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The main purpose of this mini-course is to provide you with
essential information about many of the key writing tasks
that most people encounter in their day-to-day lives.

I'm sure that you will find the information contained in the
Course invaluable in helping you with your daily writing tasks.

The Course is divided into seven (7) "bite size" Parts.

Here is what the Course covers:

Part 1: Essential Letter Writing Strategies And Tips

Part 2: Real-Life Templates To Kick-Start Your Writing Projects

Part 3: Writing Business Letters That Get The Job Done

Part 4: Recommendation Letters Demystified

Part 5: Pro Tips For Writing A Winning Resume

Part 6: Writing Resume Cover Letters That Work

Part 7: Secrets For Beating Writer's Block

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TIPS AND TRICKS FOR WRITING SUCCESS - PART 1 of 7

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Based on the feedback that I have been getting from visitors
to my writinghelp-central.com Web site, letter writing is
definitely the area where most people are looking for help or
guidance when it comes to day-to-day writing.

Over 55% of the visitors to our site are seeking some sort of
letter writing information or assistance. The following lists
the types of letters that people request information on, in
order of popularity:

1. recommendation letter
2. business letter
3. thank you letter
4. complaint letter
5. sales letter
6. cover letter
7. resignation letter

ESSENTIAL LETTER WRITING STRATEGIES AND TIPS

Here are a few practical letter-writing tips to help you when
writing that next letter:

1. KEEP IT SHORT AND TO THE POINT
Letters involving business (personal or corporate) should be
concise, factual, and focused. Try to never exceed one page
or you will be at risk of losing your reader. A typical letter
page will hold 350 to 450 words. If you can't get your point
across with that many words you probably haven't done enough
preparatory work. If necessary, call the recipient on the
phone to clarify any fuzzy points and then use the letter
just to summarize the overall situation.

2. MAKE IT CLEAR, CONCISE, AND LOGICAL
Before sitting down to write, make a brief point-form outline
of the matters you need to cover in the letter. Organize those
points into a logical progression that you can use as your
guide as you write the letter. The logical blocks of the letter
should be: 1. introduction/purpose, background/explanation,
summary/conclusion, action required statement. Use this outline
process to organize your approach and your thoughts, and to
eliminate any unnecessary repetition or redundancy.

3. FOCUS ON THE RECIPIENT'S NEEDS
While writing the letter, focus on the information requirements
of your audience, the intended addressee. If you can, in your
"mind's eye", imagine the intended recipient seated across a
desk or boardroom table from you while you are explaining the
subject of the letter. What essential information does that
person need to know through this communication? What will be
their expectations when they open the letter? Have you addressed
all of these issues?

4. USE SIMPLE AND APPROPRIATE LANGUAGE
Your letter should use simple straightforward language, for
clarity and precision. Use short sentences and don't let
paragraphs exceed three or four sentences. As much as possible,
use language and terminology familiar to the intended recipient.
Do not use technical terms and acronyms without explaining them,
unless you are certain that the addressee is familiar with them.

5. USE SHORT SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS
Keep your sentences as short as possible, and break the text
up into brief paragraphs. Ideally, a paragraph should not
exceed two to three sentences. This will make the letter more
easily readable, which will entice the recipient to read it
sooner, rather than later.

6. REVIEW AND REVISE IT
Do a first draft, and then carefully review and revise it. Put
yourself in the place of the addressee. Imagine yourself
receiving the letter. How would you react to it? Would it
answer all of your questions? Does it deal with all of the key
issues? Are the language and tone appropriate? Sometimes
reading it out loud to one's self can help. When you actually
"hear" the words it is easy to tell if it "sounds" right or not.

7. CHECK SPELLING AND GRAMMAR
A letter is a direct reflection of the person sending it, and
by extension, the organization that person works for. When the
final content of the letter is settled, make sure that you run
it through a spelling and grammar checker. To send a letter
with obvious spelling and grammatical errors is sloppy and
unprofessional. In such cases, the recipient can't really be
blamed for seeing this as an indication as to how you (and/or
your organization) probably do most other things.

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TIPS AND TRICKS FOR WRITING SUCCESS - PART 2 of 7

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At the end of the last session I gave you some links to
what I call "fully-formatted real-life templates".

