The Psychology of a Good Letter
Last week I received a letter from a very respected individual who was asking for my advice with counseling a behavior issue. At first, I was impressed. This very busy person had taken the time to write a letter on actual paper and then put it in the United States Mail. That isn’t something that usually happens. More often, I get emails or voice messages. So, before I even read the letter I decided I would go out of my way to help.
Then I started reading the letter…
Dear Lord, how could anyone send such a mess?
This was an extremely intellegent person, but he had become so unaccustomed to putting a pen to paper that his message was all but lost in the writing.
So, I thought it would be a good idea to review some of the tenets of good letter writing to make sure I was communicating clearly. Then I decided to share with you in case you were a bit rusty as well.
Here goes.
- Use complete sentences.
- Make the first sentence of a paragraph strong enough to stand alone.
- Avoid profession jargon.
- Avoid use of contractions. Use is not rather than isn’t whenever possible.
- If you are not certain about the spelling of a word, look it up.
- Proofread before sending the letter.
- Stick to one style. Use professional or informal but not both.
- Avoid anything that does not add to the message.
- If you use quotes, list the source.
- Avoid using statistics if at all possible.
What are your rules for clear written communication?