101 – Letter Writing Basics

a little background

In my senior year of high school, my English teacher did allow me to graduate despite failing grades on my final exam because she did express that even summer school couldn’t help me … so … i feel for the many people i work with who write letters that are almost impossible to read because they’re trying to keep it simple and/or use the “cave man” style of writing sometimes mentioned on our Talkshoe discussions. That style seems best reserved for Notices; writing letters to a man or woman in that style is likely to get you categorized as a fruit loop of the sort your recipient is not likely to respond to;

How To

 The following is a description of the way i did overcome much of my writing disability  and eventually did learn to write more concise letters.

Purpose: I believe the purpose of every letter should be fully and concisely expressed with each paragraph focused on only that one purpose; if you wish to discuss more than one idea with the same man or woman, you should write an entirely separate letter … to comingle two or more purposes in a single letter does cause the letter to lose its emphasis (and does risk contradiction)

1) i believe it’s important to fully vent/write what i wish to say to void myself of as much emotion as possible in the first draft of a letter. i just keep writing until my emotions become stale, otherwise i have a real tough time with the rest of the process;

2) in the second draft – i merge every similar category of thought into independent, stand alone paragraphs;

3) in the 3rd draft … i strip all paragraphs of any language which may distract from the original purpose of the letter and i use Etymology Online to verify the meaning of the remaining words;

4) in the fourth draft i reorganize the paragraphs into the most logical sequence [:-)]using the same format i do in redress related writings; that being a) identifying the subject/purpose of the letter, b) listing the relevant facts i wish the reader to focus on and c) the act/remedy i seek/wish of the intended recipient;

5) i repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 until it does seem complete and then i leave it alone for at least 6 hours, at which point i repeat steps 2, 3 and 4;

I have found keeping the jury in mind to be a great way to stay focused only [Cf.  solely] on the primary purpose of the letter; remember that either you or the recipient of the letter may someday present your letter to a jury as evidence.

Above all … Make No Threats

Remember; you are writing to another man or woman … have respect for their time and the position they must maintain due to their job description; always consider the very likely possibility that your frustration simply exists because you communicate with a man or woman with no authority to settle/resolve the matter you write them about, which is why my first goal is usually to seek out that [wo]man with said authority.

Tools

If you wish to write better, you must develop a research habit of reading comparative material to that which you wish to write about.

For Example, here is a search for “correspondence” on Google Images:

Which did yield the following within it’s results:
http://religionmanuals.tpub.com/14227/css/14227_49.htm

Reading other people’s material about a particular idea is a great way to learn the lingo of a particular subject matter, so long as you only use words you have researched.

Happy Writing   = )

Today, 9 April 2017, i did watch the following video and now realize how important it is to talk and write like Tarzan . . .  LOL