Letter
of Inquiry
to Potential Research Contact
General Description
A letter of inquiry may be useful in a variety of situations. You might write a letter of inquiry to
- ask about job opportunities,
- request information about a product or service, and
- find out about available grants.
In a letter of inquiry, you should
- introduce and identify yourself and the context you are writing from,
- state your reason for contacting the addressee,
- briefly outline what kind of information you are requesting,
- suggest possible delivery methods for that information,
- thank the addressee for his or her time.
When you suggest ways for your addressee to respond to your inquiry, consider your needs as well as what will be feasible for her or him. For example, would you like for the addressee to send you information in the mail? Do you plan to follow up on your letter with a phone call to arrange an interview? Would you like the addressee to call you?
Before writing a letter of inquiry, research the organization--find out some of the basic information about its mission and how it functions. If possible, research the person you are contacting--what is his/her title? What are his/her responsibilities? In your letter, show your interest in this organization by demonstrating your knowledge of its goals and structure.
Remember that a letter of inquiry is a request--as you are writing, consider what you are asking the addressee to do and what kind of tone is appropriate for making this request.
For this assignment, you will be writing a letter of inquiry to a potential research contact for your proposal and project for the course. As you begin considering the project that you would like to complete for this course, you will need to do some preliminary research to investigate ideas for how you want to focus. As you consider your project, you might want to think about how to incorporate your own field of study or work into that project. In this case, you may want to contact someone from your field as a research contact.
Required Documents for this Assignment
- project assessment memo
- letter to business contact whom you would like to interview or visit (typical length: 1-2 pages, standard business letter format). The letter should be cc'd to your instructor.
Resources
McMurray, David A. “Business
Correspondence Overview” Online Technical Writing Guide. Austin Community
College. http://www.io.com/~hcexres/tcm1603/acchtml/models.html