About Formal Inquiry Letters

Inquiry letters are easy to write badly because they have a low ceiling for tone — the request is simple, and the recipient does not know you. That makes specificity the entire game. The templates in this category have been written so that every question is concrete enough to answer with a single reply: a price, an availability window, a procedure, a yes or no. Vague inquiries get vague answers (or no answer at all). When you write yours, decide before you start exactly what answer would be useful, and write the question so that the answer is easy to give. Recipients reward letters that respect their time, and the easiest way to do that is to write the kind of letter you would want to receive yourself.

For more on how to write a letter in this category — the conventions, the pitfalls, and the specific rules of tone that apply — see our full Formal Inquiry Letters writing guide.