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For the best business letter writing, follow my expert business letter writing tips and then click here to use StyleWriter to write better letters.

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The Seven Points of business letter writing

Putting your reader first
Keeping your business letter to the point
Getting the right tone
Writing your business letters in plain English
Using powerful headings on your business letter
Writing a strong opening
Writing a strong close
Avoiding standard business letter phrases
Business letter writing checklist
Software to help you write professional business letters

The Seven Cs of Business Letter Writing

Effective letter writing boils down to knowing why you are writing a letter, understanding your reader's needs and then clearly writing what you need to say. Every letter should be clear, human, helpful and as friendly as the topic allows. The best letters have a conversational tone and read as if you were talking to your reader. In brief then, discover the Seven-Cs of letter writing. You should be

Clear
Concise
Correct
Courteous
Conversational
Convincing
Complete

When you write a letter, you are trying to convince someone to act or react in a positive way. Your reader will respond quickly only if your meaning is crystal clear. Put yourself in the reader’s shoes and write in a friendly and helpful tone. Don't represent your company as one that cannot make a mistake and must always be in the right. Try not to reply in the normal bland and defensive way of organizations—write a sincere and helpful letter. Show you are interested in the reader’s circumstances. If he or she has mentioned something personal in the letter, refer to it in your reply. This builds a bridge between you and the reader. Read the original letter carefully and see if there is something you can put in your letter to show your interest.

APPLICATION LETTER

This section focuses on the application letter (sometimes called a "cover letter"), which together with the resume is often called the "job package." You may already have written one or both of these employment-seeking documents. That's okay. Read and study this section, and then apply the guidelines here to the resumes and application letters you have created in the past. Note: Students enrolled in Online Technical Writing are encouraged to take the optional reading quiz on this chapter. (Anybody else is welcome to try it as well.)

This section presents many different ways to design and write application letters. Nothing here is trying to force you into one design. You design your own letter using whatever you find here that is useful and any other sources you know of.

In many job applications, you attach an application letter to your resume. Actually, the letter comes before the resume.

The role of the application letter is to draw a clear connection between the job you are seeking and your qualifications listed in the resume. To put it another way, the letter matches the requirements of the job with your qualifications, emphasizing how you are right for that job. The application letter is not a lengthy summary of the resume — not at all. It selectively mentions information in the resume, as appropriate.

Be sure to check out the example application letters accompanying this chapter:

The frames and nonframes versions work only on Netscape versions 3-5, but not on Netscape 6 or any version of Internet Explorer. See Netscape 5 archives.

Example application letter 1: Technical writing intern Frames Nonframes Plain Example application letter 2: Science editorship Frames Nonframes Plain Example application letter 3: Database programmer Frames Nonframes Plain Example application letter 4: Quality assurance manager Frames Nonframes Plain Example application letter 5: Programmer/analyst Frames Nonframes Plain

For related matters:

See the section on resumes for the companion to this section. See the section on general business-letter format and style. Common Types of Application Letters To begin planning your letter, decide which type of application letter you need. This decision is in part based on requirements that employers may have, and in part based on what your background and employment needs are. In many ways, types of application letters are like the types of resumes. The types of application letters can be defined according to amount and kind of information:

Objective letters — One type of letter says very little: it identifies the position being sought, indicates an interest in having an interview, and calls attention to the fact that the resume is attached. It also mentions any other special matters that are not included on the resume, such as dates and times when you are available to come in for an interview. This letter does no salesmanship and is very brief. (It may represent the true meaning of "cover" letter.)

Highlight letters — Another type of application letter, the type you do for most technical writing courses, tries to summarize the key information from the resume, the key information that will emphasize that you are a good candidate for the job. In other words, it selects the best information from the resume and summarizes it in the letter — this type of letter is especially designed to make the connection with the specific job. How do you know which to write? For most technical-writing courses, write the highlight letter. However, in "real-life" situations, it's anybody's guess. Try calling the prospective employer; study the job advertisement for clues.

