{"id":4591,"date":"2011-01-27T10:00:35","date_gmt":"2011-01-27T14:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=4591"},"modified":"2011-01-27T10:26:13","modified_gmt":"2011-01-27T14:26:13","slug":"tips-12-rules-for-writing-great-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/tips-12-rules-for-writing-great-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips: 12 Rules for Writing Great Letters"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Tips%3A%2012%20Rules%20for%20Writing%20Great%20Letters\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p><strong> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border: 1px solid black; margin: 3px 5px;float:left\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/nltr\/img\/sign.letter.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"125\" height=\"94\" \/>Why?<\/strong> Why am I writing to the school? What am I trying to accomplish?<\/p>\n<p><strong> What? <\/strong>What do I want? What are my goals?<\/p>\n<p>When you write letters to the school, you want to express concerns and educate your reader about your child\u2019s problems. When you write a letter, be guided by your purpose.<\/p>\n<p>You want your letters to create a good first impression. These <strong>12 Rules<\/strong> for writing great letters will help you accomplish your objectives.<!--more--><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Before you write a letter, ask &#8220;Why?&#8221; and &#8220;What?&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li>Your first letter is always a draft.<\/li>\n<li>Allow for &#8220;cooling off&#8221; and revision time.<\/li>\n<li>You negotiate with the school for special education services.<\/li>\n<li>Never threaten. Never telegraph your punches!<\/li>\n<li>Make several (unpleasant but necessary) assumptions.<\/li>\n<li>Make your problem unique.<\/li>\n<li>You ARE writing letters to a Stranger who has the power to resolve the problem. (You are NOT writing letters to the school alone.)<\/li>\n<li>Write letters to the school as business letters.<\/li>\n<li>NEVER make judgments.<\/li>\n<li>Write your letter chronologically.<\/li>\n<li>Write letters that are clear and easy to understand.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>We&#8217;ve briefly listed the 12 rules here.\u00a0 Find out much more about <a href=\"..\/..\/advoc\/articles\/12rules_letters.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">How to Write Great Letters<\/span><\/a> . Get the <strong>details on all 12 rules <\/strong>&#8211; <strong>plus<\/strong> <strong>other tips<\/strong> for effective letter writing.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/..\/advoc\/articles\/12rules_letters.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/advoc\/articles\/12rules_letters.htm<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you have concerns about your child&#8217;s special education program, you must express these concerns in writing. <strong>Get into the habit of writing letters after meetings, conversations and events.<\/strong> Writing letters will help you accomplish your objectives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why? Why am I writing to the school? What am I trying to accomplish? What? What do I want? What are my goals? When you write letters to the school, <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/tips-12-rules-for-writing-great-letters\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,150,136],"tags":[1303,560,373],"class_list":["post-4591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-letters","category-strategies","tag-documentation","tag-letter-writing","tag-tips"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4591"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4600,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4591\/revisions\/4600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}