Hart May Debra - Everyday Letters for Busy People, Rev Ed: Hundreds of Samples You Can Adapt at a Moments Notice

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Table of Contents

To Debras husband,
Mark,
and to Reginas grandmother,

Josephine,
a devoted letter writer.

INTRODUCTION

Why Read This Book?

Many books give you advice about how to write a good letter. A lot of books even offer sample letters from which you can borrow lines or use in their entirety. This book, however, not only offers advice and lots of sample letters, it gives you tips and samples that fit realistic, familiar occasions for writing a letterfrom personal business (such as expressing a complaint, writing to the editor of a publication, or inquiring about insurance) to social concerns (such as making an announcement, expressing regret, or extending an invitation).

This book also helps you answer one of the most pressing questions in this age of electronic communication: When is it appropriate, or perhaps more worthwhile, to send electronic mail instead of a letter? We not only answer this question but supply you with sample e-mail messages designed to engage their recipients and get results. In fact, all of the samples in this book were crafted not to be flowery or clever, but to help you accomplish your purpose for writing in the first place. We figure that if youre taking the time to pull a letter together (or just to find the right ready-made letter), you want it to be effective.

Beyond that, if writing is a task you find challenging or dont enjoy, youve picked the right book. This book offers much more than samples, which, lets face it, may not always work for you; it provides suggestions that can help you fly solo. When you need to write all or just a part of a letter or e-mail message on your own, this book can help in four ways:

1. It provides templates, or step-by-step guidelines, for composing different types of letters or e-mails. Whatever your situation, the corresponding template can help you decide how to begin, develop, and end a truly effective message.

2. Marginal notes next to each sample letter or e-mail help you see how the sample conforms to a particular template.

3. Checklists help you make sure youve covered aspects critical to succeeding with each type of letter or e-mail.

4. A simple five-step formula helps you quickly decidebefore you begin writingwhat you want your letter or e-mail to accomplish and what the recipient will most want to read.

Please note that all of the names, addresses, zip codes, phone numbers, and scenarios used in the samples in this book are fictitious. Only the addresses of U.S. government agencies are real. (Names of government officials, however, are not.) Also note that the sample letters appear in the format appropriate for stationery without letterhead. When you use letterhead, omit your name and address if the sample directs you to include them.

Whether you decide to use parts of the samples that this book provides or start from scratch, the advice that follows can help you get the most out of the time you spend writing a letter or typing an e-mail.

CHAPTER 1

When Is a Letter the Best Way to Communicate?

Hardly anyone writes letters anymore. Most of us, when we need to voice a complaint, express appreciation, or handle almost any personal business matter, either pick up the phone or log into our e-mail account. Typically, placing a call takes less time and effort than sitting down to compose a letter. Whats more, e-mail has all but replaced letter-writing, and even phone calls, as the standard way to communicate quickly with customer service departments, product manufacturers, government entities, and organizations of all sorts. In fact, to instantly post what we need to say, we can usually just click a Contact us button on these organizations Websites.

Social situations, too, seem to simply require a telephone call or a text message. And what about sending an e-card, an e-invitation, or a social announcement by e-mail? At the most, a regular greeting card is enough, isnt it? After all, hardly a social situation exists for which we cant find a card these days. But before you click on that Send button or visit the local card shop, here are a few things to consider.

The changing status of letters

The swiftness and ease of e-mails and phone calls, not to mention the fact that they dont require postage, seem to have diminished the role of letter-writing in modern life. Job seekers now transmit resumes and thank-you notes via the Internet; family members send one another e-greetings for holidays, special occasions, or just to say Hi; brides and grooms broadcast rehearsal night details with the help of mass e-mails. Indeed, e-mail, pagers, text messaging, faxes, and phones have taken the hassle and cost out of many a task.

On the other hand, the popularity of electronic communication has also given letter-writing a newfound privileged status. In some situations, no electronic message says business the way a signed, carefully crafted memo on official letterhead can. Nor does e-mail express emotion and personality the way our penmanship and personal stationery can. What we gain in formality and artistry, we sometimes lose in convenience.

Here are some pointers to help you determine when a letter or e-mail is better than a phone calland when that old-fashioned letter may be the best thing of all!

The advantages of putting your message in writing

For starters, handling personal business by phone doesnt always work. In some situations, letters or e-mails are more practical.

One phone call often becomes several, as youre passed from one person (or worse, voice-mail message) to the next, stating your need or complaint multiple times. Then you wait for a return call from that one person, who is the only one allowed to help you (and shes out of the office...).

In some situations, and with some organizations regardless of the situation, no number of phone calls will result in the action you need. Government entities, for instance, often require a form or letter to document the issue at hand prior to their taking any action.

If youre in any situation that requires documenting what youve said and the responses youve received, its handy to have hard copies or electronic files on your side. For instance, you may need to track what a company promised about an order that was shipped too late.

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