However, it has occurred to me that most of you have signed up for one course only, without even being aware that there are FOUR additional free courses also available! As with all of my e-mail delivered writing help courses, these are serious content-filled multi-part mini-courses. The lessons provide links to sample templates whenever appropriate — so you can see the lessons actually applied.

Typically, once you have signed up and confirmed your subscription via a confirmation e-mail reply, a new lesson will be delivered to your e-mail inbox every second day during the duration of the course, over a two to three week period.

Here’s the list of the free Writing Help Courses that are currently available:

Tips and Tricks For Writing Success!

Business Writing Tips and Tricks!

Letter Writing Success Secrets!

You Too Can Write A How-To Book

Online Book Publishing Secrets!

I have received literally thousands of testimonials from people all over the world praising the quality of information given in these courses, and thanking me for providing them for free to anyone who signs up.

If you are interested in signing up for one or more of the free courses that you have not yet taken, please feel free to do so at the following sign-up page:
http://writinghelptools.com/all-courses.html

IMPORTANT: Although you are allowed to sign up for more than one of the courses that you have not yet taken, I strongly suggest that you only sign up for one at a time. Otherwise, your e-mail inbox might get too overloaded with multiple course lessons all at once.

You can always come back here later and sign-up for another course when the one you are doing is complete. It’s up to you of course, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!

BEFORE LEAVING: PLEASE LEAVE YOUR FEEDBACK IN THE BOX BELOW…

The one thing that comes across to me above all else when I receive these e-mails and Web posts is that a lot of people are unclear as to what a “business letter” really is, and what differentiates it from other types of letters. So, I thought I would send you to a little pop quiz that I set up for one of my writing kits some time ago. I call it the “45-Second Business Letter Knowledge Quiz”. Why not give it a try and see how you do? Here’s the pop quiz link:
http://instantbusinessletterkit.com/quizpage.html

If you do really well on the quiz, great! Good for you! You must be an expert!

If you score below “10”, you are welcome to check out my free business letter resources:
http://www.writinghelp-central.com/sample-letters-business.html

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Nevertheless, in addition to those usual suspects, there are a number of other letter types for which visitors to my websites often request information and samples. Below are links to sample templates of my seven (7) most requested “under the radar” letters:

Appreciation Letter or Letter of Appreciation
http://writinghelp-central.com/appreciation-letter.html

Goodbye Letter or Farewell Letter
http://writinghelp-central.com/goodbye-letter.html

Invitation Letter or Letter of Invitation
http://writinghelp-central.com/invitation-letter.html

Congratulations Letter or Letter of Congratulations
http://writinghelp-central.com/congratulations-letter.html

Termination Letter or Letter of Termination
http://writinghelp-central.com/termination-letter.html

Apology Letter or Letter of Apology
http://writinghelp-central.com/apology-letter.html

Condolence Letter or Letter of Condolence
http://writinghelp-central.com/condolence-letter.html

Most of the above letters can be of a personal or a business nature, depending on the specific situation involved. Make sure you compose and format yours accordingly.
http://www.writinghelp-central.com/letter-formats.html

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Did you know that there are a number of handy little tricks that you can use that will help “squeeze” a letter or other document onto one page without it being noticed by the average reader? These tricks can be applied using any standard word processing software program.

I’m not sure whether a purist at a secretarial school would approve of some of my methods since they may deviate from certain technical standards, but I have used them hundreds of times and nobody has ever been the wiser. The main point being that I was able to keep a letter on one page when the first version overflowed by a few lines onto a second page.

Below are my “page compression tips”, listed in the order in which I suggest you apply them:

1. Move both the left and right margins out about 1/4 in. closer to the edge of the page.

2. Move the top and bottom margins out about 1/4 in. closer to the edge of the page.

3. Edit out the one or two word “overflows”. Take a good look at your draft letter and see if there are any paragraphs that have an ending sentence that “overflows” onto an additional line for the sake of one or two words. If so, make a minor edit or two in the paragraph to shorten it a little so that it will no longer overflow onto the following line. This way, you can often gain two or three extra lines in a one-page letter.

4. Adjust the line spacing on the page. You can gain considerable space on a page by adjusting the line spacing of the text. For example, if the default line spacing is set to “single” at 12 points, try setting it to “exactly” at 12 points if your font size is 12. If that doesn’t do it, try “exactly” at “11 pts”. Often you have to experiment a bit with this one to get the look just right.

5. As a last resort, try reducing the size of the font by 1 point size, say from 12 to 11 points.

6. If your letter still doesn’t “fit” but it’s close, there’s one final thing you can try if you are the author of the letter. Go back and edit it one more time. Look for redundant thoughts and phrases, or those that can be combined into one sentence rather than two. Is every word and phrase absolutely essential to your message? You’ll be amazed at the space savings that this final edit process can result in.

Try the above methods in sequence, one-at-a-time, checking each time to see if your latest change has done the trick for you.

What happens if it still won’t fit?

If you have used all of the above tricks and you still can’t get the letter to fit onto one page, it’s time to admit that you’ve got a real two-pager. In which case, you should then think about “reversing” some of the compression tricks that you applied when you tried to “squeeze” the letter, and then concentrate on making a balanced looking second page.