Common Sections in Application Letters As for the actual content and organization of the paragraphs within the application letter (specifically the highlight type of application letter), consider the following comon approaches. Introductory paragraph. That first paragraph of the application letter is the most important; it sets everything up — the tone, focus, as well as your most important qualification. A typical problem in the introductory paragraph involves diving directly into work and educational experience. Bad idea! A better idea is to do something like the following:

State the purpose of the letter — to inquire about an employment opportunity. Indicate the source of your information about the job — newspaper advertisement, a personal contact, or other. State one eye-catching, attention-getting thing about yourself in relation to the job or to the employer that will cause the reader to want to continue. And you try to do all things like these in the space of very short paragraph — no more than 4 to 5 lines of the standard business letter. (And certainly, please don't think of these as the "right" or the "only" things to put in the introduction to an application letter.) Main body paragraphs. In the main parts of the application letter, you present your work experience, education, training — whatever makes that connection between you and the job you are seeking. Remember that this is the most important job you have to do in this letter — to enable the reader see the match between your qualifications and the requirements for the job.

There are two common ways to present this information: Functional approach — This one presents education in one section, and work experience in the other. If there were military experience, that might go in another section. Whichever of these section contains your "best stuff" should come first, after the introduction. Thematic approach — This one divides experience and education into groups such as "management," "technical," "financial," and so on and then discusses your work and education related to them in separate paragraphs. If you read the section on functional and thematic organization of resumes, just about everything said there applies here. Of course, the letter is not exhaustive or complete about your background — it highlights just those aspects of your background that make the connection with the job you are seeking. Figure 1-4. Common sections of application letters. You can organize the letter thematically or functionally the same way that you can the resume.

Another section worth considering for the main body of the application letter is one in which you discuss your goals, objectives — the focus of your career — what you are doing, or want to do professionally. A paragraph like this is particularly good for people just starting their careers, when there is not much to put in the letter. Of course, be careful about loading a paragraph like this with "sweet nothings." For example, "I am seeking a challenging, rewarding career with an dynamic upscale company where I will have ample room for professional and personal growth" — come on! give us a break! Might as well say, "I want to be happy, well-paid, and well-fed." Closing paragraph. In the last paragraph of the application letter, you can indicate how the prospective employer can get in touch with you and when are the best times for an interview. This is the place to urge that prospective employer to contact you to arrange an interview. Background Details in the Application Letter

One of the best ways to make an application letter great is to work in details, examples, specifics about related aspects of your educational and employment background. Yes, if the resume is attached, readers can see all that details there. However, a letter that is overly general and vague might generate so little interest that the reader might not even care to turn to the resume. In the application letter, you work in selective detail that makes your letter stand out, makes it memorable, and substantiates the claims you make about your skills and experience. Take a look at this example, which is rather lacking in specifics: As for my experience working with persons with developmental disabilities, I have worked and volunteered at various rehabilitation hospitals and agencies in Austin and Houston [say which ones to inject more detail into this letter]. I have received training [where? certificates?] in supervising patients and assisting with physical and social therapy. Currently, I am volunteering at St. David's Hospital [doing what?] to continue my education in aiding persons with developmental disabilities. Now take a look at the revision:

As for my experience working with persons with developmental disabilities, I have worked and volunteered at Cypress Creek Hospital in Houston and Capital Area Easter Seals/ Rehabilitation Center and Health South Rehabilitation Hospital in Austin. I have received CPR, First Aid, and Crisis Intervention certificates from Cypress Creek Hospital. Currently, I am volunteering at St. David's Hospital assisting with physical therapy to persons with developmental disabilities in the aquatics department. Checklist of Common Problems in Application Letters Readability and white space — Are there any dense paragraphs over 8 lines? Are there comfortable 1-inch to 1.5-inch margins all the way around the letter? Is there adequate spacing between paragraph and between the components of the letter?

Page fill — Is the letter placed on the page nicely: not crammed at the top one-half of the page; not spilling over to a second page by only three or four lines? General neatness, professional-looking quality — Is the letter on good quality paper, and is the copy clean and free of smudges and erasures?

Proper use of the business-letter format — Have you set up the letter in one of the standard business-letter formats? (See the references earlier in this chapter.) Overt, direct indication of the connection between your background and the requirements of the job — Do you emphasize this connection? A good upbeat, positive tone — Is the tone of your letter bright and positive? Does it avoid sounding overly aggressive, brash, over-confident (unless that is really the tone you want)? Does your letter avoid the opposite problem of sounding stiff, overly reserved, stand-offish, blase, indifferent? A good introduction — Does your introduction establish the purpose of the letter? Does it avoid diving directly into the details of your work and educational experience? Do you present one little compelling detail about yourself that will cause the reader to want to keep reading?

