Covering 625 distinct categories, this hands-on guide provides nearly a thousand ready-to-use letters for every conceivable situation -- from seeking out new business to collecting debts to extending congratulations. To compose the perfect letter in a snap, all a stymied writer needs to do is find the appropriate topic in the index, read the brief lead-in comments, and follow the blueprint. Now including a CD-ROM for the first time in this third edition, adapting model missives is even quicker, freeing writers from the tedious task of re-keying.

This targeted, user-friendly collection includes expertly crafted letters for:
-- Requesting favors, from a deadline extension to an extended stay with a relative.
-- Saying "no", politely but firmly, to sundry pleas, demands, and invitations.
-- Selling and fund-raising to get bottom-line results.
-- Seeking employment, and reprimanding and terminating employees.
-- Making and responding to complaints with impact.

For writers determined to draft from scratch, author Harold Meyer offers crash courses in "How to Do It", with step-by-step outlines, interest-arousing openers, and clincher closers for each letter group. Sweeping in scope and eminently useful, Lifetime Encyclopedia of Letters is the ultimate reference for writing it right, whatever the occasion.