Reflection
I have written professional or business-related letters during my employment years. While I was familiar with formatting a letter, I had not been formally taught the elements of effective letters. In the course we studied the Persuasive letter and Bad News letter. Both letter styles share important pieces. Grammar, and clear and concise writing are critical and should follow the principles of AIDA: attention, interest, desire and action. Below are my final assignments in these letter genres.
A Persuasive letter’s attention is a “Yikes” statement which should be decisive and powerful. In my example, I wrote a letter to a community to raise money for an art center for the students. In the opening lines I described the impactful loss of the school’s arts program. I generated interest with educational research showing the importance of an arts education. The reports were performed by well-known institutions which added another level of ethos to the letter. Desire was addressed with an offer to have a donator’s name on a plague in the new art center. The letter ended with a deadline for donations to spur the reader to respond quickly.
In a Bad News letter, the opening paragraph needs to have a “nod” to the reader. The nod is a point or a common idea both the reader and writer can agree upon. My bad news letter was addressed to homeowners whose HOA needed to raise the yearly association fees. I opened with describing an event held at the HOA community center and how much people loved the community’s amenities. This was the nod to the homeowners that their community was the envy of all. Bad news letters also need an alternative. While in my hypothetical situation the homeowner cannot refuse to pay the increased fee, the HOA offered to re-evaluate the costs each year and would reduce the fees if possible.
I enjoyed using some creativity in setting up the fictional scenarios for both letters. I learned in the course that professional writing should be clear and concise. I tend to write complex sentences that sometimes can interfere with clarity. This course has helped me improve in that area. I revised both letters for this portfolio to improve on this issue.
