On a daily basis, you'll write letters, memos, or (most often) email to directly communicate with others and provide them with what they want or need to know.

Although many people don't consider correspondence a writing situation that needs the same focused attention as, say, a formal report or proposal, writing an effective letter, memo, or email requires many of the same steps involved in longer forms of communication.

As with any form of technical writing, you should establish your purpose, narrow the scope of your message, and outline or organize your writing to state the points in the order that will be most effective for your reader.

This unit presents general strategies for writing correspondence, and provides guidelines for the three most commonly used forms: letter, memos and emails.

Goals
By the end of these modules you should understand:

• The guidelines for choosing an appropriate format (letter, memo, email) for a given situation.
• The rhetorical guidelines for composing correspondence, including issues of purpose, audience, organization, tone, and clarity.
• The format, parts and content of commonly used types of letter.
• The format and content of memos.
• The format, content and etiquette of email.

Get started with Section I. Developing a Rhetorical Strategy