The 8 families of letters
Almost every letter worth writing fits into 8 families. Choosing the right one does half the work: a request filed under the wrong family gets a reply that answers nothing.
A family is not a filing label: it is an intention. It decides what the letter asks for, the tone it takes and the document that has to go with it. Two well-written letters about the same facts do not obtain the same thing, depending on the family they belong to.
The table below says what each family is for, and above all how you can tell you picked the wrong one. It is that second column that matters: the wrong family is invisible while you are writing, and it shows up in the reply you get, six weeks later.
The marker
What each family is for, and how to tell you picked the wrong one
| The family | What it is for | The sign you picked wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Complain | Something owed to you was not done, or was done badly. The letter describes the failure and asks to be put right. | There was no failure but a reasoned decision: the letter to write is a challenge. |
| Challenge | A decision, an amount or an entry has been made against you. The letter says what it contradicts and what it rests on. | Nothing has been decided yet, you are still waiting: challenging a decision that does not exist loses a whole cycle. |
| Cancel | Ending a commitment, on the right date, with proof that you asked. | The contract had already ended and the billing continues: that is a challenge to an amount, resting on the cancellation. |
| Ask for a document | Obtaining a document somebody else holds: a certificate, a statement, a file, a copy. | What you actually want is everything recorded about you, without knowing which document to ask for: that is a right of access to your data. |
| Report a mistake | Something recorded about you somewhere is wrong. The letter isolates the item, gives the correct value and the document that proves it. | The mistake has already produced a decision that has to be undone: the challenge comes first, the report goes with it. |
| Follow up | The silence has gone on. The letter recalls the date of the request and sets a new one, without changing anything in the request itself. | The first letter never went, or its date cannot be found: there is nothing to follow up, you have to ask. |
| Enforce a guarantee | Goods break down, or a service does not deliver what was promised. The letter dates the purchase and asks for repair, replacement or a refund. | The goods work but do not suit you: a guarantee does not cover changing your mind. |
| Exercise your data rights | Finding out what is kept about you, having it corrected, having it erased, objecting to it. | It is one specific document you are missing, and you know which one: asking for the document is quicker. |
The three common mix-ups
When two families look alike
Three hesitations come up almost every time. Each of them is settled by a single question.
Complain, or challenge?
The question is: is there a decision? If a department has decided something and notified you of it, you challenge that decision, and you rest your case on what it says. If nothing has been decided but something has not been done, you complain. Challenging a failure turns it into a difference of opinion, which is precisely the ground that suits the department best.
Challenge, or report a mistake?
The question is: is the thing that is wrong a piece of data, or a line of reasoning? A wrong date of birth is data, and it gets corrected. A refusal based on a reason that does not hold is reasoning, and it gets challenged. Where one caused the other, both letters go, in this order: the challenge, which starts the clock, then the report, which stops the mistake spreading.
Follow up, or write again?
The question is: do you have the date of your first letter? If you do, follow up, quoting it and changing nothing in the request: it is that date that makes the silence exist. If you do not have it, or the letter never went, write the request for the first time. A follow-up that rewords the request sends the case back to the start, and the department works from the new date.
A family can be empty in this collection without being empty in life: templates arrive in waves, and the craft holds before a template exists. The index of templates says what is already written, family by family.
- See the templates in each family
- Write a letter now the workshop begins precisely with the choice of family
- Learn the method, before the templates