THE HANDOUT 10

 

• Credits             : 3 SKS
• Meeting            : 10 (Tenth)
• Topic               : Letter of Requesting Information and Action
• Target              : Writing a requesting letter of information and action
• References       : Sharp, Deborah Whittlesey. Writing Business Letters with a Personal Touch.California; Lifetime Learning

Publications, 1984, pp. 1-22

• Contents          :

 

Definition

This letter is used when someone needs to request for special information and wants to get an action to be done by the other party.

When someone requests for information from an individual, there are several things that the person should do:

–       State your desire

–       Highlight each request in a new paragraph

–       Treat your reader like an expert

For letters that are written to ask for an action, someone usually requests for an advice on a simple question or on complex matter. Additionally, this kind of letter is usually various, depending on the use and the intention of the writer.

 

The order of the letter for a simple question:

–       Itemize the information your reader needs

–       Appeal to your reader as an expert

 

The order of the letter on complex matter:

–       State your needs

–       Refer to the enclosures specifically, and highlight each in a separate paragraph.

–       Stress action.

 

Things that you should do in making requests:

–       Don’t back into requests

–       Don’t ask vague questions

–       Don’t use meaningless words

–       Don’t tell all

–       Don’t let your words betray you

–       Don’t presume

–       Write, don’t call

 

 

• Exercises                   :

 

Group discussion

 

1. Please give examples of paragraph of a letter that has a clear request to one of companies inPadangcity (at least two paragraphs)!
2. What do you think about the things that we should do in making requests? Are they important or not? Why?

 

 

• Tasks               :

 

Individual

 

Please write a letter of request to one of your friends in the class and then ask your friend to reply yours and you reply your friend’s letter that is given to you. After that, please explain what the content of your friend’s letter is.

 

Please make the second task like this:

 

My friend’s letter has …………. S/he wants me to ……

 

 

Or,

 

You may write your option as creative as you can.