Writing letters and notices

Letters and notices can have significant consequences for the people who receive them. Unlike a web page someone chooses to visit, a notice may arrive unexpectedly. It may communicate a decision, an entitlement or an obligation, with a deadline and a consequence attached. People may read it quickly, under stress or in an additional language. This guidance builds on Writing for email to help you make these messages clear enough to understand and act on after a quick read.

Know when you are writing a notice

Most email follows the general editorial guidance in Writing for email. A smaller set of messages needs more. Treat a message as a letter or notice – and apply this guidance – when it does any of the following:

• arrives unrequested and requires the reader to do or understand something
• communicates a decision, determination or outcome that affects the person
• creates or changes an entitlement, payment or obligation
• sets a deadline that carries a consequence if it is missed
• will often be read quickly, under stress, or by people with low literacy or English as an additional language.

Identify the main action or decision

Decide the single thing the reader must do or understand, and build the message around it. Make the main instruction easy to find when the reader is skimming under stress.

• Lead with one action or one message. If there are several, rank them and make the primary one unmistakable.
• Move unrelated requests into their own message rather than crowding this one.
• Cut anything that does not help the reader act or understand their position.

Say who, what and why in the first 2 lines of the body

The reader decides in a few seconds whether a message is relevant, urgent or safe to ignore. Answer 3 questions before anything else: who is writing, about what, and why.

• Open with the agency, the program and the reason – for example, ‘We are writing about your Child Care Subsidy…’.
• Follow your agency’s letter template for the salutation and reference or account details. Put the main message at the start of the body.
• Do not assume the reader knows program names, acronyms or earlier correspondence. Say it plainly.

Put the deadline and the consequence together

People act on what is at stake and by when, not on instructions alone. Keep the date and what happens if it passes in the same place – a sentence, a line or a callout – never in separate paragraphs.

• State the deadline and the consequence as one unit: ‘Respond by 30 June. If you do not, your payment will stop.’
• Be specific about the consequence. ‘Your payment may stop’ tells the reader more than ‘action may be taken’.
• If a message has several dates, list the key dates so readers can find them quickly.

The Action required notice in the special-purpose templates pairs a key dates table with a consequences row for this purpose.

Write the action in the reader's words

Describe the next step the way the reader would, in terms of what they do – not the internal process the agency follows.

• Use plain verbs and concrete steps: ‘Upload your payslip’, not ‘Provide substantiating documentation’.
• Give a clear way to act and explain what the reader needs to have ready. Include an alternative contact option for people who cannot use the main channel.
• Say what happens next after they act, so the message does not feel like a dead end.

Make the review or appeal path plain – and keep it in the letter

If a reader can disagree with a decision, they need to know how before the time to do so passes. Review and appeal rights belong in the body of the letter, in plain language – not in fine print or a linked policy.

• State whether the decision can be reviewed or appealed, how, and by when.
• Use plain words for the process, and explain any term the reader must act on.
• Keep the tone neutral: exercising a right is normal, not an accusation.

Keep essential legal information clear

Legal accuracy and plain language are not in conflict. Keep the content the reader needs to act and to understand their rights. Preserve any wording or information that must legally appear in the notice.

• Keep obligations, rights, deadlines and consequences in the main message.
• Where permitted, move supporting legal references and detailed conditions to a separate section or linked page. Use a descriptive heading, such as ‘Conditions of your payment’.
• Keep legally required wording unchanged. Where exact wording is not required, summarise legislation plainly without changing its meaning.

Set a tone that informs without threatening

A notice can be firm and still be respectful. Explain any necessary warning clearly: a message that reads as threatening, or that implies guilt or blame, erodes trust and makes people less likely to act.

• State facts and consequences plainly, and let them carry the weight without alarming language.
• Do not imply wrongdoing where none has been established.
• Assume the reader wants to do the right thing and needs help to do it.

Test whether readers can find and understand the key information

Readers may be under stress or have little time. Ask people who represent your audience to test whether they can find and understand the key information.

• Ask someone outside the program area to read it once, quickly.
• Have them tell you, in one sentence, what they must do and by when.
• If they cannot, the letter is not ready – revise and test again.
• Use readability checks to support testing with readers. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) criterion 3.1.5, at level AAA, requires supplementary content or a simpler version when text needs reading ability beyond lower secondary education, after proper names and titles are removed. See the WCAG reading level guidance.

Before you send

Run through this checklist for every letter or notice.

• Identify the main action or decision and rank any others.
• Name the agency, program and reason in the first 2 lines of the body.
• State the deadline and consequence together.
• Write the action in the reader's words.
• Explain any review or appeal process in plain language in the letter.
• Keep essential legal information, including any required wording.
• Test with people who represent your audience, including people with different reading abilities.

Related templates

These templates provide the structure this guidance calls for.

• Special-purpose templates – notices for required actions, decisions and sensitive matters, with sections for key dates, next steps and support.
• Transactional and service templates – confirmations, reminders and official records triggered by a service interaction.
• Writing for email – the general editorial guidance this page builds on.

Sources