Month: March 2019

Writing a Formal Letter

 

If you need to write and send a formal letter, it’s important to properly format the letter and take into account who the recipient of your correspondence will be. It is also important to understand when to use this type of letter because it can shape the recipient’s perception of you, as well as possibly affect your working relationship in the future. Writing a proper formal letter ensures your words are professional, understandable and well-received by the recipient.

A formal letter follows a fixed structure: sender’s address, recipient’s address, date, salutation, a body of three to four paragraphs, and a formal sign-off. Use “Yours sincerely” if you know the recipient’s name; use “Yours faithfully” if you do not. This guide explains each element in detail, with a complete worked example and a free downloadable template.

How to Write a Formal Letter

Sometimes you need a letter to convey your message in a professional way – whether you are applying for a position, making an important request, or resigning from a role. Getting the format right is key to appearing credible and ensuring your letter achieves its purpose.

Presentation matters. A tidy, structured layout sets a professional tone and shows your attention to detail.

Below are the typical sections of a formal letter. Each section, from greeting to signature, serves a purpose in helping your letter look polished and be easily read. Further details follow the illustration:

To respect your reader’s time, present your points in a logical order and keep the text concise. Each sentence should have a clear purpose.

Avoid contractions and informal words (e.g. use “will not” rather than “won’t”).

How to start a professional letter

1) Include your name and contact information

Put your address in the top-right corner. This could be your personal address or another address for replies.

2) Include the recipient’s name and address

Place the recipient’s address on the left, usually below your own. If you are using a windowed envelope, align their address with the envelope window.

3) Add the date

Write the date below the recipient’s address. You can place it on either side of the page, but ensure the month is written in words.

4) Choose the right greeting (salutation)

If you do not know their name, use “Dear Sir” or “Dear Madam” (or both). If you do know their name, use their title (Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr, etc.) and their surname. Keep a formal tone.

Pro Tip: Finding out the person’s name wherever possible makes your letter more personal and professional.
Examples:

a) If you do not know the recipient’s name, use:

Dear Madam,
Dear Sir,
Dear Sir or Madam,

b) If you do know the recipient’s name, use their title (Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr, etc.) and their surname:

Dear Mr Jenkins,
Dear Ms Hamers,
Dear Mrs Hutchins,
Dear Miss Davis,
Dear Dr Green,
Etc.

Did you know?

In the past, formal letters sometimes included elaborate salutations based on the recipient’s social status, such as ‘Reverend Sir’ or ‘Most Worthy Sir’ for clergymen.

How to write the letter body

5) Create the body of your letter

Now that you know how to address your recipient, let us focus on structuring your main message for maximum clarity:

  • Be concise, and relevant: Stick to the core purpose.
  • Avoid informal language: Maintain a formal, respectful tone.
  • Aim for three or four paragraphs: Each paragraph should have a clear aim.

First paragraph: Introduce yourself and explain why you are writing (for example, to enquire, request, or complain).

Middle paragraph(s): Provide the essential background or key points. Keep it short, structured, and focused.

Last paragraph: Explain what you expect from the recipient (for example, a reply, a refund, or more information).

How to end your letter

6) Close with a formal sign-off

Close the letter based on the greeting:

  • Use “Yours sincerely” if you know the recipient’s name.
  • Use “Yours faithfully” if you do not.
7) Add your signature

Sign your name, then print it underneath your signature using capital letters (or type it). If gender might be unclear, add your title in brackets after your name. Optionally, include your telephone number and email.

8) Proofread!

Reading your finished letter from top to bottom helps catch spelling or grammatical errors. Make sure your recipient can easily understand the main points.

Proofreading is Key! – Before sending, always check for errors. A well-edited letter reflects professionalism and care

Types of Formal Letter

The rules above apply to all formal letters, but each type has its own conventions and expectations. Once you are confident with the basics, use these guides to tackle specific letter types:

  • Cover Letter – sent with your CV when applying for an advertised job vacancy
  • Letter of Enquiry – a speculative approach to an organisation that has not advertised a vacancy
  • Complaint Letter – a formal complaint to a company or organisation
  • Resignation Letter – a formal notice of your intention to leave a role
  • Reference Letter – written on behalf of someone to support a job or academic application
  • Business Letter Format – conventions for professional B2B and B2C correspondence

Source:  usingenglish.com

7 Early Symptoms People With Parkinson’s Disease Noticed First

 

The full gamut of symptoms Parkinson’s disease can cause doesn’t typically arrive all at once. If you have Parkinson’s disease, you likely first noticed a mild symptom or two, and thought, “Huh… what’s that all about?” Though Parkinson’s is often thought of as mainly affecting older people, the disease can arise at younger ages, too, and it can involve more than just tremoring, the symptom people tend to be most familiar with. Parkinson’s is a neurodegenerative disorder that targets dopamine-producing neurons in a part of the brain that affects movement, causing symptoms like rigid limbs, gait problems and tremors.

