Request Letters

What’s a Request Letter?

It’s not only a businessman who has to write request letters. The reasons for writing a request letter can be various: to obtain information, to make reservations ( at hotels, restaurants, theatres), to ask for special favours (permission, assistance, financial support, appointment), to receive booklets, catalogues, price lists, sample products etc.

Tact and courtesy are essential if you want your reader to act immediately you must encourage them to do it. That’s why, all request letters should be specific, brief and reasonable, providing complete and accurate information.

Letters of Confirmation

Always respond to correspondence if you don’t want to lose a useful contact. Confirming a telephone call or a letter is a natural way to be effective in your contacts. Such confirmations can be made by telephone, but a formal letter effectively transmits clear, correct, and complete information, especially when it is required to make a large numbers of confirmations.

The letter of confirmation should contain:

1. Reference to the previous contact;

2. The reason for writing;

3. The matter of this contact (requesting, agreeing to a request, apologizing, giving news, etc.);

4. Reference to future contacts.

Letters of Congratulations

The occasions for congratulatory messages are numerous: promotions, appointments, and elections; achievements, awards and honors; marriages and births; holidays, anniversaries and retirements.

In any event, every letter of congratulations must be sincere and enthusiastic. Even if it is short, it should include personal remarks or references.

A letter of congratulations usually has three essential elements: an expression of congratulations; the reason for congratulating from a personal point of view; an expression of goodwill.

Letters of Invitation

Formal events, such as receptions, banquets, and other formal social gatherings require formal invitations. These invitations can be engraved or printed, or they can be handwritten on letter paper.

A general invitation should be cordial and sincere, designed as a usual letter; a formal one is less personal, centred, written in the third person.

Every kind of invitation must do the following things:

1. Invite the reader to the gathering.

13. Explain the reason for the gathering

14. Give the date, time, and place of the gathering.

A formal invitation should include a RSVP notation that asks the reader to respond. This abbreviation means ‘respondez s’il vous plait’; that is “Please let us know if you plan to attend”.

Business Letters Samples Writing a Resume When Applying for a Job

Recommendations and Advice

Resumes and prior preparation play an important role in getting the job you dreamed about as the job can be lost on the basis of an interview only. The interviewer usually sees the resume before he sees the applicant. The resume gives the first impression of the applicant to the employer. It should be neat and well organizes.

It starts with the applicant’s name, date of birth, marital status, address and telephone number, then it gives an employment objective, educational and training data, as well as previous work experience. The resume should clearly reflect the applicant’s qualifications for the work(s) he wants now.

First you should decide what to stress and what to leave out. All confusing, secondary information, facts and details which don’t count must be left out.

In your resume you should stress facts that describe your professional experience, advanced knowledge, you should tell about your strengths which will let you do the job you are applying for.

Usually some references are requested to confirm the information you give in your resume (or CV – Curriculum Vitae). It is recommended to attach them or write “References available on request” which means that you are ready to produce them any time you are asked to do that.

Here are the summarized points of what has been written here.

1.Personal data:name (family name, other names/ = first name and second name(s)/), age (date of birth), marital status (single, married, separated, divorced), number of children, address, phone number.

2.Objective/Position applied for:kind of position and professional responsibilities you are looking for.

3.Experience:names of jobs, places, dates, and descriptions of what exactly you did and were responsible for.

4.Education:list of educational institutions you attended (specifying the dates); subject areas you studied and degrees you got.

5.Other:any information which could be helpful (computer skills, special skills, languages you speak, driver’s license, hobbies, etc.)

6.References:names and addresses of two or three references (people who can recommend you for the position and confirm your characteristics). Or, you can write “References available on request”.

Resume

Name: Stephen Lo

Present address: 2315 South Sierra Drive,

San Diego, California,

CA 92128

Telephone: (619) 076-5581

Date of birth: Oakland, California

Education: 1977-84 Millard Fillmore Elementary School

Oakland, Calif.

1984-88 James Garfield High School,

Oakland, Calif.

Graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration

Employment history:

Summer vacations: 1987-1991. Camp counselor, Camp Redwoods,

Mendocino County, Calif.

Archery and swimming instructor.

1992-present: Administrative Assistant, Soledad Computers,

Pacific Beach, San Diego.

Foreign languages: Chinese – excellent, Spanish – fair

I have a California driver’s license.