'Writing maketh a full man' and it is all the more difficult to find a 'full-man' who carries real writing skills in Letter Writing. We start teaching Letter Writing from the early ages and keep on correcting ourselves even during the jobs. WHY do WE FAIL at Effective and Impressive Letter Writing?
Writing falls on the last when we take note of the four essential language skills for humans. Preceded by Listening-Speaking-Reading, the craft of writing is undoubtedly the prime concern of all. We have been writing for ages and there is no denial of the prediction that we will keep writing. Electronic Typing or some Artificial Intelligence (AI) Wonder, writing shall prevail.
Based on the above belief and proclamation, I present my notion of what Letter Writing is and should be.
Letter Writing is Communicating with receivers via a script used to present the information, emotion, observation, facts or fiction. This is very much known that a letter is written to compensate for the absence of a face to face interaction.
The interaction which happens 'in-person' has the advantage of being human and allows Face and Tone Persuasion and expression. The same is absent when the interaction is happening via paper. Hence, this is important to note that written communication has to be impactful as well as empowered.
A writer writes for the reader and if there is some reciprocal accountability among the two, the communication becomes all the more 'conscious and demanding'.
To write letters, we learn the types of letters. We find that Social Letters are different from Business Letters and Personal Letters are distinct from Official ones. The difference lies in what function they serve and with whom they 'conspire'.
Referring to the first place where we learn Letter Writing i.e. the School, let's unfold the mystery around what an Application is!
We have heard the word Application for a long and do believe in the sanctity of this tool. It gets things done; it fails; it corrects and makes complex, and it fails people and professions. An Application is a Communiqué sent by A to B whereas the receiver possesses something or some 'authority' over the Sender. The authority might be an official one or something that the Sender has acknowledged as binding, temporary or permanent.
The Application is written to the 'Approving' Authority and the sender speaks in absentia. In the absence of an 'in-person' Pursual, this letter REQUESTS the Receiver to take the Requested Action.
Because we ask the receiver to APPLY the authority lies within the designation possessed, so this is called an Application. We can call it an Application Letter. This doesn't sound a discovery but when we write the Application as a Request or a Pursual meant to Make the Receiver APPLY the Authority in Our Favour, the real purpose is served.
There are three main components in the letter-writing format- Salutation and Complementary Close, Statement of the Problem/Reason of Writing the Letter, and Mention of the Action Required. These three showcases the "Please Apply Your Worthy Powers in My Favour".
One may smell the sense of slavery or colonialism in being so Requestful, but the selection of words can remove the 'i am your slave' sense and can certainly put forward a Courteous yet Persuasive Application.
So, an Application should not be written for the writer. It should rather be written for the receiver with the utmost concern for the fact that one has to convince the reader in favour.
Happy Writing!
Image Courtesy- PEXELS