There’s nothing worse looking than a letter with a one or two sentence second page! So in this case, you may want to actually “stretch” the letter out a bit. Often, at this stage I actually increase the line spacing and reduce the margins slightly so that there will be a decent sized overflow onto the second page.

For example, try reversing steps 1, 2 and 4 above. So instead of decreasing the top, bottom and side margins on page one, try increasing them by 1/4 in. all around. Then increase the point size and see if that helps. Ideally, try to get the page to break cleanly at a paragraph break, for a nice tidy page-to-page transition.

I have used these little “compression tricks” thousands of times, and nobody has ever pulled out their ruler and chastised me for inaccuracy.

The important thing is to end up with a professional “looking” letter.

In fact, if you do a very detailed check of the real-life templates included in any one of my Writing Toolkits you would find that I have used one or more of the above tricks on many of them. But, I’m not telling which ones!
http://www.writinghelp-central.com/sample-letters-business.html

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There are a number of very good reasons why “real-life” sample templates are much more effective than those bare-bones fill-in-the-blank software templates that you often see being promoted online. Here are some of the main benefits that you will realize when working with real-life templates:

Fully-Formatted Final Versions
Real-life templates are fully-formatted as final documents so that you can see exactly how they looked when they were sent out in a “real-life” situation. They don’t look like some kind of “draft” software-generated form letter. When using them, you never have to start from a blank page.

Content With Value
It is much easier to adapt real-life templates to YOUR actual situation because they give you visual and intellectual cues that you can relate to. Naturally, when you see how a professional copywriter or consultant has dealt with a “real-life” scenario, in terms of word choice, phrasing, context, and punctuation, it is much easier to adapt to the real-life situation for which you are writing. This gives value to the actual content of the template.

Easy To Work With
Real-life templates are easier to work with than the typical software-generated templates. You simply load them into your word processing program and edit and adjust them to fit your own specific situation. Presto! With just a little bit of copy, cut, and paste, you have a fully formatted real-life letter ready to be printed and sent out in the mail.

Easily Adaptable
With real-life templates, it is much easier to find an adaptable “fit” for the situation that you are writing for. Not only do they give you the final format of a document; their situational-based content provides an excellent real-life sample and gives you food-for-thought that will assist you in organizing your thoughts as well as in the actual writing process.

The bottom line on real-life templates is that they are easy to use because they are easy to relate to. By their very nature, they are based on real-life people in real-life situations that you can easily identify with. They give you the comfort of knowing that what you are sending out has already been used by professionals in other “real-life” situations.

To see some of my most popular real-life templates, click on the following link:
http://www.writinghelp-central.com/letter-writing-definitions.html

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In fact, there are many other uses for “cover letters” that have nothing to do with job hunting. What I’m talking about here are document transmittal cover(ing) letters used in just about every business. These letters are used to transmit or convey many different types of documents from one party to another.

Typically, a document cover letter is a one-page summary letter that briefly explains and/or itemizes the contents of other more complex and lengthy documents that are attached to it, or enclosed with it. Examples of the types of business documents that are often transmitted or conveyed “under” a cover letter include: plans, reports, applications, legal papers, manuscripts, travel documents, manuals, brochures, artwork, product samples, photos, specifications, technical documents, etc.

In business, cover(ing) letters are an essential part of the routine transmittal of documents from one party to another. Without them, there would be a lot of confusion and chaos with people trying to figure out why exactly they had received bundles of documents with no explanation tying them together.

To see some real-life samples of some typical cover letters, just click on the following link.
http://www.writinghelp-central.com/cover-letter-samples.html

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Following are a few tips that will help you whenever you encounter thank you letter situations in your business or personal life.

1. Make Sure It’s Appropriate
One of the main issues with respect to thank you letters is to know when to send one. As a general rule, I would say “better safe than sorry”. However, make sure there is something noteworthy about the situation. A thank you letter for a routine situation doesn’t make sense and dilutes the meaning.

2. Write It Promptly
It is always best to send a thank you letter as soon as possible after the event for which you are doing the thanking. It will help with the level of sincerity in your letter if the event is still fresh in your mind. In any case, a delayed thank you letter will seem like an obligatory afterthought to the recipient.

3. Remind The Recipient
In your introductory sentence, make it very clear that it is indeed a thank you letter and that it pertains to a specific event, situation and/or person. This will eliminate any confusion on the part of the recipient as to the purpose of the letter.

4. Make It Short and Direct
Get straight to the point and never exceed one page. Thank you letters should be brief, direct, sincere, and to the point. In business situations they will always be type-written, but personal thank you letters can be hand-written or typed, as appropriate to the situation.

5. Make It Personal
By definition, a thank you letter is a sincere personal gesture from one individual to another. It should be expressed as a heartfelt personal sentiment, even when written in a business situation. At the same time, strive to be balanced in approach and don’t be overly effusive.