There is no single “Parkinson’s test” you can take to diagnose the disease; rather, doctors will look for a few classic symptoms and their progression over time. But how do you know if your initial symptoms warrant an exploration into the possibility of Parkinson’s disease? To help answer that question, we asked our Parkinson’s disease community to share the symptom they noticed first.

Remember that when it comes to chronic illnesses, symptoms of one condition can overlap with another. If you’re considering Parkinson’s as a possible diagnosis, be sure to check with a doctor, so you can rule out any other possible causes.

1. Loss of Balance

Parkinson’s disease targets a part of the brain that controls balance automatically, so you may notice you are finding it more difficult to balance. The brain will try to compensate by assigning balance to another part of the brain — the “thinking” part. However, this isn’t as effective, so you may start to notice that you can’t correct yourself when you start to fall and you have to concentrate on balancing, whereas a person without Parkinson’s doesn’t have to think about it.

 

2. Hand Tremor

A hallmark symptom of Parkinson’s is tremoring (though it’s important to note that not everyone with Parkinson’s experiences this). You might notice that your hand, finger or chin shakes while you are not trying to move. Tremors from Parkinson’s can be mistaken for essential tremor and vice versa, though they are two separate conditions. Essential tremor does not include balance and gait issues, and more commonly manifests while a person is moving. However, some people with Parkinson’s experience tremors both at rest and while moving.

 

3. Difficulty Gripping Things

The movement issues caused by Parkinson’s can make fine motor skills difficult. Nicola Lee said while she had been having symptoms like feeling weak and losing energy easily for several months, it wasn’t until she began having trouble buttoning and unbuttoning that she began to get worried.

“It wasn’t just buttons either. I couldn’t grip things well. I had trouble picking things off the floor, which was bad for laundry… None of this was due to tremors, mind you,” Lee said. “Most people think everyone has to have a tremor. I learned that wasn’t the case, especially for early diagnosis like I have. There is much more to it [than] that.”

4. Acting Out Dreams

Actor Alan Alda said he was diagnosed four years ago after he read an article about how acting out dreams was a sign of the disease. Indeed, research has shown that almost all people with rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD), the condition responsible for acting out dreams, go on to develop Parkinson’s disease or a similar disorder. RBD is believed to be caused by a brain stem malfunction that allows people to move in their sleep, possibly due to the breakdown of proteins in the brain that causes Parkinson’s disease.

“I was having a dream that someone was attacking me, and I threw a sack of potatoes at them. But what I was really doing was throwing a pillow at my wife,” Alda said.

5. Illegible Handwriting

One classic symptom of Parkinson’s is handwriting that becomes harder to read or very small, called micrographia. As you might imagine, the movement challenges caused by Parkinson’s can make it difficult to hold a pen and write.

“When I told my primary care physician that my handwriting was becoming illegible, she told me to see a neurologist,” Jean Mellano said. “Other strange things started to happen that I could not explain. While volunteering at a race, I was rolling posters for athlete giveaways. I could not understand why the other staff could roll five posters to my one. Why was I so slow at performing such a simple task?”

6. Fatigue

Fatigue is a common symptom of Parkinson’s disease, and typically shows up in the first few years of the disease, even possibly before motor symptoms. Fatigue is not the same as being tired — it is the feeling of having no energy or ability to move but cannot be solved with a good night’s sleep. Fatigue is also often coupled with a lack of motivation, also a common symptom of Parkinson’s due to the loss of dopamine-producing cells.

 

7. Voice Changes

Many people with Parkinson’s notice that their voice has become softer, slower and more monotone. This is due to weakening of the muscles required for speech and greater difficulty controlling the muscles. Another similar symptom is facial “masking,” or a loss of facial expressions.

Singer Linda Ronstadt said the symptom she experienced that began worrying her was her gradual inability to sing.

“I’d start to sing and then it would just clamp up. It was, like, a cramp. My voice would freeze,” Ronstadt said. “And I said, ‘There’s something wrong with my voice.’ And people would say, ‘Oh, you’re just a perfectionist.’ I go, ‘No, there’s really something systemically wrong.’”

