Business Letter Writing | Planning and Preparation

Business Letter Writing | Planning and Preparation

It is common experience that we plan ahead for all important matters as we cannot leave things to chance. A trip which is not well-organized irritates and causes fatigue. Similarly, an ill-planned letter can give rise to inconveniences, annoying the parties. So planning is very important in letter writing. The plan of a letter depends on the kind of situation you are writing for.

Every letter is written to meet a particular situation. In most cases, these situations are simple such as placing an order, quoting prices for one's products, asking for a catalogue and so on. Such letters are easy to handle as they need more or less a set pattern of letters with minor variations to meet specific requirements. But there are some letters which should be planned carefully.

If you regularly practise plan and preparation for writing your letters, you will be able to add grace and freshness even to your routine correspondence. But it is also very important to visualize the whole pattern of composition before you start writing any letter. If you gather some experience in this way, you will find that the plan of a letter is coming to you without much effort.

Remember that a letter is often the only contact of an organization with the outside world. And it depends on the impression that you create about yourself and your organization.

However, there are three kinds of letters such as the letters you initiate, the letters you write in reply to another, and the letters you write to follow up some communication. If you initiate the correspondence, your plan should take into account the following two factors.

(i) Your letter must immediately arouse the reader's interest in what you say.

(ii) It should mention clearly what action you wish him to take

In case of planning reply letters you must ensure that every point raised by the correspondent is dealt with much care. Anything you add must be related to what he wants. If you wish to say something entirely new and it is not related to the points raised by the correspondent, it is better to write another letter.

There are two types of follow up letters, and these letters are usually written:

(i) to confirm a telephonic, telegraphic, or an oral message, and

(ii) to remind the correspondent about something on which he has to take action.

The first type is simple and needs no special attention. The second type should be written with much tact and courtesy so that your reader cannot say that you are lazy and forgetful. Thank you!