COMPOSING BUSINESS LETTER

Letters
• considered as an original mode of written
business communication.

• remain as a universal mode in all kinds of

contexts and situations.
1. When you should write a letter?

Assessing the Risks of Writing and Not Writing

Question 1: Does a letter seem to formal or legalistic or,

in some other way, not quite appropriate for the
situation?

If your context includes informal, friendly,

conversational dialogue, it is preferred not to write a
letter because it may suggest a sudden distancing or
chilling of the relationship.
Question 2: Do you need a paper trail?
 It may be important to have a paper trail for
political or personal or legal reason that
documents what you've said, done and agreed to do or
perhaps not agreed to do.

Question 3: Would a direct confrontation be
unpleasant- maybe even dangerous?
Question 4: Is there a chance that your letter could
become a weapon to be used against you?
 Always remember that you need to be sure the
letter says what you want it to mean and that it makes
only the commitments you want it to make.
2. Analyzing and evaluating your context
Questions to consider:

 Does this situation call for a letter? Is some other

response, such as a phone call or direct conversation,
more appropriate?

 If some other response is equally appropriate which

would be easier?

 Does this situation call for a combination of response- a

phone call followed by a letter, for example?
 How tricky, difficult, or dangerous is this situation?

 How much effort is going to be required to do a good

job?

 What's the worst thing that could happen if it goes

badly?

 Where can you get help if you need it?

** You must remember that the amount of time
and effort depends on:

 How far the situation at hand deviates from a familiar,

generic situation.
 How important the issues.
 The people involved are to you and you organization.
 How much of your time and attention are being

demanded by other tasks.

More about composing business letters:
 
The Two Dimensions:
1. Action Dimensions
2. Relationship Dimensions
WRITING
CHECKLIST
ROUTINE LETTERS

• Map out the relationship and action dimensions of

your letter-writing situation to visualize quickly the
context your addressing.
• List your relationship goals and action goals.
• Consider how these goals interact with each other.
• Ask what readers need in order to accomplish both
relationship and action goals.
• Ask who your readers are – that is, who should be
addressed in your letter, who should receive copies,
and who else might read the letter.
• Anticipate reader’s questions to achieve your action
goals.
• Determine what questions readers will ask when they
read your letter.
• Since letters are short documents and thus can’t have
long arguments, your arguments need to be efficient.
• In general, use the direct pattern in business letters:
Begin with the claim, and then present supporting
evidence and sometimes underlying values and
assumptions.
• Consider whether you’ll need to use the indirect
pattern, which mutes the claim by first laying out the
context and evidence justifying the claim.
• Using the indirect pattern, you can help readers shift
to a perspective sympathetic with your own by using
a well-written narrative.
• Sometimes when using the indirect strategy, you
might leave out the claim altogether, leaving the
reader to infer both the claim and the rationale.
• Make your business letters brief, straightforward,
and positive.
• For efficiency, consider using form letters, but modify
them effectively by thoughtfully analyzing the special
features of your situation – your goals, your readers
and your arguments.
• Follow any standard templates and style guides for
letters so they represent your company with a
consistent style and appearance.
• If you have no established formal conventions, use full block,
modified block, or AMS style.
• In general use the neutral, objective, impersonal voice that’s
such a strong convention in business writing.
• But deliberately base your expression on your relationship and
action goals, your insight into your readers, your arguments, and
the conventions of the situation.
• Monitor your expression carefully when your writing under
strong emotions since writing to express anger or frustration is
not itself, a good goal
Defining
“GRACE”
Using GRACE to Examine Your
About Your Writing
Situation
Assumptions about Your Goals
 Remember that you really have two distinctly goals for any
writing project: to create desirable effect on your readers and
to produce and manage your project

 Break down a project into manageable pieces using the “Swish

cheese” strategy so you can nibble away at the project chunks.

 Start a project by narrating the facts as you understand them

or by framing variations of possible arguments.

