Blog #1

This week I learned about business letter etiquette. I think that proper letter etiquette is an important skill to have in any career. I have learned the hard way, as I believe many other people have, that written communication can be very easily misinterpreted. In the article that I read, “Business Letter Etiquette” by Neil Payne, he stresses that exact point in writing that the “failure to observe correct business letter etiquette can result in you adopting an inappropriate tone, causing offense or misunderstandings, lack of clarity or purpose and hostility or soured relations” (http://ezinearticles.com/?Business-Letter-Etiquette&id=12040). I think that correct letter etiquette would prove just as useful in the teaching profession as it would in any other profession. Social politics are an important part of the teaching profession so any written correspondence within the profession should be done correctly. The goal of proper letter etiquette would be to impress those who you correspond with and to build positive relationships with those who you work with and for. In writing a professional letter, one must consider the style, content and structure of the letter based on who it is for and why. I learned that professional letters should be very clear, consistent and always polite. It is important to keep the letter formal even if you are familiar with the person you are writing to because it may be shown to a third part with whom you may not be as familiar with. Another important tip that I learned from the article was that you should avoid humor at all costs because there is a good chance that humor will be misunderstood or badly timed. Addressing the letter is also of great importance. It is worth the time to make sure that the person’s name is spelled correctly and that you start the letter with “Dear…” and end the letter with “Sincerely…” in order to keep the letter professional without being too informal.