Preface to the fourth edition

It’s remarkable how quickly the years have passed since the publication of the first edition of The AMA Handbook of Business Letters. While much has changed during that time, the basic fundamentals of letter writing have remained the same. Still, we felt it was time that we updated the book with a much wider selection of model letters as well as updates to reflect today’s work setting.

People in all walks of the business world are in need of a book that can help them hone their letter-writing skills. The AMA Handbook of Business Letters is designed to answer that need. It will arm you with both the skills needed to be good letter writers and more than 370 model letters on which to base your own correspondence. The AMA Handbook of Business Letters will not just show you how to write better letters, it will show you how to write better.

Sections on grammar and usage in the first part of the book complement the sections on basic letter-writing skills. The second part of The AMA Handbook of Business Letters is the heart of the book. Here, more than 370 model letters have been collected. The vast majority of them are based on actual letters that were used in business. They were chosen to represent the broad spectrum of the type of letters businesspeople will most commonly have to write. We have fictionalized the names of the people, companies, and products in the letters. If a name resembles an actual name, it is purely by coincidence.

Many of the sample letters in Part II can easily be used as emails. We include them in traditional letter format, but the message of each letter can be used as the text for an email. Obviously, the sample letters can also be used as templates for letters that you can attach to emails. We give you tips on how to adapt the letters to email in Chapter 4 in the section titled “Email.” You can find electronic versions of each of the letters in this book at www.amacombooks.org/go/AMAHbkBizLts4.

Part III features two appendixes that give tips on frequently misused words and punctuation.

Many people assisted us with this new edition. In particular, our spouses, Nancy Seglin and Lisa Freiman, were supportive of our efforts. And Bethany and David Whitemyer were invaluable in ensuring that this new edition came to pass.

For assistance on this and previous editions, we’d like to thank: Peggy R. Broekel, Michaela Coleman, Tess Coleman, Donna Reiss Friedman, Loren Gary, Beall D. Gary Jr., Mary Glenn, Robert Griffin, Dr. Lindsey Harlan, Adrienne Hickey, Martha Jewett, Joan Kenney, Jim Lewis, Evan Marshall, Christina Parisi, Sam Mickelberg, Howard Palay, Patti Palay, Pat Richardson, Robert Roen, Louis J. Roffinoli, Matthew Rovner, Lester Seglin, Mike Sivilli, Mark Stoeckle, Lisa Tieszen, John Waggoner, Evan Whitemyer, Lucas Whitemyer, and Tom Williams.

We are particularly grateful to Hank Kennedy, president of AMACOM Books, for having the wisdom to believe that the time was right for a new edition of our book. Erika Spelman and Andy Ambraziejus were terrific shepherds of the book as it made its way through the production process. And Debbie Posner’s substantial work as copyeditor as well as Jacqueline Laks Gorman’s work as proofreader on this new edition make it a far better book than it would have been without the benefit of their extraordinary skills. We also thank our editors Ellen Kadin and William Helms at AMACOM.

We’re also grateful to readers of previous editions who have sent us letters or emails with questions, suggestions, or ideas for this new edition. In an effort to continue to make future editions of the book as useful as possible, we’d like to ask your help once again. If you have ideas for new features or types of letters you’d like to see included in future editions, or if you have observations or questions, email them to us at: [email protected].

Jeffrey L. Seglin, Boston, Massachusetts
Edward Coleman, Indianapolis, Indiana