 

By Erin Migdol for themighty.com©

 

6 Heat-Tolerant Plants You Need In Your Southern Garden

 

For those of us who adore gardening and can’t wait to get our hands in the dirt every spring, at the first signs of warmer weather we rush to the local nursery to load up on beautiful flowers and fragrant herbs to plant. If you don’t have a good plan, however, you may get home with a carload of plants that are either hard to maintain or do not perform well when the temperature starts to soar. As mild and comfortable as spring can be, we know that a Southern summer can become unbearable, and any living thing that isn’t protected by shade is under threat of getting baked. If you want your colorful garden to perform well in the heat of the summer, do your homework now before you head to the nursery. Look for plants that can hold their own in the heat, humidity, and even drought situations. Every plant needs care – fertilizing, weeding, and watering – but these six gardeners’ favorites are very low-maintenance and can stand up well to our summer conditions.

Lantana

This heat-loving beauty can also stand up to a drought situation rather well. You will enjoy the show of nonstop flowers that appear throughout the hot months of summer. Lantana requires plenty of sun and good drainage. Plus, lantanas are butterfly magnets—no flowers do a better job of attracting them. You can choose a spreading lantana, such as Gold Mound, which is ideal for spilling over walls or along the edges of steps.

Verbena

This is one of the garden’s most colorful, useful, and easy-to-grow plants. They bloom in late spring, thrive in heat, tolerate drought, and attract butterflies. Low verbenas make good ground covers, hanging basket plants, while the taller varieties are good in borders. Verbena dislikes continually wet conditions, so provide good air circulation and well-drained soil.

 

Dusty Miller With its silvery gray foliage, dusty miller makes a striking partner with the more colorful plants in the garden. This plant is quite drought tolerant, although you will need to water the young plants regularly to help them get established. Dusty miller prefers well-drained soil; if you have clay soil, mix some sand into your planting beds. Keep plants producing new foliage by removing yellow flowers in the early summer, and trim leggy plants in late summer to enjoy renewed growth until frost.  Most selections grow 6 to 12 inches tall.

Narrow-Leaf Zinnia

Tiny daisy-faced flowers crowd together on each billowing plant, blooming nonstop right through the summer. Unlike other zinnias that stand up straight, narrow-leaf zinnias form mounding cushions of flowers, making this a perfect plant for borders and containers. Full sun and dry soil are all it takes to produce show-stopping color. What could be easier?

Globe Amaranth

The beautiful blossoms on the globe amaranth look like cover flowers dipped in Easter egg dye.  The rounded flowers range in color from white, pale pin, and lavender to bright magenta, red, and orange. Globe amaranth can be planted in full sun, water young plants frequently for the first few weeks, then let rainfall do the rest. Selections vary in size from 8 to 30 inches tall.

Cosmos

This plant is so cooperative all you have to do is purchase seed packets in order to grow eye-catching flowers. Scatter seeds in mid-spring on loosened soil in a sunny, well-drained spot; you don’t even need to cover them up. In a month or so, you will have blooms to enjoy throughout the summer. Cosmos is not a high maintenance plant; in fact, too much fertilizer can produce more foliage and less flowers. You can choose from a wide selection of colors including white, yellow, orange, red, and any shade of pink you can imagine. Plant sizes range from 2 to 5 feet, so read the description of the seed packet. Choose cosmos sulphureus for best heat tolerance.

Source:  southernliving.com

The INTROVERTS

Being introverted has to do with how you gather energy. You might be introverted if you’re energized by solo time and feel drained after prolonged social interactions. This isn’t necessarily the same as shyness.

 Introverts generally:

  • do better in quiet environments
  • enjoy spending time alone
  • show more reservation than enthusiasm in social settings

„We Are the Introverts“ von Grant Snider

 

Say this Every Morning

Affirmations are a powerful tool that can be used by people of any age (kids included!). When repeated in the morning, affirmations can help get the day started on the right foot and prepare you to take action in pursuit of your goals. Here are two to start your morning to get positivity flowing right off the bat.

Don’t Be Unprofessional at Work

 

Regardless of how long you’ve been working at one place, it’s REALLY important to still keep things professional, especially if you’ve got your eye on that upcoming promotion or big cash money bonus.

