Do NOT use a Delinquent Account type of letter as your only method of dealing with issues of this kind. It's usual to use a Delinquent Account letter as the last resort prior to taking action. That said obviously, the way you phrase your desired next action on part of the recipient will depend on your relationship to the recipient as well as social customs. Reminder letters are normally regarding outstanding accounts, but are sometimes related to other matters requiring the addressee to perform some action. If you can do that at little cost to yourself, it can hardly hurt if people see your name in their inbox and think "ah, s/he is the one who always makes it easy to see what they want, so I can take a look right away and quickly tell whether it's something I can handle immediately". Probably 90-95% of people won't really care and will be happy with implied closure, but for the remaining 5-10%, it can help a great deal. By changing the alignment it makes it more difficult for the reader to skim. In a business email, you will never need to indent the start of a paragraph. Academic writing indents the first sentence of a paragraph five spaces. It typically only takes one or at most two extra sentences to provide a clear next action, and can go a long way toward fostering that warm fuzzy feeling in the recipient that they are done with that e-mail. Alignment: Business writing uses text that is fully aligned left. In a sense, not much different from writing a question on Stack Exchange: tell us what you need. This could be something simple, such as "looking forward to your feedback on my thromblemeister design proposal" or "please let me know by Wednesday afternoon which option to order, so that we can have it delivered by Friday" or even "let me know if you would like to see the complete manuscript". Give the recipient a clear path forward, next step or next action, in terms of somehow telling them what you're hoping to get out of a reply which will provide closure on the matter. This goes equally for both original requests and reminders alike. An interview thank-you note can solidify the impression you left with the interviewer and make you stand out from the competition. A thank-you note could make the difference between getting the job, the client, or the contract and being passed over in the business world. ![]() Regarding the bullet point on the message being "respectful", I would like to point out something which I don't see being stated explicitly in any of the previous answers. There are many opportunities to send them, too.
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