{"id":2816,"date":"2019-08-05T12:33:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T18:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/?p=2816"},"modified":"2019-08-05T07:43:37","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T13:43:37","slug":"notes-on-writing-formal-business-letters-and-emails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/notes-on-writing-formal-business-letters-and-emails\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes on Writing Formal Business Letters and Emails"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a few posts, I&#8217;m doing a write-up of my notes following a Lynda course. This course is less than 40 min, but I thought it had some good tips, shown below.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lynda.com\/player\/embed\/679077?fs=3&amp;w=560&amp;h=315&amp;ps=paused&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=embed+video&amp;utm_campaign=ldc-website&amp;utm_content=vid-679077\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\"><strong><a title=\"Learn how to write formal business letters and emails that are short, clear, and to the point.\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lynda.com\/Writing-tutorials\/Writing-Formal-Business-Letters-Emails\/608988-2.html\">Writing Formal Business Letters and Emails<\/a><\/strong> by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lynda.com\/author\/197\">Tom Geller<\/a><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5>Define Your Goals<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>First a short-term goal (or want), then the longer term goal.<\/li>\n<li>Short-term goal is something you want someone to do right away. Action items; &#8220;Call me at&#8230;&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Long-term goal is what you want them to do for a bigger purpose. &#8220;I&#8217;m looking for help on&#8230;.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>Research<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Researching your topic:\u00a0<\/strong>For instance,\u00a0if replying to a job description use the language in the job post in your correspondence.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Researching your correspondent:<\/strong> Maybe you can find someone specific to send your correspondence to by searching for people on LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.\u00a0When reaching out, &#8220;My research shows you&#8217;re the best person to contact. If not&#8230;&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>For Tone<\/h5>\n<p>The presenter suggested using a website like bab.la for phrases, especially in other languages.<\/p>\n<h5>Getting to the Point<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Put the goal up front<\/li>\n<li>Remove confusing details<\/li>\n<li>Rearrange and check punctuation<\/li>\n<li>Cut out unnecessary words<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>Phrasal Verbs vs Direct Verbs; Idioms<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Be direct.\u00a0The\u00a0second phrases below are indirect and passive:\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;I analyzed&#8230;&#8221; vs &#8220;I looked over&#8230;&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I hope to&#8230;&#8221; vs &#8220;I had been hoping&#8230;&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Idioms: Just write it out. Idioms can be misunderstood or misinterpreted.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>Follow-Up:\u00a0TAP &#8211; Timeline, Alternatives, Peskiness<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Timeline<\/strong>: Do you need to follow up because you need an answer?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Alternatives<\/strong>: Can you get this info from another source?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Peskiness<\/strong>: What will be the downside of following up?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Remember: Don&#8217;t assume malice or argue.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s an example: <em>I&#8217;m afraid I didn&#8217;t get a response to our letter on June 15 about booth space. A prompt reply would be appreciated as we are trying to finalize our travel arrangements. Thank you.<\/em><\/p>\n<h5>Rule of Thumb for Following Up<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Don&#8217;t follow through using multiple venues. Don&#8217;t follow up through email, phone, LinkedIn, etc.<\/li>\n<li>If you send an email and get no reply, it&#8217;s OK to ask via one other outlet if someone got your email. But don&#8217;t bombard them on LinkedIn <strong>and<\/strong> Twitter <strong>and<\/strong> phone, etc.<\/li>\n<li>This was a tip for me, because I had been thinking the more the better!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>Continuing the Conversation<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Keep note of other email addresses, and other people in a CC.<\/li>\n<li>People can be generous, if they&#8217;re asked. Just be polite.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>3 Takeaways<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Be concise<\/li>\n<li>Cooperate<\/li>\n<li>There&#8217;s a person on the other end<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>Final Tip<\/h5>\n<p>If you ever find yourself stuck with what to say, try recording yourself speaking then transcribing your message.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a few posts, I&#8217;m doing a write-up of my notes following a Lynda course. This course is less than 40 min, but I thought it had some good tips, shown below. Writing Formal Business Letters and Emails by Tom Geller &nbsp; Define Your Goals First a short-term goal (or want), then the longer term &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/notes-on-writing-formal-business-letters-and-emails\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Notes on Writing Formal Business Letters and Emails&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,1,343],"tags":[16,422,503,438],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2816"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2861,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816\/revisions\/2861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}