A good balance between brevity and details — Does your letter avoid becoming too detailed (making readers less inclined to read thoroughly)? Does your letter avoid the opposite extreme of being so general that it could refer to practically anybody? Lots of specifics (dates, numbers, names, etc.) — Does your letter present plenty of specific detail but without making the letter too densely detailed? Do you present hard factual detail (numbers, dates, proper names) that make you stand out as an individual?

A minimum of information that is simply your opinion of yourself — Do you avoid over-reliance on information that is simply your opinions about yourself. For example, instead of saying that you "work well with others," do you cite work experience that proves that fact but without actually stating it? Grammar, spelling, usage — And of course, does your letter use correct grammar, usage, and spelling?

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Business Correspondence — Resumes

A resume is a selective record of your background — your educational, military, and work experience, your certifications, abilities, and so on. You send it, sometimes accompanied by an application letter, to potential employers when you are seeking job interviews. Note: Students enrolled in Online Technical Writing are encouraged to take the optional reading quiz on this chapter. (Anybody else is welcome to try it as well.) The focus of the resume assignment is readability, effective design, and adaptation to audience expectations. If you make up a few details in your resume, that's okay. However, if you're just starting your college education and have little work experience, try using the techniques and suggestions here to create a resume that represents your current skills, abilities, and background. Developing a decent-looking resume based on what you are now is a challenge that you have to deal with at some point — so why not now? Resume Design — An Overview

Before personal computers, people used one resume for varied kinds of employment searches. However, with less expensive desktop publishing and high-quality printing, people sometimes rewrite their resumes for every new job they go after. For example, a person who seeks employment both with a community college and with a software-development company would use two different resumes. The contents of the two might be roughly the same, but the organization, format, and emphases would be quite different. You are probably aware of resume-writing software: you feed your data into them and they churn out a prefab resume. You probably also know about resume-writing services that will create your resume for you for a hundred dollars or so. If you are in a time bind or if you are extremely insecure about your writing or resume-designing skills, these services might help. But often they take your information and put it into a computer database that then force it into a prefab structure. They often use the same resume-writing software just mentioned; they charge you about what the software costs. The problem is that these agencies simply cannot be that sensitive or perceptive about your background or your employment search. Nor are you likely to want to pay for their services every month or so when you are in the thick of a job search. Why not learn the skills and techniques of writing your own resume here, save the money, and write better resumes anyway?

There is no one right way to write a resume. Every person's background, employment needs, and career objectives are different, thus necessitating unique resume designs. Every detail, every aspect of your resume must start with who you are, what your background is, what the potential employer is looking for, and what your employment goals are — not with from some prefab design. Therefore, use this chapter to design your own resume; browse through the various formats; play around with them until you find one that works for you.

Be sure and check out the example resumes accompanying this chapter: The frames and nonframes versions work only on Netscape versions 3-5, but not on Netscape 6 or any version of Internet Explorer. See Netscape 5 archives. Example resume 1: Veterinary assistant Frames Nonframes Plain Example resume 2: LAN system administrator Frames Nonframes Plain Example resume 3: Maintenance technician for high-tech systems Frames Nonframes Plain Example resume 4: Science writer, editor, researcher Frames Nonframes Plain Example resume 5: Computer service and sales representative Frames Nonframes Plain Example resume 6: Case management nurse Frames Nonframes Plain Example resume 7: Technical writing intern Frames Nonframes Plain

Figure 1-5. Basic sections of a resume — whichever format you use, the information generally divides up as shown here. Sections in Resumes

Resumes can be divided into three sections: the heading, the body, and the conclusion. Each of these sections has fairly common contents. Heading. The top third of the resume is the heading. It contains your name, phone numbers, address, and other details such as your occupation, titles, and so on. Some resume writers include the name of their profession, occupation, or field. In some examples, you'll see writers putting things like "CERTIFIED PHYSICAL THERAPIST" very prominently in the heading. Headings can also contain a goals and objectives subsection and a highlights subsection. These two special subsections are described later in "Special Sections in Resumes." Body. In a one-page resume, the body is the middle portion, taking up a half or more of the total space of the resume. In this section, you present the details of your work, education, and military experience. This information is arranged in reverse chronological order. In the body section, you also include your accomplishments, for example, publications, certifications, equipment you are familiar with, and so on. There are many ways to present this information:

You can divide it functionally — into separate sections for work experience and education. You can divide it thematically — into separate sections for the different areas of your experience and education. Conclusion. In the final third or quarter of the resume, you can present other related information on your background. For example, you can list activities, professional associations, memberships, hobbies, and interests. At the bottom of the resume, people often put "REFERENCES AVAILABLE ON REQUEST" and the date of preparation of the resume. At first, you might think that listing nonwork and personal information would be totally irrelevant and inappropriate. Actually, it can come in handy — it personalizes you to potential employers and gives you something to chat while you're waiting for the coffee machine or the elevator. For example, if you mention in your resume that you raise goats, that gives the interviewer something to chat with you about during those moments of otherwise uncomfortable silence.

