Reflection
One of our first projects for Professional Writing was constructing a Bad News Letter. This was my first attempt at writing one, so I wasn’t sure how well I would do. I learned that understanding and implementing the Eight C’s, especially courteous, in this letter is crucial. It is important to not directly say “no” in a bad news letter, but to carefully explain the bad news and offer an alternative sweetener at the end. This really shows clients and customers that you care enough about them to give them additional options. If a company writes a bad news letter that is not courteous or considerate, it really gives the company a bad look, and that company will most likely lose customers if they feel the they don’t value them enough to write a courteous letter. I also learned that bad news letters need to have a “nod” or a statement that establishes a common ground between the company and customer. This statement is very important because it sets the tone of the entire letter. I can now confidently say that I can construct a solid bad news letter that incorporates all the C’s. We discussed many examples in class that allowed me to really understand what a bad news letter should look like, and I was able to absorb that information and learn from it.
Bad News Letter
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Reflection
I have had some previous experience writing persuasive essays and papers, however I have never written a persuasive letter. I learned very quickly by looking at the examples in our text book and the letters we discussed in class that the format is very different. I learned the importance of AIDA in a persuasive letter. This stands for Attention, Interest/Details, Desire, and Action. An effective persuasive letter includes all of these qualities in the same order. The Attention section goes first, and this presents a fact or bit of information that makes the audience want to read further. The section portion, interest or details, includes some logistics and/or statistics of the product or service you are trying to sell. Basically, it is the factual portion of the letter. The desire section is where the persuading comes in. This is the part where the letter should suggest why the consumer wants or needs whatever product they are selling. Lastly, the action portion tells the consumer ways they can go about purchasing whatever product or service they are trying to offer them. This is also the section where any deals or discounts will be mentioned, as well as dates or deadlines. Even though I have had experience writing persuasive pieces, writing one in letter format was a first. AIDA really helps me remember and organize how to construct an effective persuasive letter, where before I had no idea how to go about writing one.
Persuasive Letter
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