Posts, Letters, and Reports

Writing in Action

Learning effective communications

"Letters and memos keep the wheels of business and industry turning. ... Recognizing not only the cost but also the prime importance of effective letters and memos, many companies have started training courses and have published pamphlets to educate employees in the skill."

Andrews, Deborah C., and Margaret D. Blickle. Technical Writing: Principles and Forms. Macmillan Pub. Co., 1982.

Samuel Samuel believes writing keeps both projects and relationships strong. He practices writing in everyday life — at home, at work, and in civic discussions.

1. Posts, Memos, Postcards

Short messages require concise and clear language.

Memos, social media posts, diary entries, and postcards share something in common. The message is brief and the style often informal. Writing short messages and greetings is a nice way to begin practicing the art of writing. Read these sample posts from Samuel's family and practice producing your own posts using the prompts provided.

Read Amber's postcard to Samuel: The Old Train Station.

Read/Modify a postcard about: Your New Puppy.
Play with the postcard generator.

2. Letters

Personal or business, use the same letter form: Beginning, middle, end.

There are many books out there explaining how to write effective letters. Invest in one. For a brief overview on letter writing see articles: The Letter Format, and Planning your Letter.

Below are some sample Letters from Samuel's family. Read along and use the prompts provided to practice writing your own letters.

The Old Train Station: Samuel replies to Amber's postcard.

Letter to the David Susuki Foundation: Samuel writes a letter to the editor.

Samuel believes that strong arguments deserve clear reasoning. He writes a formal letter focusing on precision and structure.

Letter to the David Susuki Foundation - Version 2: Linda writes her own version.

After reading her father’s letter, Linda asks whether the same points could be made more simply. Encouraged by Samuel, she rewrites the letter using shorter sentences and direct questions.

Play with the Letter Generator

3. Project Documents

Larger documents hold thinking, define scope, prevent drift.

"The written document serves as a holding place for the writer's ideas. ... Writing becomes a way of discovering what one is thinking."

Andrews, Deborah C., and Margaret D. Blickle. pg 11, Technical Writing: Principles and Forms. Macmillan Pub. Co., 1982.

You can review Sam's sample site planning document used to create this literacy site.

Sam recommends searching for free beginner courses or textbooks to get you started. Such as;

Technical Writing, by Hamlin, Rubio at Opentextbooks
Introduction to Professional Communications in the Technical Fields, by Suzan Last at Pressbooks
Free technical writing courses at Google Dev