Open letter is a genre of official business journalism that exists at the intersection of informational publication and business writing. Open letters have a number of stylistic features that the performer should be aware of.
Open letter - differences from regular letter
Those who consider any appeals published in the media to be open letters are mistaken. An open letter is fundamentally different from an article, information note, and columnist column. The material is based on a call for unification of positions, action, or simply making information not covered in the media publicity.
Often, open letters are used to resolve issues that are within the competence of government authorities, business structures, etc. A public appeal from supervisors and opinion leaders allows the process of solving the problem to be brought out of the bureaucratic offices and narrow business circles into the public plane.
Individual or collective creativity?
A public letter can be written on behalf of a single author or group of signers. And if in the first case it is enough for the performer to find out the point of view of one informant, then the second will require the creation of an editorial board.
Most often, the editorial board consists of initiators of the preparation of an open letter, consultants and signers of the document. The contractor must first collect the opinions of each of the authors, harmoniously combine all points of view into one document, and then agree on the final material.
Often this process is significantly extended in time, therefore the task of the editorial board is to consider the draft open letter at each meeting as objectively as possible. By the way, meetings of the editorial board do not have to be held in person - it is enough to send out the draft appeal and collect the opinions of all members of the working group.
Writing technique
Depending on the reason for the public address, the style of an open letter can vary from draft to information and explanatory. The signatories of the document should decide in advance on the goals of preparing the document.
If the purpose of an open letter is to attract public attention to a problem and the addressees of the letter, in the end, are not only opinion leaders, but also the population, the social component should be included in the document as much as possible. For example, when describing the problem of lobbying on the pharmaceutical market, it is better to illustrate an appeal to officials with examples of real damage to consumer interests.
It is better to supplement highly specialized issues that are difficult for ordinary people to understand with special informational explanations. They should not be neglected, even if the recipient is familiar with the problem. So, for example, raising the problem of the lack of expertise of design documentation for certain types of construction work, a remark should be made, explaining why this is important for the population.
Writing is the first step to dialogue
Continuing to discuss the issues of goals, the authors of the letter should not forget that an open letter is a kind of invitation to a public discussion of the issue. To do this, the authors of the document must first demonstrate their competence and expert judgment. It is important to avoid misinterpretations, distorted terms and, of course, grammatical errors in the material. Carelessness in preparing an open letter promises to turn against their authors - the media and the public may regard the signers as incompetent or simply ignore the appeal.
Publishing an open letter
After the letter has passed the final version and is fully approved by all signatories, the letter should be made public. The most common sites for posting open letters are the media, various Internet sites and a wide range of mailing list addressees. It is important to consider the possibility of distributing the letter so that it gains the desired resonance.
When publishing in the media, one should take into account the readership, circulation (if it is a newspaper or magazine), as well as the possibility of publishing on a non-commercial basis. Free publishing is important for more than just economic reasons. Signatures "As advertised" or "Commercial material" can indirectly reduce public confidence in the arguments in the open letter. The reader is more likely to trust materials that are published free of charge or written by the editorial team.
The original open letter with signatures, recipient's incoming number and date should be scanned and attached to the newsletter when distributing the material, so that the media can be sure of the authenticity of the document.
