1. Professional Communication: The Corporate Insider’s Approach
Chapter Twelve
Business Letters: Reasserting Our Innate Linguistic and Decision-Making Abilities

2. A Little History 12th Century—Dictamin
15th and 16th Centuries—Formularies and letter-writers
19th Century—Focus on personal letters expands to include business letters
20th Century—Business communication becomes a subject

3. Business English George Burton Hotchkiss and Business English:
Know people and the way their minds act
Gain a facility with technique of language
Appreciate basic patterns and models

4. The Problem with Models
Lose the opportunity to put our personal stamp on our letters
Treat demands and audiences as part of a predictable equation
Models themselves have faults
Cannot identify and categorize all purposes

5. Some Uses of Business Letters
Inquiries
Requests
Favorable replies
Orders
Claims
Applications
Refused requests
Refused adjustments
Collection
Credit reports
Back and incomplete orders

6. Results of Politeness and Indirectness
Evasion
Distortion
Denial
Deceit

7. Where the Model Goes Wrong
Misunderstanding the business audience
Mischaracterizing the business circumstance
Misrepresenting the business purpose

8. How We Think—Dewey’s Insights
Locate and define the problem
Analyze the problem
Establish goals or criteria for preferred solution
Select the best solution
Implement

9. The Motivated Sequence
Attention Step—Principal topic
Need Step—What is the problem and scope
Satisfaction Step—What needs to be done
Visualization Step—What happens if plan isn’t used; what benefits occur if plan is used
Action Step—What the vendor has to do

10. Demonstrating Politeness
Maintain an appropriate level of formality
Limit the distribution to essential recipients
Respond quickly to incoming correspondence
Look for means to personalize your correspondence

11. Business Letters—The Lessons
Primary Uses—Establish/maintain contractual relationship; internal communication demanding formal documentation
Style—Standard format; formal and businesslike
Distribution—Limited to specific, essential recipients
Permanence—Retained in corporate archives

12. Business Letters—The Lessons
Accountability—Person who signed the letter; letterhead obligates corporation
Response Expected—Consistent with type of letter and business process
Breadth—Addresses specific subject
Review/Approval—Formal review to ensure consistent position
Authorship—Function of one’s corporate role

13. Business Letters—The Lessons
Associated Risks
Making inappropriate commitments
Appearing to manipulate the reader
Appearing the evade the reader
Failure to communicate a sense of interest in the reader