Industry
Part of Writing business letters that get a straight answer, not silence
Working through the business letters checklist in order
Business letter checklist: five separate passes before sending, from whether the letter does anything at all to approval, method of sending and filing.
Checking a letter by reading it through once, looking for anything wrong, catches almost nothing. The mind smooths over what it expects to see, particularly in a document you wrote yourself, and particularly in the parts you have typed a hundred times.
What works is separate passes, each hunting one class of error. Five passes, in this order, because each one is cheaper than the one before and there is no sense polishing a letter that turns out to have no request in it.
What to take away
- Run the passes in order. There is no sense polishing a letter that turns out to contain no request.
- Read every number and date aloud against its source document. It is the highest-yield check on the page.
- Decide who has to approve the letter before you finish the draft, not after.
Pass 1: Does it do anything?
The most expensive letters are the ones that were checked carefully and never needed to exist. Run this pass before you look at a single word of the prose.
Should this letter exist at all?
Can you state the one outcome in a sentence?
Continue to the factual pass
Stop; the letter is not ready
- Can you say in one sentence what you want to happen after this is read?If not, stop. The letter is not ready.
- Is that request actually on the page, as a request, in words the reader would recognize as being addressed to them?
- Is there exactly one request?Three asks in one letter produces one answer at best.
- Is there a date attached to it?A request with no date is a suggestion.
- Is the reader able to do the thing you are asking?People frequently write to the person they know rather than the person with the authority.
- Would a phone call be better?Some matters need a letter for the record. Others need a conversation followed by a short letter confirming it. Sending the letter alone into a situation that needs a conversation makes things worse.
- Is a letter the right form at all?Ask whether anything here has to be sent a particular way to count.
Pass 2: Is the record right?
This is the factual pass, and it is where the damage lives. Read only for facts. Do not fix wording; you will lose the thread.
The factual pass, item by item
- Recipient name checked against a source
- Entity nametrading versus registered
- Address, including any notice address
- Every date, including weekday checks
- Every number read aloud digit by digit
- Quoted documents opened and confirmed
- Unverified statements removed or verified
- Recipient's name spelled correctly.Check it against a source, not memory.
- The entity name is the right one.Trading name and registered name differ, and in anything contractual the difference matters.
- The address, and whether it is the one that should be used.Some agreements specify an address for formal notices that is not the one you normally write to.
- Every date on the page.The date of the letter. Dates you refer to. Deadline dates. Check that a date you have called a Friday is a Friday.
- Every number.Amounts, invoice numbers, reference numbers, quantities, account numbers. Read each aloud, digit by digit. This is the single highest-yield check in the whole list.
- Every reference to a document.If you cite a clause, a contract date, or a previous letter, open it and confirm it says what you say it says.
- The history you assert."As discussed on the 12th" is checkable, and a reader who finds it wrong will discount everything else in the letter.
- Anything you have stated as fact that you have not verified.Either verify it or take it out.
- Currency, units, and time zoneswhere any of them could be read two ways.
Pass 3: Does it survive being forwarded?
Write for the person you are addressing; check for the third person who reads it. Letters get passed to a manager, a lawyer, an accounts team, or a regulator, and they arrive with no context attached.
Will it survive being forwarded?
- Subject line searchable by a stranger
- Opening says what the letter is
- No context left to the reader's memory
- Nothing you would not want read out
- Tone holds up for an annoyed reader
- Fault or liability claims get a second opinion
- Does the subject line say what this is about, including any reference someone would search for? A stranger searching a file six months later has only that line to go on, which is the same argument the federal plain language guidelines on writing for your audience make about headings generally.
- Does the opening say what the letter isbefore it says anything else? A reader who stops after two lines should know.
- Is there any context the reader supplies from memorythat a stranger would not have? Name the thing rather than calling it "the matter we discussed."
- Is anything in here that you would not want read out?Sarcasm, an aside about a colleague, a joke. Assume the widest possible readership.