 Keep moving ahead on the text until you’re done with a project
Assumptions about Your Readers
 Visualize your readers if it will help you generate text that meets
their needs, answers their questions, or addresses their concerns.

 Find out more about your readers from others in your

organization or from the readers themselves.

 Imagine other, more receptive readers or ignore them altogether

temporarily, if doing so will help you move forward.

 Begin by “ firing away “, generate text as quickly as you can while

focusing on issues and arguments; then reread and revise the
text for your readers
Assumptions about Your Argument
 You don’t need to begin with the perfect argument;
instead, use your writing to explore your evidence and
identify the arguments implicit in it.

 Look for arguments that are laid out for you by the
conventions, by the context of the situation, by
arguments offered by your readers, or by your own goals
Assumptions about the Conventions of Your
Document and Situation
• Use dummies of final documents to help you generate
large, complex writing projects.

• Use similar document the organization has developed for

a comparable situation to create a dummy.

• Use a dummy to make assignments to members of a

project team and to measure progress on different parts
of the project.
Assumptions about Expression
• If your assumptions about what is the appropriate voice for a
document are inhibiting your expression, look more closely at
your writing situation and perhaps consult the people you
trust about the conventions of expression

• Ask someone else who’s comfortable with the conventional

voice to write the text

• Try to write quickly, mimicking the voice you feel is

conventional, even though it feels uncomfortable
 Three Generics
Conflicts Situations
& Their Goals…
Complaints
Bad News
Negotiations
Letter Of Complaint…
1716 Tenth Avenue South
St. Cloud, MN 56301
April 10, 1997

Donna Eddieman
Director, First-Year Experience
Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI 49931

Dear Ms. Eddieman:

Last weekend we made the 720-mile round trip from St. Cloud, MN to Houghton to visit
our son Ben, a freshman at MTU. This is our fourth trip- about a year ago when Ben was
selecting colleges, in September to deliver him, in October for Homecoming weekend, and
now again in April.
We had a delightful weekend. It was especially exciting to talk with
Ben about his classes, his instructors, his course assignments, and
the ideas that are impacting and challenging him. We visited the
Humanities computer lab and got a taste of Ben’s work-study job
responsibilities. We examined the mineral display outside the
Seaman mineral collection. At the bookstore our purchase
included an MTU decal for our car. Ben did some research for his
econ paper at the library. We saw the auditorium where Clifford
Stoll recently spoke to MTU students. Ben hadn’t been in a car
since he arrived back from spring break, so we enjoyed driving
around the Houghton-Hancock area. We were awed by the power
of Lake Superior when we stood on the eroding banks of the state
park that’s out past Hancock.
 
Letter Of Apology
Michigan Technological University
1701 Townsend Drive
Houghton, Mithigan 49931-1196

Residential Services
Office of the Director
(906) 555-2682
Fax: (906) 555-3560
April 25, 1997
Mr. & Mrs Bob Inkster
1716 10th Avenue South
St. Cloud, MN 56301

Dear Chris & Bob,

I wish all our student customer had responsible and cordial parents like you! Yes, we provide “Guess Passes”
for family and friends at out reception desk, but you are correct in that we do not have visible signs
displaying this information. Our Residential Services department will definitely improve on the
communication to our residents and guests.
On behalf of Michigan Tech Residential Services, we hope that our decision to return to our “Copper
Country” in the future isn’t tainted by this incident. A $20.00 check for refund payment of the citation ticket
should reach you shortly in the mail.

Sincerely & please return to MTU,

Andre A. Bonen
Manager of Failities
Residential Services
Newsletter Article
GRACE helps us identify the following
general tasks in developing an effective letter of
complaint:

• Task1 …Determine the central core of your

letter
• Task2 …Narrate and amplify what happened
and why it’s problematic
• Task3 …Explain a satisfactory resolution
• Task4 …Test your argument
 Template of Framing
A Complaint
• When you…[narrate here the specific behavior
in literal, concrete, nonjudgmental detail]
…,then…[narrate here the specific results in
literal, concrete detail]…,and this means
[explain here why the results are problematic
if the narration of the results doesn’t already
make the problem obvious].
2nd Generic Conflict
situations and their goals:

Bad News
• Decide whether to end or continue
negotiations
• Make sure your reader knows that you’ve
understood
• Consider using the balanced organizational
convention for bad news letters
• Choose your format thoughtfully
Sample Of Bad News Letter…
January 10, 19XX

Ms. Charles Johnson 3451 E. North Hampton Dr.

