• Know your purpose. Think about why you are writing the letter and what you hope to achieve by writing it. Decide what your main point will be.

• List all the relevant facts. Your letter will have maximum impact if you support your point with logically presented facts. Do any necessary research to gather information to back up your point.

• Know your audience. Analyzing your readers helps you decide what tone to take, what facts to include, and how you address the readers. Consider what the readers know, need to know, want to know, and what you want them to do. Show the readers what's in it for them or the organization.

• Generate ideas. Brainstorm by writing down all the ideas you can come up with pertaining to your topic. Ask yourself a series of questions such as: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Then, answer those questions. You can also create your own questions.

• Organize your ideas. Once you have your ideas, organize them into an outline. Here are 7 of the most common techniques you can use:

  • Chronological/Sequential
    Organize your ideas in the order in which they did happen, should happen, or will happen. The ideas must be in the proper order.

  • Cause and Effect
    Organize your ideas by showing what happened (cause) and what happened as a result (effect), or by showing what happened (effect) and why it happened (cause).

  • Spatial
    Organize your ideas according to spatial principles: top to bottom, bottom to top, side to side, etc. This strategy is useful when describing an item or a place.

  • Analysis/Classification
    Organize your ideas according to the parts or functions of an idea, item, or event.

  • Order of Importance
    Organize your ideas from most important to least important, or vice versa. Decide what ideas will be most important to your readers and which ideas support you main point. Use least-to-most important when you are building an argument. Use most-to-least important when readers might not read the entire letter.

  • Comparison and Contrast
    Organize your ideas by showing the similarities and/or differences between the items. Make sure you are using comparable characteristics.

  • Problem/Solution
    Organize your ideas by identifying the problem and then offering a solution or solution.

Once you have a plan, start writing quickly without editing until you have a complete draft. Remember, do not edit as you draft—it will slow you down.

• Follow your plan. To get started, take the first item on your outline and write that idea down in a clear and concise sentence. This sentence will tell the reader what the paragraph is about. Develop the idea by describing it and building on it sentence by sentence. Take the next idea and develop it into the next paragraph. Keep each paragraph to one idea.

• Language. Use language which matches the reader's knowledge and understanding. Choose short, simple words to ensure that the average reader interprets your message correctly. Use technical phrases when writing to a specific group or profession. Always avoid slang, local expressions, and clichés. Use jargon only when you know the word is appropriate for the intended reader or readers.

• Tone. Tone is the way a message sounds. Your letter's tone should reflect your personality and your relationship to the reader. Try to write naturally in a respectful, friendly way using more you words than me words. Your writing will sound more personal. Avoid humour—the comments may be misinterpreted.

• Sentence Length. As a guideline, keep your average sentence length to about 15 to 20 words and your maximum to about 30 words. Vary your sentence length. Use longer sentences to provide background information your readers will need in order to understand your point. Use shorter sentences to make the point.

• Paragraph Length. Generally, opening and closing paragraphs should be brief—less than six lines long. Keep paragraphs in the body of your letter under ten lines. Short paragraphs makes a letter more appealing and easier to read.

When you have a completed draft, put it aside for a while—overnight is best. When you come back to your draft, you'll be able to look at it with fresher, more objective eyes. Now you're ready to revise your copy.

• Check for Organization. Make sure your first paragraph mentions the purpose of your letter, the middle paragraphs present the material, and the last paragraph provides a closing instead of just stopping.

• Check for Completeness. Make sure you have provided all the information your readers will need, all the explanations they will need to understand your writing, and any additional points you should make.

• Check for Clarity. Clarify vague language by choosing more precise or specific wording.

• Eliminate Wordiness. If you can communicate the same idea in fewer words than you have used, do so. Eliminate every word you can without losing clarity or changing the meaning. Replace long words, with shorter ones; break long sentences into shorter ones; shorten long paragraphs or break them into two or three paragraphs.

• Eliminate Clichés. Omit old-fashioned words or phrases, or use their modern replacements.

• Eliminate Redundancy. Avoid repeating yourself by saying the same thing in two different ways. (e.g., Possible risks. True facts. Final conclusion. Brief summary. The room is blue in color. The meeting is at 10 a.m. in the morning.)

• Add Transitions. Use transitional words or phrases to move you from one idea to the next so your reader can see clearly how your ideas are connected. (e.g., but, yet, then, as, next, still, therefore, consequently, during, rather, instead, in short, for example, etc.)

Once you have produced the polished version of your letter, check it carefully for errors in spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation.

