Seeking Compliance: Individualizing Form Letters by Computer

Abstract

Computers and technology now enable the writer of a form letter to insert significant personal information about the individual recipient, the purpose of which is to induce compliance with the sender's purposes. This article is based on a project in producing medical advice letters tailored to individuals. Our evaluations, like other preliminary studies, suggest that individualizing such letters does improve compliance over the conventional (impersonal) form letter. In considering the inner logic of the individualized letter, different methods of forming personalized letters are presented: adding text, subtracting text, and rearranging text. It is shown how the requisite information can be represented by a questionnaire, a diagram, and the printed letter itself. These three components are logically connected so that the user can make various choices and letters can be quickly formulated. Finally, advice is offered to technical writers embarking on the development of an individualized form letter, with some general reflections about the future of this innovation.