Writing an Effective Persuasive Business Letter

The Art of PersuasionHow can you influence how people think and act?

Goal: You should produce writing that uses an appropriate organizational structure, sets a context and engages the reader, maintains a coherent focus throughout, and signals a satisfying closure.

You need to select a focus, an organizational structure, and a point of view based on purpose, audience, length, and meet format requirements.

Situation: You are a student who recently found out about a problem in the community and you want to do something about it, but you can’t do it all alone so you need to get your community to support you. How will you do that?

TASK Specification

One way is writing a business letter. You will complete a graphic organizer during the prewriting stage in order to draft a business letter. But, FIRST!

Classroom Task: Discussion1. Identify audience and purpose for writing the business letter:

1. Author’s Purpose:1. Is your business letter going to written to make a suggestion? 2. Is your business letter going to written to give an opinion?3. Is your business letter going to written to make a complaint?4. Is your business letter going to written to request permission or information?5. Is your business letter going to written to order a product?

2. Audience:1. Who is the person you need to write the letter to in order to achieve your goal? This depends on your

purpose.

Conclusion: Convince the school principal to allow you to host an Entrepreneurship Day to raise money for a charity of your choice.

Prewriting Stage

Classroom Task: BrainstormingWhat is the purpose of writing a draft?

What kind of language and information do you need to use in order to convince your audience to give you permission?

- Ideas: You should include a clear opinion/stance statement and logical reasons support your opinion.

- What charity do you want to support? Why? (Operation Smile or Red Crescent)- Why do you think an Entrepreneurship Day is a good way of promoting community awareness and

involving the whole community?- Being an entrepreneur means creating unique opportunities, services, and/or products. What will

you do? How will you do it? Where and when will it happen? How will doing this affect the community? How will it help you develop as an individual? Why should Ms. Dehombreux agree to your request? (See School Vision and Mission Statements)

- Organization: The way you organize your ideas are logical and move smoothly from beginning to end. The opening contains the opinion/stance statement. The middle provide clear support. The transitions build strong connections.

- Word Choice: No slang (Yo Wassup!!), No contractions (don’t) and No conversation: Be straight to the point. Strong, engaging, positive words contribute to the main message.

- Conventions: Language mistakes are rarely forgiven in the business setting.

- Voice: You need to be confident, positive, and completely convincing.

Aim: Convince the school principal to allow you to host an Entrepreneurship Day to raise money for a charity of your choice.

Prewriting Stage

Classroom Task: BrainstormingWhat is the purpose of writing a draft?

How do you present text and ideas effectively through organization and formatting?

Aim: Convince the school principal to allow you to host an Entrepreneurship Day to raise money for a charity of your choice.

Drafting Stage

Heading: Includes your address and date Inside Address: Includes the name, title and

address of the person/organization you are writing to

Salutation: Formal greeting of person addressed – punctuate with a colon (Dear Ms. Valerie Dehombreux:)

Body: Main part of the letter. Do not indent paragraphs; skip a line between paragraphs.

Closing: End with “Yours truly,” or “Sincerely,”

Signature: Leave four spaces after the closing and type your full name. Write you signature between your typed name and the closing.

SIX Parts of a Business Letter

Getting OrganizedHeader: What is your address? What is the date you will send the letter to your Principal?

Inside Address: What is the complete address of your Principal? What is their full name?

Salutation: How will you address your Principal?

Body: Paragraph 1: Introduce yourself and your purpose for writing this letter.

Body: Paragraph 2: What are three reasons for hosting the Entrepreneurship Day? Give one example and one fact for each reason.

Body: Paragraph 3: What are three reasons why your Principal should accept your request? Thank the Principal for reading the letter and considering the idea.

Closing: How will you end?

Signature: How will you sign off?

Getting Organized

Having fresh eyes on your work is really important. Quite often someone else will notice errors you missed. Looking at someone else's work will also make you look closer at yours.

Format: Yes/No  Are all paragraphs justified with NO indentations? _______  Is there a return address & a business address? _______  Is there a greeting/salutation that is punctuated correctly & with a courtesy title and the person’s name.

_______  Are there at least three paragraphs With FIVE sentences each? _______ Do you have the correct number of spaces between each part of the letter? _______

Audience/Tone/Content:  Does the author use formal language?(No contractions, slang, conversation) _______  Do you know why he/she is writing to this person from the first paragraph? Highlight the reason. _______ Do you see three reasons to support their request in the second paragraph? Number them. _______  Do they tell you why the Principal should agree to the request connecting to the mission and vision of the school?

_______

Grammar/Spelling:  Are there any words misspelled or misused? Mark them in the letter. _______  Are there any grammatical mistakes? Mark them in the letter. _______ Are there any punctuation mistakes? Mark them in the letter. _______ Are there any capitalization mistakes? Mark them in the letter. _______

Peer Review

I followed the directions for writing a business letter and met the criteria given by the teacher,

I included a heading, which is my address.

I wrote the date below my address.

I included the address of the person to whom I am writing.

I have a greeting/salutation.

I used a colon after my greeting/salutation.

All the names and addresses are spelled correctly.

In my first paragraph, or introduction, I describe who I am and explain the purpose of my letter.

In the second paragraph, I give three reasons with supporting details to support my purpose.

In the third paragraph, I express my viewpoint on this topic or explain my request connected to the school’s mission and vision statement.

I use facts, details or my experiences to support my viewpoint or request.

I thanked the person or organization for reading my letter.

I used a closing to end my letter.

I signed my name at the end of my letter.

The information in my letter is correct.

My letter is polite and uses formal language.

I checked my writing/typing for misspelled words.

I checked my writing/typing for errors in punctuation, capitalization and grammar.

My letter follows the typed format of a business letter.

Checklist: Self Evaluation

Last Minute Check

Directions for writing a business letter are followed. The six parts of the business letter are present and correctly formatteda. First paragraph includes a description of the student and an

explanation of the purpose of the letter.b. Second paragraph includes three reasons with supporting details

to support the purpose.c. Third paragraph includes the expression of your viewpoint on this

topic and/or an explanation of your request connected to the school’s mission and vision statement.

d. You used transition words to make your ideas flow smoothly.e. You thanked the person or organization for reading your letter.f. You used a closing to end your letter.g. You signed your name at the end of your letter.h. The information in your letter is correct.

Word Count: 400 - 450 Your letter is polite and uses formal language. Work is free of language errors Graded on Criteria B: Organization and Criteria C: Language

Due: Monday, May 06, 2013

Task Requirements

"Time For Kids." Time For Kids. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://www.timeforkids.com/tfk/media/hh/pdfs/checklists/businessletter_checklist.pdf>.

"Time For Kids." Time For Kids. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/media/hh/pdfs/samplepapers/businessletter_sample.pdf>.

"Time For Kids." Time For Kids. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/media/hh/pdfs/ideaorganizers/>.

Works Cited