I believe that this "final product" type of template is
essential whenever you're writing something, and is a key
element for fast-tracking your writing process.

Later, Part 7 of the course goes into more detail on the
benefits of using "real-life templates". The purpose of
Part 2 is mostly to explain what these templates are.

So, let's get on with Part 2...

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Real-Life Templates Will Kick-Start Your Writing Projects
(c) 2003, Shaun Fawcett
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At some point along the way, most of us have used what are
commonly called "fill-in-the-blank" writing templates. We
might have used them to write a letter, format an essay, or
set-up a resume or CV.

You know what I'm talking about here. It's those form letter
templates that you see in many writing texts and workbooks.

For example, in the case of a letter, a "fill-in-the-blank"
template would look something like this:

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Dear [NAME OF RECIPIENT]:

This is to advise you that your probation period in the
position [POSITION NAME] expired on [DATE].

The [NAME OF REVIEW COMMITTEE] met on [DATE OF MEETING] and
determined that your probationary appointment was successful,
and that you should be immediately appointed to [NAME OF
POSITION] [NAME OF ORGANIZATIONAL UNIT].

Accordingly, this is to inform you that effective [DATE OF
APPOINTMENT] you are officially appointed to the position
of [NAME OF POSITION] for an initial period of [NUMBER OF
YEARS/MONTHS]. Terms and conditions of your employment are
covered by [OFFICIAL CONTRACT NAME/NUMBER].

Would you please report as soon as possible to [NAME OF
OFFICIAL], [TITLE OF OFFICIAL] in the [OFFICIAL NAME OF
HR GROUP] so that the details of your appointment may be
properly documented.

Congratulations [NAME OF APPOINTEE]. All of us at [COMPANY
OR ORGANIZATION NAME] look forward to working with you in
the future.

Sincerely,
[NAME AND TITLE OF ORIGINATOR]

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Although this "fill-in-the-blank" approach can work, it has
a number of shortcomings as follows:

- Because of their generic nature, they tend to generalize
so much that they look like a computer generated form letter.

- They don't provide specific information on how a
professional would properly fill in the required information
[BLANKS].

- They don't provide mental stimulation or show how a
professional might word the letter in a specific real-life
context.

- The content is typically watered down to try and cover
every possible situation.

- Thus, they are virtually useless for 98% of real-life
situations, since they lack real-life content.

On the other hand, here's what a "real-life" template
would look like for a similar situation:

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Dear Jessica:

This is to advise you that your probation period in the
position Customer Service Agent (Temporary) expired on
November 30, 2001.

The Staffing Review Committee met late last week and
determined that your probationary appointment was successful,
and that you should therefore be immediately appointed as
Customer Service Agent (Ongoing).

Accordingly, this is to inform you that effective December
1, 2001 you are officially appointed to the position of
Customer Service Agent in the Customer Support Group for
an initial period of 36 months. Terms and conditions of
your employment are covered by the Customer Service Group
Employment Agreement.

Would you please report as soon as possible to Jim Jackson,
Chief of Human Resources, so that the details of your
appointment may be properly documented.

Congratulations Jessica! All of us here at MedWay Systems
Inc. look forward to continuing to work with you in the
future.

Sincerely,

Sharon Smithson
Manager, Customer Support Group

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Clearly, the "model" that most of us would rather work
with, if we had to write a similar letter, is definitely
the second one, the "real-life" template.

You can relate to it. It talks about real-life people in
a real-life situation that you can identify with. And, you
get to see exactly how a professional worded it.

There are other advantages to "real-life" templates.

FULLY-FORMATTED FINAL VERSIONS

"Real-life" templates are fully-formatted as final documents
so that you can see exactly how they looked when they were
sent out in a "real-life" situation. They don't look like
some kind of "draft" form letter.

CONTENT WITH VALUE

Working with "real-life" templates, it is much easier to
adapt them to YOUR actual situations because they give you
visual and intellectual cues that you can relate to.

Naturally, when you see how a copywriter or consultant has
dealt with a "real-life" scenario, in terms of word choice,
context, and punctuation, it is much easier to adapt to the
real-life situation that you are writing for. In that way,
the actual content has value.

EASY TO WORK WITH

"Real-life" templates are just as easy to work with as other
templates. You simply load them into your word processing
program and edit and adjust them to fit your own spefic
situation. Presto! You have a fully formatted real-life
letter ready to be printed and sent out in the mail.