6. Always Write it To One Person
Always write your thank you letter to an individual, not an organization or group. Even if it’s a situation where a group is involved, write your letter to the senior person in the group and/or the group spokesperson. Ask that person to please pass on your sincere appreciation to the other people in the group, and name them in your letter if possible. (Contrary to advice given by certain so-called experts online, in my experience, writing a group letter is never appropriate and achieves little or nothing).

7. Check Spelling and Grammar
As when writing all letters make sure you carefully check your spelling and grammar. This is even more important for thank you letters, since they are almost always a sincere statement of appreciation from one person to another. Be sure to double check the spelling of all names used in the letter. There’s no quicker way to blow your credibility and sincerity than to misspell someone’s name.

Sending thank you letters whenever appropriate is important in both business and personal life. Individuals and companies that do not send thank you letters, when warranted, can be viewed as ungracious and perhaps not worthy of future good deeds or special treatment.

So, whenever it’s warranted, make sure you send an appropriate and sincere thank you letter. Invariably, thank you letters will be very well received and appreciated by recipients, and the sender’s reputation is generally enhanced in their eyes.

For some real-life samples of thank you letters, check out the following link:
http://www.writinghelp-central.com/thankyou-letter-samples.html

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Here are links to the Top 10 “writing help” pages that visitors viewed during 2009:

1.      Business Letter Samples

http://writinghelp-central.com/sample-letters-business.html

2.      Personal Letter Samples

http://writinghelp-central.com/sample-letters-personal.html

3.      Reference Letter Definition

http://writinghelp-central.com/reference-letter-definition.html

4.      Character Reference Letter Sample

http://writinghelp-central.com/character-reference.html

5.      Recommendation Letter Definition

http://writinghelp-central.com/recommendation-letter-definition.html

6.      MLA Paper Cover Page Sample

http://writinghelp-central.com/mla-sample1.html

7.      Introduction Letter Samples

http://writinghelp-central.com/introduction-letter-samples.html

8.      Business Letter Sample

http://writinghelp-central.com/business-letter.html

9.      APA Paper Cover Page Sample

http://writinghelp-central.com/apa-sample1.html

10.  Invitation Letter Samples

http://writinghelp-central.com/invitation-letter-samples.html

Of course with more than 5 million visitors from over 200 countries, there were a lot of other popular pages in addition to the above.

So, if you need any type of practical writing help from letters, to essays, to resumes, to book reports, to personal statements, and much more, you should spend some time looking around Writing Help Central:

http://www.writinghelp-central.com

However, contrary to what many people believe, you do not have to be a novelist or a professional copywriter to communicate effectively in writing. In fact, if you can talk informally to a friend or colleague you should also be able to write almost any type of day-to-day document for business or personal purposes.

A perfect example of this is in the online world of the Internet All you have to do is surf around online a bit to a few websites and take a look at the writing style that is typically used. Clearly, it’s not Nobel Prize quality writing that prevails online. In most cases, it is simple, down to earth, direct communication.

In reality, to write acceptable copy for online purposes, all you have to do is copy down the exact words you would use if you were sitting across the table from a friend, acquaintance or colleague explaining something to them IN YOUR OWN WORDS.

Really, that’s how it is done. In fact, that is exactly what I do when I write content for my various websites, including this blog. All twelve of the “how to” books that I have written to-date are written in that style. In my opinion, for non-fiction writing there is no better way to do it. All you need to do is “write it as you speak it”!

My latest ebook/book “The Self Bailout Strategy” deals with this subject at length. In that book I devote a full 25 pages to explain the importance of creating simple, direct and easily readable content pages if one wants to build a successful website. In fact, the info website for that new book is a good example of the style of writing that is most effective online:

http://selfbailoutstrategy.com

In that book I even demonstrate how virtually anyone who can speak basic English can also write effectively in English. And for those who still don’t believe that they can do it themselves — I show them how/where they can get others to do it for them for very little cost.

Please take note, that this “write it as you speak it” approach is not only effective online. I also use this style to write all kinds of practical documents in my daily life including: letters (business and personal), reports, essays, etc. I think if you try it, you will be surprised at how easy it is and how clearly you can communicate in writing if you don’t overcomplicate it and keep it simple, direct and conversational.

Here’s my definition of an Introduction Letter or Letter of Introduction:

The primary purpose of an introduction letter, or letter of introduction, is to introduce yourself and/or your business (or another person or business) to another party.

Introduction letters are important business letters because they are usually the first point of contact when you are trying to develop or grow your business. They are often your first “foot in the door”, so they must be well written for full impact.

The two main types of business introduction letters are: business-to-business introduction letters and business-to-customer letters of introduction. There may also sometimes be a requirement for person-to-business introduction letters.

Again, the specific intent of an introduction letter is to “introduce” one party to another. For some reason, many people confuse introduction letters with application letters or cover letters, both of which have specific purposes other than to introduce a person or a business.

The following letters of introduction templates are real-life examples of two of the most common types of introduction letters that are written for business purposes:

Introduction Letter – self-introduction to client.

Letter of Introduction – to introduce professional contact.

In addition to these two examples, there are various other situations that may call for a letter of introduction, both business and personal.

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