TRANSACTIONAL LETTERS

-What is a transactional letter?

Transactional letter are as a kind of request in order to resolve the questions or satisfies the need of someone else. This can be in an informal or formal way depended who is going to receive the message and the topic involves. Also it can contain between 120 and 150 words.

-What are the 6 steps when writing a transactional letter?

1. Begin is the best way, is having in a count what are the characteristic of the situation, it means: who made the request, what is the question that you are going to answer and how you are doing.

2. Plane the answer is the second step and it let us write the letter in the easiest and best way covering all questions, to do it:  we need analyze the question, this with the objective to know what is the kind of person who wrote the letter at the same time what is the kind and style of letter we must use; the original document also can help us to know what is the words that we can use according with the subject, but is important to use our own words.

3. In this point we have to give an order to the paragraph’s letter.  Normally it has four or more paragraphs which must be organized in the next way:

a)    The first paragraph is a small commentary about the letter received, for example giving thanks. Have to account the appropriate use of words

b)    The second paragraph is the development of the topic or answer of the question, in the same way that is the next paragraph (c), even one more paragraph according with our need.

c)    The final paragraph is a short ending using the formal or informal ways of ending that we know.

4. The four step talk about the use of your own words, it let us give a good perception about your vocabulary.

5. The five step talk about the appropriate style that we must use according with the context, we can use an informal or formal style if is an e-mail to your mother or letter to your boss respectively. Then there are tips about the informal style:

ü  Use contractions

ü  Miss out the pronouns in some expressions

ü  Use intensifiers, like: really, completely, absolutely

E.g.

Really nice  

Absolutely awful

Completely fantastic

ü  Use common words, avoiding the use of phrasal verbs.

To write in a formal style you must do the opposite to informal style. 

6. The final step is when you had finished checking in order to find some mistakes that maybe you had made. Look for mistakes that you commonly make.

-What is the most important information that you should take into account at the time of writing a transactional letter?

The most important information that I take into account is:

Analyze if it is an informal or formal letter with the objective to determinate the way in which I must answer.

And know the correct structure of the different types of letters.

Choose the correct vocabulary for the message be understood in the correct way.