Resumes — Types and Design To begin planning your resume, decide which type of resume you need. This decision is in part based on requirements that prospective employers may have, and in part based on what your background and employment needs are. Type of organization. Resumes can be defined according to how information on work and educational experience is handled. There are several basic, commonly used plans or designs you can consider using.

Functional design: Illustrated schematically in Figure 1-6, the functional design starts with a heading; then presents either education or work experience, whichever is stronger or more relevant; then presents the other of these two sections; then ends with a section on skills and certifications and one on personal information. Students who have not yet begun their careers often find this design the best for their purposes. People with military experience either work the detail in to the education and work-experience sections as appropriate; or they create separate section at the same level as education and work experience. Figure 1-6. Two basic organizational approaches to resume design — the functional and the thematic. (The "hanging-head" format is used in the functional-design version.)

Thematic design: Another approach to resumes is the thematic design, illustrated schematically in Figure 1-6. It divides your experience and education into categories such as project management, budgetary planning, financial tracking, personnel management, customer sales, technical support, publications — whichever areas describe your experience. Often, these categories are based directly on typical or specific employment advertisements. If the job advertisement says that Company ABC wants a person with experience in training, customer service, and sales, then it might be a smart move to design thematic headings around those three requirements. If you want to use the thematic approach in your resume, take a look at your employment and educational experience — what are the common threads? Project management, program development, troubleshooting, supervision, maintenance, inventory control? Take a look at the job announcement you're responding to — what are the three, four, or five key requirements it mentions? Use these themes to design the body section of your resume. These themes become the headings in the body of the resume. Under these headings you list the employment or educational experience that applies. For example, under a heading like "FINANCIAL RECORDS," you might list the accounting and bookkeeping courses you took in college, the seminars on Lotus 123 or EXCEL you took, and the jobs where you actually used these skills. Type of information. Types of resumes can be defined according to the amount and kind of information they present:

Objective resumes: This type just gives dates, names, titles, no qualitative salesmanship information. These are very lean, terse resumes. In technical-writing courses, you are typically asked not to write this type. The objective-resume style is useful in resumes that use the thematic approach or that emphasize the summary/highlights section. By its very nature, you can see that the thematic approach is unclear about the actual history of employment. It's harder to tell where the person was, what she was doing, year by year. Detailed resumes: This type provides not only dates, titles, and names, but also details about your responsibilities and statements about the quality and effectiveness of your work. This is the type most people write, and the type that is the focus of most technical-writing courses. The rest of the details in this section of this chapter focus on writing the detailed resume. General Layout and Detail Formats in Resumes At some point in your resume planning, you'll want to think schematically about the layout and design of the thing. General layout has to do with the design and location of the heading, the headings for the individual sections, and the orientation of the detailed text in relation to those headings. Detail formats are the way you choose to arrange and present the details of your education and work experience. General layout. Look at resumes in this book and in other sources strictly in terms of the style and placement of the headings, the shape of the text (the paragraphs) in the resumes, and the orientation of these two elements with each other. Some resumes have the headings centered; others are on the left margin. Notice that the actual text — the paragraphs — of resumes typically does not extend to the far left and the far right margins. Full-length lines are not considered as readable or scannable as the shorter ones you see illustrated in the examples in this book.

Notice that many resumes use a "hanging-head" format. In this case, the heading starts on the far left margin while the text is indented another inch or so. This format makes the heading stand out more and the text more scannable. Notice also that in some of the text paragraphs of resumes, special typography is used to highlight the name of the organization or the job title.

Detail formats. You have to make a fundamental decision about how you present the details of your work and education experience. Several examples of typical presentational techniques are shown in Figure 1-7. The elements you work with include:

Occupation, position, job title Company or organization name Time period you were there Key details about your accomplishments and responsibilities while there. Figure 1-7. Examples of detail formats. Use combinations of list or paragraph format, italics, bold, all caps on the four main elements: date, organization name, job title, and details. There are many different ways to format this information. It all depends on what you want to emphasize and how much or how little information you have (whether you are struggling to fit it all on one page or struggling to make it fill one page). Several different detail formats are shown in Figure 1-7.