Phoenix, AZ 85004

Dear Ms. Johnson:

Thank you for your letter regarding reimbursement for your broken window. It’s never pleasant to deal with
such an occurrence; especially not on Christmas day.

I have evaluated the reimbursement for your window, subject to the conditions in your homeowner’s policy.
While deductible clauses significantly reduce the annual premium, it appears that the damages of $245 just
barely fall within the $250 deductible—one of the provisions in your policy.

Since most homeowner’s policies (like yours) also contain a provision to cover the actions of family
members, you may be able to collect the entire $245 from the child’s parents. Their insurance company will
be able to advise them regarding this feature.

I sincerely hope you are able to gain reimbursement in a timely manner, and am available, toll-free, at (800)
747-2439 to answer any questions you might have. If you wish to avoid similar losses, Mohawk offers a
$100 deductible for a slight increase in premium.

Very truly yours,

Jacob Steiner, Claims Adjuster

4 PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESSFULLY
NEGOTIATING CONFLICTS AND
HANDLING DIFFICULT PEOPLE
 PRINCIPLE 1:

Do not be surprised by disagreement,

conflict, and emotion
Data collection, analysis and problem
solving are different by:

Human interest
Ethical principles
Perception
Everything we do and write arises
out of a history of prior transactions
that have some level of emotional
energy.
If you remember that these risks are present all the
time, you will be less likely to be thrown completely
off stride
 Principle 2

When disagreement, conflict

and anger occur, resolve to use
them productively.
Good things about disagreement, conflict
and emotional involvement:

Raises the energy level

Raises the interest of everyone involved
Offer opportunity for constructive
deliberation.
It’s always useful to take the time
and effort to analyze the situation
for disagreement, conflict, and
anger.
 Principle 3

Decide whether this situation

constitutes a fight, a game or a
debate
The goal of a fight is to harm your
opponent.

The of a game is to outwit your

opponent.

The goal of a debate is to persuade your

opponent to see things as you do.
 Principle 4

Irrespective of this conflict’s

present status, resolve not to define
it as a game or a fight; move the
conflict in the direction of a debate
or, preferably, a negotiation.
Four Different Ways of Dealing with Conflict

Bullying: Win/ Lose Problem Solving:

Win/ Win

Avoiding: Lose/ Lose Conceding: Lose/

Win
Engaging the conflict
with GRACE
Goals
 You must first persuade both yourself and your opponent
to engage in a debate in the problem-solving quadrants.

Problem-Solving: Win/Win
Problem-solving requires a shared commitment to
satisfying both your own and your reader’s goals. It
requires trust and mutual respect and an effort to
understand each other’s goals.
 If your goal is to have a fight (to harm your reader), we
don’t have much advice for you, other than to reconsider
carefully before investing your intelligence and energy in
such an unproductive way.
 
 But if your reader’s goal is to have a fight (to harm you),
there are some gaming strategies to try to persuade your
opponent to redefine the situation as either a game or
ultimately, as a debate.
 Bramson’s seven types of Difficult People
1. Hostile – Aggresives
1.1 Sherman Tanks 1.2 Sniper
 Always on the attack  These people try to bully and
 Abusive overwhelm by bombarding
others like a tank
 Intimidating
 Over powering
1.3 Exploder
 Always right
 Behavior result of feeling
 Lack of caring and respect threatened and cannot cope
for others with the situation
 Shout, throw things and often
say regrettable things
Bramson’s seven types of Difficult People
2. Complainer
 Finds fault with everything
 Like to feel free from
responsibility with a problem
4. Super- Agreeable
 Want to be liked and accepted
 They will agree with you about
one thing then agree with the
next person whose ideas are
contrary to yours.
3. Silent- Unresponsive
 Silent
 Just answers “YES” and “NO”
 Won’t communicate effectively
5. Negativist
 Responds to anything with a
quick and negative response
 Has the “it won’t work, don’t
bother” attitude
 Feel as though everything is
out of their control
Bramson’s seven types of Difficult People

