Question: Direct Request Letter: Too Many Résumés!

Your company is overwhelmed with résumés for advertised positions. The director of Human Resources asks you to begin investigating résumé scanning software. However, she doesn't want a visit from a software salesperson until she knows more about the possibilities.

You are to compose a form letter that can be sent to different software vendors asking for information.

1. You need to know whether their software can identify job-specific knowledge and experience. One problem your company has experienced has to do with inappropriate information submitted by job candidates. For example, you don't want to know the applicant's race or age. How does the software avoid displaying such information, if the applicant includes it?

2. What about references? This area would seem to need fields available for customization.

3. Does the system rank the résumés according to the job skills and experience required? You would really like a system that, when it finds a great résumé, moves it to the top of the list and perhaps even has a "More Like This" function.

This is a direct letter. The format for a direct letter is:

· Open by stating the main idea. To get the information requested, ask a question or issue a polite command.

· Explain and justify the request. In the body of the letter, questions/factors that need to be considered should be logically arranged in a balanced form.