A friend of mine complained to me recently about a letter he received from a colleague. Apparently, the colleague’s note was much too long and was unclear about what the desired action was, much less the desired result.
I could relate. So many of the letters we receive are poorly written. The best thing you can do with them, it seems, is put them in the recycle bin.
According to an Inc. magazine article, poor writing skills are costing companies $3.1 billion annually in remedial writing training—$2.9 billion of which is being spent on current employees, and not new hires.
In an increasingly global marketplace, the need for effective written communication becomes more compelling. Through your clarity, you can help your clients, colleagues, company, and yourself become more successful.
Follow these tips when writing your business letters:
- Be able to state, in one sentence, what you want the reader to know or do as a result of reading your letter. For an example of a point of knowledge, “The new policies go into effect after Labor Day.” For an example of a requested action, “Please complete and submit your draft by noon tomorrow.”
- Think situation-target-proposal. For example, “We are running low on supplies (situation). We have new hires joining us in two weeks, and we must make sure they have the supplies we need (target). I suggest we visit the office supply store this week to refill our supplies (proposal).”
- Keep your letter at no more than 250 words. Admittedly, this figure is arbitrary. You could easily set your word quota at 300 words, or something of that range. But it must be a smaller number.
- Make clear if you need or want a written response. This is not to be confused as the return receipt that often accompanies an e-mail note.
- Be mindful of your tone. It’s easy to blow your stack in a note, and tell someone where to get off. No doubt, you’d feel better if you could let that colleague have it. But as a leader (possibly the leader), it’s more important to keep your tone.
Consider these tips the next time you must write a business letter.
