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Writing Effective
Business Letters - How to Organize Your Thoughts Before You
Write
By Alan Sharpe
Platinum Quality Author
Alan Sharpe is a
business-to-business direct mail copywriter and lead
generation consultant. Alan specializes in helping
businesses generate leads, close sales and retain customers
using ...
Article Word Count: 328 [View Summary] Comments (0)
Henry David Thoreau once apologized to a friend: "Please
excuse me for having written such a long letter, but I did
not have time to write a short one."
Your business letters, to be effective, must be organized,
clear, direct and short. Writing letters with these
qualities takes time (at first) and effort. Before you begin
writing the letter, organize what you want to say. The
simplest way to organize your thoughts is to arrange them
around three characteristics:
1. one or two main points arranged with the most important
point first
2. several examples to support each point
3. one or two comments on each example
EXAMPLE:
"Dear Tom,
"We need to make three major investments: computers,
software and training.
"COMPUTERS: Three more computers will increase our
productivity. We need two more computers in accounting and
one more in personnel. These computers will free up staff
for more important work. We can also use these computers for
word processing, since they come bundled with WordPerfect
and other productivity software. Prices for computers have
never been better than right now. If you buy within the next
month, we'll save up to $1,500.
"SOFTWARE: The second major investment we need to make is
software . . . [writer gives examples to support this second
point].
"TRAINING: The third major investment we need to make is
training . . . [writer gives examples to support this third
point]."
The writer would then conclude the letter by describing the
next steps that need to be taken.
Once you limit yourself to making only two or three points
per letter, and backing up those points with a sentence or
two, you discover that writing effective business letters
gets easier, and faster. Your readers find them easier and
faster to read as well.
If you need help making your business writing more
effective, give me a call, at 877 742-7732. On-site, online
and over the phone, I teach executives and managers how to
express themselves clearly, concisely and convincingly using
the spoken and written word.
About the author
Alan Sharpe, executive speech coach and business writing
trainer, is author of Speak Like a Leader: 101 Tips for
Mastering Your Public Speaking Skills. On-site, online and
over the phone, Alan teaches executives and managers how to
express themselves clearly, concisely and convincingly using
the written and spoken word. Receive a free tip like this
each week by subscribing to his public speaking and business
writing column, The Confident Communicator.
© 2007 Alan Sharpe.
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