Relatives, friends, acquaintances are those whose support you can always count on. But what if you have to turn to a stranger, and besides, not personally, but through writing? In this case, courtesy and the right approach to composing the message will help.
Instruction manual
1
Choose a treatment based on the age of the person you are writing to. It is customary to refer to a child under 16 to “you”, when communicating with a stranger older than this age, good-form rules require the use of the pronoun “you”. At the same time, it’s perfectly acceptable to call a boy or girl by name without a middle name, for example, “I know, Alexander, that you
."or" I decided to write to you, Natasha
". A person of middle and older age is addressed by name and patronymic. If the letter is official and addressed to the official, regardless of age, call it by name and patronymic.
2
At the beginning of the letter, politely greet the addressee. If a person does not belong to any particular culture, the traditional "hello", "hello" are suitable for greeting. Be attentive to the use of epithets such as "dear", "dear" - in a letter to a stranger, they are often inappropriate.
3
Introduce yourself, give some information about yourself.
4
Briefly outline the essence of your letter. Inform the addressee about whether you want to tell him something, ask for something or apologize for something. For example, “I think it will be interesting for you to find out that you have relatives in Belarus” or “Circumstances compel me to ask you for help.”
5
State the information you want to convey to the addressee. Try to write concisely, avoid ambiguous phrases and expressions: a person is not familiar with you, does not know what to expect from you, so there is a chance of being misunderstood.
6
At the end of the letter, specifically formulate your request or wish so that the addressee does not have doubts about what you still want from him. If you make a request, accompany her with an apology for the inconvenience.
7
Goodbye politely. Thank you for your attention to your message.
8
Reread the written letter, make the necessary adjustments to it.
Useful advice
Especially delicately and thoughtfully should be writing a letter of request. If the implementation of what you ask for requires considerable effort, the natural reaction of the addressee will be the desire to refuse you. In such cases, you need to think about what can serve as a motive to a stranger who does not owe you anything, to commit actions in your interest. Unobtrusively appeal to high feelings: responsibility, compassion, etc. Sometimes, on the contrary, such incentives as the desire to receive material benefits and become famous are more effective. The request stated in the official letter is supported by the justification of its legitimacy and references to the law.
