Student-initiated Letter Suggestions 



Each student will mail the original messages and will submit a copy of his/her letter to be graded. The original letter should not include the header information. 

Students may choose student-initiated letters from the following categories, or, create an subject of their own: 



Direct Request Letters 

• Letter to an elected official 

• Letter requesting an adjustment 

• Letter to the editor of a newspaper 

• Inquiry about a product or service 

• Request a professor, employer, or friend to be a job reference 

• Invitation to a speaker or request to attend a certain function 

• Inquiry asking about graduate school, law school, dental school, etc. 



Congratulations (individual 

• Award or achievement 

• Election to an office 

• Promotion 

• Graduation 

• Birth of a child 

• Winning a competitive contest 

• Scholarship or Prize 

• Making an outstanding speech 

• Writing a good newspaper, magazine article, or book 

• Performing well in the theater, debate, sports event, or public gathering 



Congratulations (business) 

• Open a new branch 

• 25th or 50th anniversary 

• Move to larger quarters 

• Attain a publicized milestone 

• Distinguished award 

• Special favorable publicity 



Praise for good service that has not been publicized 

• Exceptional salespeople 

• Bus driver 

• Police officers 

• Faculty, staff, or administrators 

• Clerks

Appreciation to anyone who has encouraged, assisted, or helped in any way 

• Parents 

• Friends 

• Employers 

• Others listed under the "praise" section 



Sympathy 

• Death 

• Accident 

• Loss of material possessions 

• Sickness 

• Major operation 

• Other misfortune 



Note: While all letters must be submitted according to the requirements above, it is recommended that, before mailing letters of goodwill, that students take the time to handwrite the letter so that it has the “personal feel” that is important to letters of this type. It is also recommended that the students wait until they have received back a copy of their corrected letter, so that final letter can be written correctly. This will assure that the letter being sent to the addressee will be as free of grammatical errors as possible. 

Negative News or New Habit eMail Suggestions 

For this assignment, you will write either a Negative News or a New Habit eMail, you will NOT write both. This assignment is an email WITHOUT an attachment. In other words, the content is placed in the body of the email, not in a separate attached document. Sending the content as an attached document will result in a 20 point deduction.