6. Know It- All- Expert 7. Indecisive

 Lack follow- through
6.1 Bulldozers  Undependable
 Who are really extremely  Typical response is no
competent response
 Cannot make up their minds
6.2 Balloons  Leave others to do work
 Who are just faking
 Full of hot air
Readers

 Understanding your readers and their perspective on the

issues you’re writing about is crucial to the successful
writing of your business. We have urged you to do
creative, imaginative visualizing of your readers. Even if
you never meet your readers, this process of imagining a
human face can help you anticipate what needs,
questions, assumptions, and arguments they will bring to
your document and how to design your own arguments
effectively.
Arguments
 Arguments as claims that you justify through
data and through underlying principles for
giving meaning and value to the data.
Four Tactics of Arguments
 Tactic 1: Use the structure of argument to clarify and
deepen your understanding of your own principles,
interests and perceptions of this conflict.
Tactic 2: Use the structure of argument to clarify and
deepen your understanding of your reader’s principles,
interests and perceptions of this conflict.
 Tactic 3: Point out where you see the validity of your
readers claims and the applicability of the underlying
warrants
Tactic 4: Help your reader unpack and understand your
own argument in a way that reciprocates your empathic
unpacking of their arguments.
Convention
A set of rules, tactics and strategies for how to wage a fair and effective
engagement in conflicted, emotional and perhaps dangerous rhetorical situations.

Conventional ways of writing complaint letters, bad news

letters, and negotiation letters:
Be very careful what and when you write in a conflicted situation.

Try to avoid the temptation to humiliate or beat up your reader.

At the same time, try to avoid giving your reader any opportunity to embarrass or humiliate
you in these convention ways.

 Specifically, be sure you don’t commit some embarrassing faux pas by carelessly breaking
some formal .
Expression
 Expression is always important in the writing of business.
Even in drafting routine documents, you’re wise to pause
and ask yourself if the image of you is right for this
occasion.

 When conflict and disagreement generate heightened

emotions, those emotions also need to be identified,
named and acknowledged.
Guidelines for writing negotiation letters

Start with a firm position based on careful, principles

analysis of your real needs.

Determine ahead of time your BATNA: your best

alternative to a negotiated agreement. Then, you cn
negotiate firmly and in good faith.

Remember that the primary goal is to keep

negotiations moving forward.
Don’t be surprised by disagreement, conflict, and
emotion, and when they occur, use them productively.

Decide whether this situation, at this moment,

constitutes a fight, a game, or a debate.

Move the conflict in the direction of a debate or,

preferably, a mutual problem-solving negotiation.
June 11, 2010

Julienne Rogers
213 Anyplace Lane
Austin, TX 78750

Abby Campton
Business Development Manager
Project Management Department
Wrightway Systems
1810 Kramer Lane
Suite C-201
Austin, TX 78758

Dear Ms. Abby Campton,

First of all, I would like to say how much I admire you for being a good Business Manager, but I must disagree with the
direction we are taking with the AT&T account. I have been doing a lot of research about the company and what their
requirements are for this particular project. I can say that the way we are looking at handling this particular project will not
meet the client’s needs. The work that has been outlined will both be a waste of time and money, since it is not what the
client requires.

I just feel I have to put this into writing, but I would be willing to meet with you at your most convenient time to go through
the aspects of the project to explain my position.

Being the excellent manager that you are, I am positive that you will welcome what I have to say and act appropriately.

Thank you for time.

Respectfully yours,

Julienne Rogers