engaging and natural.

If you are committing your company or organization to a policy or an offer, it is usually best to use we or the name of the business entity.

Here is an example that includes all of these voices:

I am writing on behalf of Consolidated Intergalactic to offer you the position of executive vice president for transportation services. In addition to the salary offer we discussed when you visited our offices, we offer a generous range of benefits.

Im hoping you will accept the job and join our team soon. Please contact me at (727) 555-0101 soon to discuss your plans.

And please dont refer to yourself as one. Over time, one has found this to be a very weak way to construct a phrase. Its an archaic and distracting construction.

It is also important to find an active voice. You have violated our policy on vacation time is straight and to the point and gets a lot more attention than, It has been determined that company policy on vacation time has not been followed.

Again, imagine that the addressee of your letter is sitting across the from you. Be direct and polite, but dont hide information behind inactive or reflexive phrases.

In this book we have created a very fictional company called Consolidated Intergalactic, a maker of geegaws, doodads, and thingamabobs located in metropolitan Lumbertown. What are geegaws, doodads, and thingamabobs and where is Lumbertown?

It doesnt matter. Even with 1,001 letters, there is no way we could possibly include everytype of product or service as well as small towns, huge cities, and everything in between. Instead,we have written this book with the idea that readers can easily modify them to apply to realproducts or services in their own place of work or residence.

Weve also kept to a minimum the salutations, address lines, and closing lines for letters. There are very many choices here. In our opinion, though, you can never go wrong by erring on the side of propriety and politeness. Let your letter put your best foot forward.

You can use the index to find a letter that fits your needs most closely, or you can read the book from cover to cover; Consolidated Intergalactic and its suppliers, partners, employees, and customers are a pretty interesting lot. You can think of 1001 Business Lettersfor All Occasions as an epistolary novela story told in the form of lettersand absorb and use the phrases and terms in your own work.

Oh, and feel free to send us a letter with your comments and suggestions. We prefer e-mails: send them to us at letters@econoguide.com or visit our Web site at www.econoguide.com.

Thank you.
Corey Sandler and Janice Keefe

Contents

Acknowledgments

We thank our publishing partners at Adams Media, including Gary Krebs, Andrea Norville, and Katrina Schroeder.

Thanks once again to Ed Claflin for charting the course.

And as always, thanks to you, our reader. We are gathered together in hopes of a successful and fulfilling business relationship.

Introduction

Who Writes Letters Anymore?

Almost all of us put pen to paperor more likely, fingers to keyboardall the time. Although we have entered into an era where verbal communication by telephone is very common, there are still many areas where the formalities of recorded words are required.

We need to write or respond to legal notices from employers, government agencies, and other entities. And in many situations we need to put it down in writing when we challenge an order or seek confirmation of an important action.

The fact that the medium may have changed from a handwritten or typed letter to a computer-generated printout or a totally electronic exchange of e-mails does not mean that our business communication should be any less precise or clear.