How to write an effective business letter

A business letter is an important means (উপায়) of exchanging business information among business people The following steps should be followed in writing an effective business letter.

How to write an effective business letter

1. Proper planning (সঠিক পরিকল্পনা): This is the prewriting stage in which we think our writing project and develop a plan for doing it. The writer of the business letter should properly think about and plan what, when, whom, and how to write the letter. 

2. Setting purpose (উদ্দেশ্য প্রতিষ্ঠা করা): Business letters are written for different purposes and the purpose determines the types of letter. Before writing the business letter, the writer should select the main purposes of the letter. 

3. Determine the scope e of the subject (বিষয়ের পরিধি নির্ধারণ): The writer of the business letter should determine the scope of the messages. Here, scope refers to what the writer wants to know and what the writer wants to convey (জানানো).

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4. Gather relevant facts and information (সংশ্লিষ্ট বিষয় ও তথ্য সপ্তাহ): In this step in writing a good business letter is to get all the relevant information needed. For this purpose, the following things should generally be considered: 

past correspondence (চিঠিপত্র আদান-প্রদান) 

• consulting with others 
• getting sales record 
• warranties and product descriptions 
• Inventory records and so on. 

5. Knowing and evaluates the readers (পাঠকদেরকে জানা ও মূল্যায়ন করা) Here, the writer should identify. Properly know and evaluate the readers' knowledge level positions, educational background, psychological setup, probable action-reaction, etc.

6. Determine the approaches (পদ্ধতি নির্ধারণ): The writer should also consider any of the following approaches to analyzing and organizing the information in the letter. 

• ➤ Direct approach 
• ➤ Indirect approach 
• ➤ Persuasive approach 

7. Analyzing and organizing information (তথ্য মূল্যায়ন ও সাজানো): In this step, we analyze and organize the information that has been collected in the previous step. If we predict that the reader will react to our message positively, or even neutrally, we will usually organize the message in a direct plan. Direct plan means to write without any opening explanation or introductory remarks. On the other hand, if we think that the reader will react to the message negatively, we should write the message in indirect order. 

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8. Selecting the format (কাঠামো নির্বাচন): Letter format refers to the way of arranging different paragraphs for elements in the letter. After analyzing and organizing information the writer should select any of the following formats: 

• ➤ Indented style 
• ➤ Full Block style 
• ➤ Semi-Block style 
• ➤ Hanging style