Special Sections in Resumes Here are some ideas for special resume sections, sections that emphasize your goals or qualifications. Highlights, summary section. In Figure 1-8, you'll notice the "Highlights" section that occurs just below the heading (the section for name, address, phone number, etc.) and just above the main experience and education sections. This is an increasingly popular section in resumes. Resume specialists believe that the eye makes first contact with a page somewhere one-fourth to one-third of the way down the page — not at the very top. If you believe that, then it makes sense to put your very "best stuff" at that point. Therefore, some people list their most important qualifications, their key skills, their key work experience in that space on the page. Actually, this section is useful more for people who have been in their careers for a while. It's a good way to create one common spot on the resume to list those key qualifications about yourself that may be spread throughout the resume. Otherwise, these key details about yourself are scattered across your various employment and educational experience — in fact, buried in them.

Objectives, goals. Also found on some resumes is a section just under the heading in which you describe what your key goals or objectives are or what your key qualifications are. Some resume writers shy away from including a section like this because they fear it may cause certain employers to stop reading, in other words, that it limits their possibilities. A key-qualifications section is similar to a highlights section, but shorter and in paragraph rather than list form.

Figure 1-8. Special sections in resumes — the summary or highlights of qualifications, and the goals and objectives section.

Amplifications page. Some people have a lot of detail that they want to convey about their qualifications but that does not fit well in any of the typical resume designs. For example, certain computer specialists can list dozens of hardware and software products they have experience with — and they feel they must list all this in the resume. To keep the main part of the resume from becoming unbalanced and less readable, they shift all of this detail to an amplications page. There, the computer specialist can categorize and list all that extensive experience in many different operating systems, hardware configurations, and software applications. Similarly, some resume writers want to show lots more detail about the responsibilities and duties they have managed in past employment. The standard formats for resume design just do not accommodate this sort of detail; and this is where the amplifications page can be useful.

Figure 1-9. Amplifications page in a resume. If you have lots of detail about what you know, this approach on page 2 of the resume may work. On the first page of this resume, the writer divides the presentation into experience and education sections and takes a chronological approach to each. On the first page, he only provides company names, job titles, dates, and discussion of duties.

Resume Design and Format As you plan, write, or review your resume, keep these points in mind: Readability: are there any dense paragraphs over 6 lines? Imagine your prospective employer sitting down to a two-inch stack of resumes. Do you think she's going to slow down to read through big thick paragraphs. Probably not. Try to keep paragraphs under 6 lines long. The "hanging-head" design helps here.

White space. Picture a resume crammed with detail, using only half-inch margins all the way around, a small type size, and only a small amount of space between parts of the resume. Our prospective employer might be less inclined to pore through that also. "Air it out!" Find ways to incorporate more white space in the margins and between sections of the resume. Again, the "hanging-head" design is also useful. Special format. Make sure that you use special format consistently throughout the resume. For example, if you use a hanging-head style for the work-experience section, use it in the education section as well.

Consistent margins. Most resumes have several margins: the outermost, left margin and at least one internal left margin. Typically, paragraphs in a resume use an internal margin, not the far-left margin. Make sure to align all appropriate text to these margins as well. Terse writing style. It's okay to use a rather clipped, terse writing style in resumes — up to a point. The challenge in most resumes is to get it all on one page (or two if you have a lot of information to present). Instead of writing "I supervised a team of five technicians..." you write "Supervised a team of five technicians..." However, you don't leave out normal words such as articles.

Special typography. Use special typography, but keep it under control. Resumes are great places to use all of your fancy word-processing features such as bold, italics, different fonts, and different type sizes. Don't go crazy with it! Too much fancy typography can be distracting (plus make people think you are hyperactive). Page fill. Do everything you can to make your resume fill out one full page and to keep it from spilling over by 4 or 5 lines to a second page. At the beginning of your career, it's tough filling up a full page of a resume. As you move into your career, it gets hard keeping it to one page. If you need a two-page resume, see that the second page is full or nearly full.

Clarity of boundary lines between major sections. Design and format your resume so that whatever the main sections are, they are very noticeable. Use well-defined headings and white space to achieve this. Similarly, design your resume so that the individual segements of work experience or education are distinct and separate from each other. Reverse chronological order. Remember to list your education and work-experience items starting with the current or most recent and working backwards in time. Consistency of bold, italics, different type size, caps, other typographical special effects. Also, whatever special typography you use, be consistent with it throughout the resume. If some job titles are italics, make them all italics. Avoid all-caps text — it's less readable.