• Spelling. Make sure you have spelled the names of people and places correctly. Check words with silent letters, words that sound alike but are spelled differently, words that don't sound the way they are spelled, and words that are misspelled because they are mispronounced. Even if you use your computer's spell check, make sure you proofread. The spell checker won't catch a spelling mistake if the error results in a real word.
  
  Tip: To catch typos, try reading your copy backward, from the last word to the first. That way, you'll focus on how words look.

• Grammar. Make sure all sentences are complete. A complete sentence has a subject and a verb and also expresses a complete thought. Be sure that singular subjects have singular verbs, while plural subjects have plural verbs. Check for run-on sentences. Clearly separate your ideas by using proper punctuation. Check all verbs to be sure they are in the proper tense. If you are talking about something that happened in the present tense, all the verbs describing that event should be in the present tense—be consistent.

• Capitalization. Be sure to capitalize the first word of every sentence. Check to see if the first word of every quotation is capitalized. Capitalize the names of proper nouns: specific people, places, buildings, languages, nationalities, seasons, historical periods, organizations, religious terms, and initials.

• Punctuation. Be sure to end each sentence with a period, question mark, or exclamation point. Check for apostrophes in contractions and where needed to show ownership. Make sure you have begun and ended a speaker's direct words with quotation marks. Check to ensure you have used commas correctly, especially in a series of three or more items.

Types of Letters

There are 3 types of routine business letters you may have to write:
information, bad news, and persuasion.

1.  Information Letter

• used when requesting or sending facts
• used when conveying good news
• reason for writing or good news is in first paragraph
• provides details in next paragraph
• ends with a call for action

2.  Bad News Letter

• uses the indirect approach
• opens with a neutral idea
• provides facts and supporting evidence
• reason for writing (bad news) is presented next
• ends with a neutral close

3.  Persuasion Letter

• used to sell a product, service or idea to the reader
• opens with an attention-getter
• introduces the product, service or idea
• presents details
• offers benefits to the reader
• ends with a call for reaction

 2.  Date

• the date when the letter is written should appear several lines below the letterhead. (e.g., June 17, 200_)

 3.  Inside Address

• it is placed 4 lines below the date
• includes the recipient's name; title, if any; organization, if any; street address; city, province/state, and postal/zip code. If you are sending the letter outside the country, the addressee's country should be included

 4.  Salutation

• this is a greeting that begins a letter
• it is usually followed by a title and the reader's last name
• use a colon after the salutation
  (e.g., Dear Mr. Smith:)
• use a comma after the salutation for personal friends
  (e.g., Dear Susan,)
• if you do not know the name of the person, use a greeting that identifies the category of the person you are writing to
  (e.g., "Dear Customer", "Dear Office Manager")
• if you do not have a name or position, omit the salutation line and use the subject line only
• the terms "Dear Sir or Madam" or "To Whom It May Concern" are considered old-fashioned and should not be used

 5.  Subject Line

• indicates the main subject of letter
• usually introduced by "Re:", which is short for the word regarding
• optional in business or official letters

 6.  Body

• this is the complete text of the letter
• usually single spaced with double spacing between paragraphs
• opening paragraph is relatively short and introduces the letter
• middle paragraph(s) supports the opening and/or provides additional information
• final paragraph is short and serves as a summation, request, suggestion, or look to the future

 7.  Closing

• farewell word or phrase which indicates the end of the body
• appears two lines below the last line of the body
• only the first word is capitalized
  Formal: Yours truly, Very truly yours, Respectfully yours,
  Informal: Sincerely, Sincerely yours, Cordially, Cordially yours,
  Personal: Best wishes, Regards, Kindest regards, As always,

 8.  Signature Line

• in business or formal correspondence, the writer's full name appears directly below the signed name
• the writer's title appears directly below the printed name

 9.  Reference Initials

• placed two lines below the signature line, the reference initials identify who dictated or wrote the letter and who typed it (e.g., CP/eb)
• this practice is fading as many people type their own letters
• sometimes with or in place of the identifying initials, there is a file number to indicate how the document has been saved on computer (e.g., C: A&B/Letters/invoice)

10.  Enclosure Notation

• appears two lines below the reference initials when something else accompanies the letter
  (e.g., Enclosure; Encl.; 2 Encls.; Encls. (2); Attachment;
  Att.; 2 Att.)

11.  Copy Notation

• indicates to whom copies of the letter are being sent
  (e.g., cc: Susan Brown, Director of Sales)
• it is placed below the enclosure line

12.  Postscript

• a brief paragraph of additional content introduced by "P.S."
• postscripts are never used in business correspondence because they appear as an afterthought, indicating a lack of organization
• often used in marketing materials for emphasis or as a teaser to catch the reader's attention
• appears two lines below the last notation

Sample Letter