To persuade a leader of an organization/company to meet with you for an informational interview
so you can learn about their organization/company or industry for your upcoming Recommendation
Report.
NOTES:
You must search for and find a real leader (at a real organization/company) that you think
might be interesting to talk with about your Recommendation Report. Thats to whom you
will address this letter.
Do NOT worry that this person may not be perfect for your research since you will NOT ever
send this letter! The whole point of making you search for an individual is to make you
practice basic research and critical thinking skills.
For the letter, you need this persons name, title, company/organization name, and, most
importantly, company/organization mailing address.
In the letter, use your own name as the sender, but you must find and use Northeastern University,
College of Professional Studies mailing address as your return address (for privacy, do NOT use your
personal mailing address!).
In the letter, tell the person the truth: that you are a CPS student doing research for a class
report and that you think they might be helpful. This is where you practice the art of
persuasive writing what can you tell this person that might encourage them to do what you
want them to do?
raditional 1-page business letter [no longer]
Single spaced
– Must include all the parts of a traditional letter in the right locations with the correct spacing and
indents.
Parts of a traditional business letter include:
names of sender & recipient
titles of sender & recipient
full street mailing addresses of sender & recipient (see NOTES above)
proper greeting & salutation appropriate to the situation
the date letter was written
The content of a traditional business letter is organized into a 3 paragraph classic writing structure
as follows:
1. INTRO explaining who you are and why you are writing
2. DETAILS and INFORMATION needed for recipient to understand or be persuaded
3. CONCLUSION with a NEXT STEP (what do you want them to do after reading letter and HOW)
requirement : 3-paragraph, 1-page maximum; single spaced; skip lines between sections; 12-point Times New Roman
font; 1-inch-margins all around
Content – professional business letter of inquiry
Format – sender and recipient names, titles, business names, addresses; a subject line (Re:);
professional greeting and salutation
Tone & Writing – concise explanation of letters purpose, using crisp writing tone, appropriate to the
audience, and suitable in workplace environment.