- Does the tone still work when read by someone in a bad mood?Written text loses warmth in transit. What feels neutral to you reads cool to a reader who is already annoyed.
- Have you asserted anything about fault, cause, or liability?If so, it needs a second opinion from whoever handles that in your organization before it goes.
- Is there anything about a person that they would be entitled to see?Letters that discuss people have a way of reaching them.
- Would this letter still read acceptably in two years, out of context, in a bundle of documents?
Pass 4: Mechanics
Fast, and it catches the errors that make an otherwise good letter look careless.
Mechanics check before sending
- Attachments attached, correct versions
- Everything referenced actually attached
- File names sensible to the recipient
- Your contact details correct on the letter
- Search for previous recipient's name
- Search for brackets, TBC and XX
- Signature block matches the sender
- Attachments actually attached, and the right versions. Open each one from the message you are about to send.
- Every attachment referenced in the text, and everything referenced actually attached.
- File names sensible.The recipient sees them, and "draft_v7_final_ACTUAL" is a message of its own.
- Your own contact details on the letter, and correct.
- The letter is dated.
- A reference number if your filing uses them, so the reply can be matched to it.
- Spelling, with the checker set to the right language variant.
- Search the document for the previous recipient's nameif you started from an old letter. This is how the wrong company's name ends up in paragraph three.
- Search for your own placeholders.Brackets, "TBC", "XX", a highlighted blank.
- Formatting survivesin whatever the recipient will open it with. Check a converted copy rather than assuming.
- The signature block matcheswho is actually sending it.
Pass 5: Approval and sending
- Does this need someone else's approval before it goes?Establish the answer before you finish the draft, not after.
- Is the approver the right onefor this kind of letter, and do they have what they need to approve it: the background, not just the text?
- Has it been approved in a way you can point to later?A verbal yes is not a record.
- Does it need legal review?Anything terminating an agreement, alleging or admitting a breach, threatening a step, discussing liability or compensation, dealing with employment, or handling personal data. When in doubt on any of these, ask.
- Is the method of sending the one required or agreed?Some notices only count if sent a specified way, to a specified address. Check the agreement rather than the habit.
- Do you need proof of sending or receipt?Decide before, not after.
- Is a copy stored where your records live, as sent, not as a draft?
- Have you logged what you sent and when, in whatever tracks the underlying matter?
The short version
Once the passes above are habit, this is the version to keep beside you:
<figure class="inline-figure">
<img src="/inline/business-letters-checklist-fig6-1280.webp" alt="Condensed twelve-item business letter checklist for daily use (Working through the business letters checklist in order)" loading="lazy" decoding="async" />
<figcaption>Once the five passes are habit, this is the condensed version worth keeping at hand. <a href="https://companyformtemplates.com/image-licence">Image: Company Form Templates</a></figcaption>
</figure>
[ ] Nothing here I would not want read out
[ ] Searched for the previous recipient's name and placeholders
Two habits worth more than the list
Leave it overnight when you can. Nothing improves a difficult letter more, and nothing else finds the sentence you will regret. If the matter is genuinely urgent, at least go and do something else for twenty minutes before the final pass.
Two habits that catch what the list misses
- Leave the letter overnight when possible
- If urgent, step away for twenty minutes
- Have someone else read anything difficult
- A second reader catches assumed context
- They also catch the tone problem
- Read it aloud, two people, before sending
Have someone else read anything difficult. A second reader who was not in the situation catches the assumed context and the tone problem in about ninety seconds, and both are invisible to the author. For a letter that could end a relationship or start a dispute, this is not optional. The read-aloud, two-person form of this check is the one described in operational checklists, and it works here for the same reason.
For the underlying structures see business letters examples, and the business letters page for the general shape. Where a house layout has to be chosen rather than inherited, the Purdue OWL's notes on basic business letters are a usable reference. If you are assessing tools to produce these, choosing business letters software covers what to look at.
