Eliminate Ineffective Openings
Common ineffective, old-fashioned openings to avoid:
- We are in receipt of your letter dated…
- We received your letter of…
- Attached for your reference, please find…
- Enclosed, please find…
- We wrote to you on…
- Our office would like to inform you…
- This letter is for the purpose of…
- This letter concerns…
- It has been brought to my attention that…
- In response to your letter dated…
- In confirmation of our phone conversation…
- This is to verify our telephone conversation of…
These space wasters only get in the way of communication. When you see them, you should be saying, “Oh no! Here comes Rambling Ralph!”
Here are Some Paragraph One Openings
Check Your Own Writing for Opening Paragraphs
You’ve learned the three models for Writing to Get Things Done®. You’ve also learned the differences and when to use them.
Learning Activity:
Review and rewrite your writing samples.
For each writing sample look at paragraph one only:
1. Highlight the sentences where you stated what you want to get done.
2. Cross out sentences where you used obvious openings or unnecessary expressions like:
- In response to your email dated…
- Attached for your reference, please find…
- Our office would like to inform you…
- It has been brought to my attention that…
3. Rewrite opening paragraphs stating what you want to get done in one of the three ways.
- Ask a question.
- Make a definite statement.
- Extend goodwill.