Style Guide for Letters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWriting letters to clients involves a very different style from writing academic essays or technical reports, or even personal letters to friends (does anyone still write these?).\u00a0 The object is to communicate complex legal and technical issues to the client.\u00a0 The end result must be that the client understands what we need from him or her, or what his or her options are.\u00a0 This means sometimes foregoing elegance for simplicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Things to avoid:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n- Long sentences with multiple sub-clauses.<\/strong>\u00a0 However correct and elegant they might be, some clients will find them difficult to follow.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Long paragraphs.<\/strong>\u00a0 Some clients will find a large block of text intimidating and so might not read all of it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Expressions such as \u201cso to speak\u201d, \u201csort of\u201d and the like.<\/strong>\u00a0 These generally indicate that you have not yet found the right way to get ideas across.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Misuse of question marks.<\/strong>\u00a0Statements like \u201cI hope you are well\u201d are just that, statements, not questions.\u00a0 A question is \u201cAre you well?\u201d.\u00a0 The converse needs to be watched as well.\u00a0 If you say: \u201cMay I take this opportunity to remind you\u2026.\u201d, that is a question and needs a question mark.\u00a0 You can avoid this by saying: \u201cI take this opportunity to remind you\u2026\u201d, since you have already done so, and do not need an answer.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Misuse of commas.<\/strong>\u00a0A comma indicates a pause when the sentence is read.\u00a0 Read what you have written back to yourself, deliberately pausing at each comma, but otherwise not pausing at all.\u00a0 If it sounds silly, then you have put the commas in the wrong place.\u00a0 Equally, if you run out of breath you might need to add some.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Misplacing of I and We.<\/strong>\u00a0If you are writing as you, rather than impersonally as the firm (a Dear Mr Smith or Dear John type of letter, rather than Dear Sirs), do be consistent about the use of We and I.\u00a0 Generally, you will use \u201cI\u201d when referring to what you are doing, such as referring to their earlier letter, or your telephone conversation, and sending them something, but \u201cwe\u201d when referring to aspects of the firm\u2019s policy or when giving the advice of the firm. So, for example, \u201cwe will ask for a payment on account\u201d and \u201cin our view the patent is invalid\u201d are appropriate, rather than \u201cI\u201d and \u201cmy\u201d, because that is what the client is paying for: the advice of the firm, rather than of one individual in it.\u00a0 It follows that any advice you do give reflects what we as a firm would advise; you will need to confer on that with others if you are not completely sure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Things to use:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n- Short and to-the-point sentences.<\/strong>\u00a0 Don\u2019t be afraid to use a full stop where you might get tempted to put a comma.\u00a0 Ask yourself whether the part of the sentence you were going to put after the comma is really connected to the first part of the sentence.\u00a0 If it is not, start a new sentence.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Short paragraphs.<\/strong>\u00a0However, do try to keep connected ideas in the same paragraph. Don\u2019t be tempted to make every sentence its own paragraph \u2013 that just looks messy.\u00a0 Bullet points can be used to deliver lists of things the client needs to know.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Back to Mail and Letters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is important to follow our style guidelines for two main reasons: We have standardised on the Open Sans font, and use 11pt for our letters.\u00a0 There may,\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":76,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-103","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelovens.co.uk\/OfficeManual\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelovens.co.uk\/OfficeManual\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelovens.co.uk\/OfficeManual\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelovens.co.uk\/OfficeManual\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelovens.co.uk\/OfficeManual\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelovens.co.uk\/OfficeManual\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":631,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelovens.co.uk\/OfficeManual\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103\/revisions\/631"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelovens.co.uk\/OfficeManual\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/76"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelovens.co.uk\/OfficeManual\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}