1)       Tell a story and let the thread of the narrative flow through the entire letter.

2)       Use the question and answer approach, with each question involving a “yes” answer.

3)       Keep your paragraphs short.  Usually a block of print more than four  lines discourages the eye from moving on.  Several long paragraphs in a row is deadly.

4)       Throw in a one-line paragraph for emphasis.

5)       Use the good old bucket brigade to hook the paragraphs together. Here’s a set of basic connectives.  You can probably think of many more.

          But                        Until

                   And                       Why

                   Then                      This

                   Yet                        However

                   Here                      Moreover

                   Another                 When

                   So                         Nevertheless

                   Even                      Meanwhile

                   If                           Also

                   Therefore

           A connective keeps your copy from getting passive and dull.  And when a connective is missing, that’s where a reader may drop out of the copy.

6)       Indent key phrases and quotations.

7)       Try underlining with a felt pen, highlighting key thoughts, so the letter can be scanned by following the underlining.

8)       Use action verbs, active tense.

9)       Stay away from overly redundant adverbs and don’t continually further qualify helplessly sick adjectives with words ending in “ly.” 

10)     Keep your vocabulary at about an eighth grade level. 

11)     Don’t use words people can’t easily pronounce.  That blocks the flow of the letter.

12)     And don’t moralize.  That also blocks the flow.

13)     Try using trigger words that have special meaning to your particular mailing list.  And sprinkle those key words throughout the copy.

14)     Use simple sentence constructions.  (Thank you, Robert Louis Stevenson, for the warning:   “It takes hard writing to make easy reading.”)

15)     Try putting the reader into the letter:   “Picture yourself lying in the street waiting for the ambulance to arrive.”

16)     Don’t let the copy wander, just because you have extra space.  Search for more exciting material.

17)     Stay with your purpose.  If your goal is to balance the budget, don’t shift to planned giving.

18)     Try using a deadline, and build a case for action before the deadline expires.

19)     Experiment with longhand marginal notes, maybe in red ink.

20)     Read your copy aloud, and when you stumble, smooth out the language.

21)     And, most important of all, write about a flesh and blood person -- not an idea or a program.