Writing Good Business Letters

When you write personal correspondence either in letter or email form, you know you don’t have to worry quite as much about how you say things. You always want to have good spelling and decent grammar, of course, but your personal friends and family are not going to nitpick and disown you because of a few mistakes. However, when it comes to writing business letters, you want to make sure they are perfectly worded and completely without error. On top of that, they must be clear, to the point, and as brief as possible.

Business letters are all about business. You don’t want to send anything that sounds too personal, but you also don’t want to sound too stiff with someone with which you have been doing business with for a long time. Always start and end with the proper terms like “dear” and “sincerely,” though there are other terms that are acceptable. Look up the proper formatting for business letters, and never stray from that formula for the best outcome each item. There are a few different formats that work, but the most formal works the best, even when you feel the business is more on the casual side.

When it comes to the contents of business letters, you want to make sure your point is clear and that you have said what needs to be said in as few words as possible. Skip over flowery descriptions, as they may alienate some people. When you are writing a letter for business about a particularly touchy subject, you want to write a few drafts, and then put it away to look over again in a few hours or even the next day if that is possible. You will always want a fresh perspective so you are sure you have said what you need to say in the best possible way.

Lastly, check, recheck, and then triple check for spelling and grammar. If you aren’t sure, look it up. The few moments that it takes to do that can mean a huge difference in what happens after your business letters arrive at their destinations. Spell check on the computer is great, but it will not catch everything. If you have to, read the letter backwards, sentence by sentence, so that you can catch any problems. Even better, have someone else read it over. They will have fresh eyes and will catch problems that you did not.

Examples of Cover Letters

No matter what career you choose, there will come a time when you have to write cover letters. Though there are many who are good at making up and editing their resumes so that they are an ideal candidate, the cover letter is often much harder to do. This is because it has to be special made for each job opening, whereas the resume can be the same for the most part. When you get stuck on writing the letter to go with your resume when applying for jobs, your best bet for help is to find good examples of cover letters that you can use as reference when writing your own.

The hard part about using examples of cover letters for your own project is deciding which would go well with the career path you have chosen. Don’t make this part too hard though, as there are times when we think too hard about what we need to say. If you find enough examples of cover letters, you are going to find that the right one will jump right out at you. If you read though enough, you may find many that work, and you can mix and match your favorite parts of them to make something that will truly make your letter stand out above the rest.

Don’t make the mistake of using examples of cover letters word for word when you are using them to help you out. You do have to take one that works well and you then have to make it your own. If your cover letter sounds too generic, it is going to look like you put no thought into it at all. Most companies like people who are detail oriented, and a generic looking and sounding cover letter will not give that impression. Instead, use your cover letter examples as a loose guide to the skeleton of your own letter.

When searching for examples of cover letters, you can find many free ones online. However, you may not find what you need. You can find books that are full of them, and though you will have to pay for them, they will prove to be a valuable investment when they have helped you land the interviews or job of your dreams. This type of resource is going to work for more than examples of cover letters, as they can help you construct other types of business letters as well. Even better, a good cover letter example will be timeless as long as it is edited for personal slant. Once you buy a good resource, you can use it for a long time to come.

Funding Adult Education Courses

The American education system needs an overhaul, beginning with funding adult education courses

In a recent world survey, the United States received a D minus in public high school education! Besides being a disgraceful embarrassment, this fact bodes ill for the future of America. If high school graduates are so ill prepared to qualify for skilled jobs and don’t have the grades to get in to college, America will surely become a third world country of workers in the future. It’s abundantly clear that this issue must be addressed, and soon. Funding adult education courses may be one of the best first steps to getting our educational system back on track.

While the public high school curriculum also needs a vigorous overhaul, we need to do something about the kids who have dropped out of high school, as well as adults who barely made it out of high school. These kids are barely employable in minimum wage jobs, due to a lack of the basic skills required for a minimum wage job. If you can’t even count change correctly, you’ll soon lose your job. Such people often drift from one job to another. With jobs already tight, what happens to these young adults? Eventually, they are locked out of the job market altogether. They’ll either end up on welfare, become homeless, or turn to dealing drugs. A few remedial adult education courses can help reverse this trend. We need to provide funding for adult education courses for those who cannot afford to pay. The consequences of not doing so are costing so much more to every taxpayer and society as a whole.

By providing funding for adult education courses to people already living a life of poverty, we can turn these disadvantaged members of society into productive, taxpaying citizens, with dignity and hope for the future. This single initiative will ultimately reduce crime and provide a better future for the next generation.

In addition to providing access to adult education courses, we should supplement the funding to extend to tutoring, on an as-needed basis. Funding should also be provided to administer aptitude tests to unskilled, poorly educated adults to determine what natural talent they possess. It’s a fact that medical technician jobs go begging, for want of qualified applicants. These skills may often obtained through a short term certification program. These types of adult education courses can turn an adult on welfare into a well paid working taxpayer. Again, their children, the next generation, will reap the benefits, with better opportunities for their future. There are also many adult education courses available in distance learning programs.

Hopefully, the new political administration will take steps to mandate higher standards in our public high schools. A simple switch to the standard high school curriculum of the 1960s would be a massive step forward. We need to attract better teachers with a better rate of pay. Today, a starting teacher’s pay barely exceeds that of a minimum wage job!

It’s easy to crunch the numbers and see that investments made to revamp high school curriculum and provide funding for adult education courses is a drop in the bucket when compared with the cost of maintaining this disgraceful quality of education and the consequences to society.

The future of this country depends, in large part, on our kids acquiring skill levels to meet those required in professional fields.