You also have the comfort of knowing that what you are
sending has already been used successfully in other
"real-life" situations.

BOTTOM LINE

With real-life templates, it is much easier to find an
adaptable "fit" for the situation you are writing for.
Not only do they give you the final format of a document,
their content provides an excellent real-life sample and
gives food-for-thought to assist you in the writing process.

Now I ask you , would you rather work from a
"fill-in-the-blanks" generic template or, a fully-formatted
"real-life" template?

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TIPS AND TRICKS FOR WRITING SUCCESS - PART 3 of 7

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This is the Part 3 installment of the mini writing help
tutorial that you recently subscribed for.

In the last session we looked at the many advantages of
"real-life templates" over generic fill-in-the-blanks models.
Now we'll look at how to write effective business letters.

Here's Part 3 of your mini-course...

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Writing Business Letters That Get The Job Done
?2003, Shaun Fawcett
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Despite the widespread use of e-mail in commerce today,
traditional business letters are still the main way that
the majority of businesses officially communicate with their
customers and other businesses.

This is especially true when businesses want to formalize an
agreement or an understanding. So far, emails are great for
all of the preparatory work, but a formal business letter is
still most often needed to "seal the deal".

There are two basic categories of business letters: business
to business, and business to customer.

BUSINESS TO BUSINESS LETTERS

Most business to business letters are written to confirm
things that have already been discussed among officials in
meetings, on the telephone, or via e-mail.

Can you imagine the letters that would have to go back and
forth to cover all of the questions and possibilities that
can be covered in a one-hour meeting, a half-hour phone call,
or a few quick e-mails?

The main purpose of a typical business letter is to formalize
the details that were arrived at in those discussions, and to
provide any additional information that was agreed upon.

Over the years, certain general standards have evolved in the
business world that the vast majority of businesses use in
drafting their business to business correspondence.

BUSINESS TO CUSTOMER LETTERS

There are many different types of business to customer letters.
They include: sales and marketing letters, information letters,
order acknowledgement letters, order status letters, collection
letters, among others.

As with business to business letters, over the years certain
general standards have evolved in the business world that the
vast majority of businesses use in drafting letters to
existing and potential customers.

Of course, going in the other direction are customer to
business letters. These include: order letters, order status
inquiry letters, complaint letters, and others.

Since these are customer-generated letters, there is no
particular expectation that they follow any particular letter-
writing standard. Typically, they are handled just like any
other piece of personal correspondence.

BUSINESS LETTER WRITING TIPS

Here are a few tips I have picked up while writing literally
hundreds of business letters over the past 20+ years. This is
a slightly modified version of the tips included in my eBook,
"Instant Home Writing Kit".

LIMIT THEM TO ONE PAGE
By definition, business letters should be short and to the
point, preferably one page in length. Studies have found that
busy business people do not like to read beyond the first
page, and will actually delay reading longer letters.

RELEGATE TECHNICAL DETAILS TO ATTACHMENTS
Often, it is necessary to include detailed technical
information as part of a business letter package. In such
cases, use the main letter as a cover letter that lists and
briefly explains the attached (or enclosed) documents.

KEEP THEM FORMAL AND FACTUAL
Generally speaking, the tone and content of business letters
should be formal and factual. Feelings and emotions do not
have a place in business letters.

CAREFULLY PLAN YOUR LETTER
Before writing the letter, take a few minutes to list all of
the specific points you need to cover. Sometimes it may even
mean a call to the recipient or his/her company to confirm a
specific point. Remember, the purpose of the letter is to tie
up all of the details on the subject at hand, so that more
letters won't have to be written back and forth.

BE CUSTOMER FRIENDLY
When writing directly to customers, always focus on their
needs and their perspective. Put yourself in their position
and imagine what it would be like receiving your letter.
Everyone can do this, since we are all customers of some
other business in some part of our lives.

USE NON-DISCRIMINATORY LANGUAGE
Make sure that you avoid language that is specific to gender,
race, or religion in all business letters, either to other
businesses, or to customers. For example, use "workforce"
instead of "manpower", or "chairperson" rather than "chairman".
Most style guides contain detailed lists of the offensive
terms and some suggested substitutes.