We’re all prone to picking up a few bad habits, but be sure to check yourself so you don’t wreck yourself by ensuring you haven’t settled into any of these unprofessional habits on the regular:

 

 

1. Showing up late

Making it to your 9am meeting every day at 9:05? Sure, it’s only 5 minutes and probably not a big deal in the millennial world but believe it or not, people notice.

If you’re running late once in a blue moon – don’t worry. It happens to everyone every now and then. Just don’t be the person that everyone knows will always show up late.

Make an effort to make it to your meetings on time, and to the office – even if it means you have to leave your house just 10 minutes earlier.

2. Complaining

You’ve got a really big workload and you’re tired and you’re hungry – we know! …And we feel you!

BUT the moment you start telling the entire office floor how hard you have it – you’re spreading the negativity.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed at work there are plenty of ways to deal with it, but complaining to your co-workers shouldn’t be one of them.

Don’t be unprofessional, and don’t be a Christina the Complainer. Just get the work done and vent to your BFF over half priced bottles of wine.

3. Interrupting

No one, and we repeat NO ONE, appreciates an interrupter.

And you know just the kind of person we’re talking about: the know-it-all, lack of social awareness individual that meddles their way into sentences – before you can even finish your thought.

No one wants to be girl interrupted – so just simmer down and let that person finish speaking. It’s way more respectful, and a lot easier than it may seem.

4. Gossiping

Along with Christina the Complainer, you know who no one else likes? A Susie Shittalker.

And, that’s just the kind of stuff that’ll catch up to you in your career.

Sure, it’s crazy news that Bry in Billin’ got let go, and that Jennifer picked a totally non-worthy person for the promotion which is SO unfair.

…But really, who cares?

Talking smack at work never leads to any good, so avoid it by all means and leave the conversation the moment you feel it going there.

5. Over-promising and under-delivering

You gotta walk the talk, baby. If you’re going to claim that you’ll have the perfect business case built by EOD Thursday and we only see that doc come through the following Monday – then girl, we’ve got a problem.

The worst thing you can do is talk up a huge game and not deliver on it. It shows poor reliability, low ability to execute, and if you keep doing it – no one’s going to believe a word you say.

Better option? Give yourself some buffer room. For example: Commit to getting it done by Thursday (Actually knowing you should be done by Tuesday) and send it over early. Nothing like impressing the big boss with an early handover!

6. Putting off the small stuff

So, you’re a big shot that’s super busy, which means emails and small things don’t matter… well you’re wrong!

If you think ignoring emails and never getting the “small stuff” done reflects well on you, it doesn’t.

Sure – priorities are super important when you’ve got a lot on the go, but it’s important to set aside a bit of time each day (maybe 30 minutes in the morning, or 30 minutes EOD) to check your emails and respond to those that merit acknowledgement or a response.

Again, reliability people. Even senior execs who are arguably the busiest around, with all-day meetings, travel plans, and more, have time to promptly respond to emails as needed.

7. Dressing Inappropriately

Long gone are the days of perfectly hemmed skirts, tailored suits, and “strict business” attire. Most office settings are now moving towards a casually dressed environment to mimic the trend of the agile and hip start-up scene.

But hey – casual does not mean weekend casual.

Though we love a good pair of ripped jeans (and would argue this could actually be rocked in the office if paired appropriately — but that’s a whole diff conversation), casual dress code definitely doesn’t mean:

  • Showing off some cleavage with low cut tops
  • Giving everyone a sneak peek of those chiseled (and hard earned) abs with a crop top
  • Flaunting an apparently “inappropriate” amount of leg 9-5
  • Flip Flops. So comfy, but so not professional.

You still want to look well put together, classy, clean and professional, so don’t let what you’re wearing defer from your reputation / capability of doing the job.

Overwhelmed by the thought of being on your professional game? Just remember: if you can stay alive 9-5, Friday is always at most, only 5 days away. 

Source:  thewerklife.com

Write from where it Hurts

‘Many traumatic events (e.g., car accidents, natural disasters, etc.) are of time-limited duration. However, in some cases people experience chronic trauma that continues or repeats for months or years at a time. The current PTSD diagnosis often does not fully capture the severe psychological harm that occurs with prolonged, repeated trauma. People who experience chronic trauma often report additional symptoms alongside formal PTSD symptoms, such as changes in their self-concept and the way they adapt to stressful events.’

DR. Judith Herman, Harvard University

 

 

But nonetheless, kept writing, channeling those powerful emotions of pain and longing and hope into your main character’s actions and dialogue.

Just keep writing!