Consistency of phrasing. Use the same style of phrasing for similar information in a resume — for example, past tense verbs for all work descriptions. Consistency of punctuation style. For similar sections of information use the same kind of punctuation — for example, periods, commas, colons, or nothing. Translations for "inside" information. Don't assume readers will know what certain abbreviations, acronyms, or symbols mean — yes, even to the extent of "GPA" or the construction "3.2/4.00." Take time to describe special organizations you may be a member of. Grammar, spelling, usage. Watch out for these problems on a resume — they stand out like a sore thumb! Watch out particularly for the incorrect use of its and it's.

Producing the Final Draft of the Resume When you've done everything you can think of to finetune your resume, it's time to produce the final copy — the one that goes to the prospective employer. This is the time to use nice paper and a good printer and generally take every step you know of to produce a professional-looking resume. You'll notice that resumes often use a heavier stock of paper and often an off-white or non-white color of paper. Some even go so far as to use drastically different colors such as red, blue, or green, hoping to catch prospective employers' attention better. Proceed with caution in these areas!

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Complaint and Adjustment Letters

This section covers two closely related types of business letters: complaint letters, which request compensation for problems with purchases or services, and adjustment letters, which are the responses to complaint letters. Note: Students enrolled in the Online Technical Writing are encouraged to take the optional reading quiz on this chapter and on the chapter on inquiry letters. (Anybody else is welcome to try it as well.) See the following example complaint letters: The frames and nonframes versions work only on Netscape versions 3-5, but not on Netscape 6 or any version of Internet Explorer. See Netscape 5 archives. Example complaint letter 1: Microwave problemsFramesNonframesPlain Example complaint letter 2: Printer problemsFramesNonframesPlain Example complaint letter 3: Cosmetics problemsFramesNonframesPlain Example complaint letter 4: Digital multimeter problemsFramesNonframesPlain Example complaint letter 5: Garden polymer sprayersFramesNonframesPlain Example adjustment letter: Compensation for damaged

freightFramesNonframesPlain For related matters, see the section on general business-letter format and style. Complaint Letters A complaint letter requests some sort of compensation for defective or damaged merchandise or for inadequate or delayed services. While many complaints can be made in person, some circumstances require formal business letters. The complaint may be so complex that a phone call may not effectively resolve the problem; or the writer may prefer the permanence, formality, and seriousness of a business letter. The essential rule in writing a complaint letter is to maintain your poise and diplomacy, no matter how justified your gripe is. Avoid making the recipient an adversary.

In the letter, identify early the reason you are writing — to register a complaint and to ask for some kind of compensation. Avoid leaping into the details of the problem in the first sentence. State exactly what compensation you desire, either before or after the discussion of the problem or the reasons for granting the compensation. (It may be more tactful and less antagonizing to delay this statement in some cases). Provide a fully detailed narrative or description of the problem. This is the "evidence." Explain why your request should be granted. Presenting the evidence is not enough: state the reasons why this evidence indicates your requested should be granted. Suggest why it is in the recipient's best interest to grant your request: appeal to the recipient's sense of fairness, desire for continued business, but don't threaten. Find some way to view the problem as an honest mistake. Don't imply that the recipient deliberately committed the error or that the company has no concern for the customer. Toward the end of the letter, express confidence that the recipient will grant your request.

Adjustment Letters

Replies to complaint letters, often called letters of "adjustment," must be handled carefully when the requested compensation cannot be granted. Refusal of compensation tests your diplomacy and tact as a writer. Here are some suggestions that may help you write either type of adjustment letter: Begin with a reference to the date of the original letter of complaint and to the purpose of your letter. If you deny the request, don't state the refusal right away unless you can do so tactfully. Express your concern over the writer's troubles and your appreciation that he has written you. If you deny the request, explain the reasons why the request cannot be granted in as cordial and noncombative manner as possible. If you grant the request, don't sound as if you are doing so in a begrudging way. If you deny the request, try to offer some partial or substitute compensation or offer some friendly advice (to take the sting out of the denial). Conclude the letter cordially, perhaps expressing confidence that you and the writer will continue doing business.

Return to the table of contents for the Online Technical Writing Course Guide (the online textbook for online technical communication courses at Austin Community College and other institutions worldwide). This information is provided and maintained by David A. McMurrey. For information on use, customization, or copies, e-mail hcexres@io.com.