This Is Not Legal Advise.
PART TWO
Read Part One
It is your responsibility to obtain competent legal council.
The writing of your response must leave no room for interpretation. There can be no opinion, or ambiguity. Your response must be crystal clear as read by your intended reader. That’s important. Your reader must understand, not your lawyer, your engineers, your sales people. Your reader.
Here are ways that you will do this.
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- Write at an eighth grade reading level. We man no disrespect here. Online, that is the preferred reading level to write for. See what content experts at The Nielsen Norman Group
have to say about this.
- Write short sentences of 12 to 15 words.
- Use short, simple words that are in common usage.
- Verify the spelling and meaning. We once saw a prominent restaurant advertise a decedent desert when they meant a decadent desert.
- Edit ruthlessly. A typographical error or use of the wrong word, though spelled correctly, will make you a laughing-stock. And will only further tarnish your image.
- Write out numbers between zero and ten. For 11 and greater use numerals.
- Yes: One million dollars.
- No: $ 1,000,000.00 – do not include cents. It looks strange and is hard to read. Further, many people do not know how many zeroes are in a million. And I do specifically refer to college students and college graduates.
- Yes: $ 1.2 million.
- No: $ 1.2 million dollars is redundant.
- Yes: List numbers from low to high. Cost will be between $100 and $200. Distance is between two and five miles.
- No: Cost will be between $200 and $100. Distance is between five and two miles.
- Write short sentences of 12 to 15 words. Paragraphs are to be five or six sentences.
- The first sentence in a paragraph introduces material in that paragraph.
- Indent all paragraphs. Studies show that indented paragraphs are more likely to be read.
- Avoid what we call ‘not only’ construction.
- No: “Not only did we contact the customer, we offered to refund the purchase price.”
- Yes: “We contacted the customer and offered to refund the purchase price.”
- See the difference? Write in the positive. Why would you ever attempt to use the word ‘not’ when referring to what you’ve done?
- Do not write complex sentences filled with commas.
- Do not use exclamation (!) marks.
- Capitalize the first word in a sentence and end all sentences with punctuation. Usually with a period (.)
- Insert a single space between sentences.
- Font: use Times New Roman or Georgia in 12 point face. Color, black or navy blue. Background color, white. Don’t get cute with the background and foreground (font color) colors. Some combinations are very hard to read.
- Spend serious time on the title of the response. Ask others about what you’ve chosen and pay close attention to their opinion. Avoid words and phrases that aren’t clear, contain inappropriate connotations, or double entendre.
- Word choice. Do not use vulgar language, profanity, of berate the person who complained. Do not insult one’s intelligence or say that any reasonable person could see that. That sort of thing will destroy your credibility.
- Avoid using contractions like don’t. We recommend writing ‘did not’ because it can not be misread. Remember you are writing for super clear communications here.
- We believe that communication takes place when the thought in your mind is caused to exist in the mind of the reader, viewer, or listener.
- If possible, personalize with words like: you, your, you’re (you are). This contraction you can use because if misread it does no damage.
- Perhaps most important of all is this: your response must read like a kind, loving, adult professional wrote it.
Good luck. We wish you well. And please remember what you see here are only guidelines. And guidelines are not to be slavishly followed. Do what you think is best, good luck.