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The business letter is the basic means of communication between two companies...
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The business letter is the basic means of communication between two companies. It is estimated that close to 100 million business letters are written each workday. It is a document typically sent externally to those outside a company but is also sent internally to those within a company. Most business letters have a formal tone. You should write a business letter whenever you need a permanent record that you sent the information enclosed. Because you generally send business letters to other professionals, always include a formal salutation and closing.
Purpose of a Business Letter You will write business letters to inform readers of specific information. However, you might also write a business letter to persuade others to take action or to propose your ideas. Business letters even function as advertisements at times. Consider the letters long-distance phone companies send to those not signed up for their services or the cover letter to your resume. Both of these serve to promote or advertise. Business letters can be challenging to write, because you have to consider how to keep your readers’ attention. This is particularly the case if your readers receive large amounts of mail and have little time to read. Writing business letters is like any other document: First you must analyze your audience and determine your purpose. Then you gather information, create an outline, write a draft, and revise it. The key to writing business letters is to get to the point as quickly as possible and to present your information/ clearly.
Determining your Audience Type Writers determine their audience types by considering: Who they are (age, sex, education, economic status, political/social/religious beliefs); What level of information they have about the subject (novice, general reader, specialist or expert); The context in which they will be reading a piece of writing (in a newspaper, textbook, popular magazine, specialized journal, on the Internet, and so forth). You'll need to analyze your audience in order to write effectively.
Structure and Presentation Business letters in different countries are identical. As a rule a business letter written on the firm form, consists of such elements: sender's address; date; references; inside address (or receiver's address); salutation; subject; introductory paragraph; body of the letter; complimentary close; signature; connectives. Let's examine some features of a simple business letter. Sender's address. In correspondence that does not have a printed letterhead, the sender's address is written on the top right-hand side of the page. In the UK, in contrast to the practice in some countries, it is not usual to write the sender's name before the sender's address. Date. The date is written below the sender's address, sometimes separated from it by a space. The month in the date should not be written in figures as they can be confusing; for example, 11.1.93 means 11th January 1993 in the UK but 1st November 1993 in the USA. In the USA the date may indicate the month first, then the date and then the year, so 15 April 2002 will look as 04.15. 2002 or 04/15/2002. Nor should you abbreviate the month, e.g. Nov. for November, as it simply looks untidy. Inside (or receiver's) address. This is written below the sender's address and on the opposite side of the page. If you know the surname of the person you are writing to, you write this on the first line of the address, preceded by a courtesy title and either the person's initial(s) or his/her first given name, e.g. Mr J.E. Smith or Mr John Smith, not Mr Smith. Courtesy titles used in addresses are as follows: Mr is the usual courtesy title for a man. Mrs is used for a married woman. Miss is used for an unmarried woman. Ms is used for both married and unmarried women and it is a useful form of address when you are not sure whether the woman you are writing to is married or not. Receiver. Writing and translation of addresses used to make some difficulty since Slavic and English layouts are not the same. Now one should mind that they have become almost the same for both home and international correspondence in Ukraine Compare the following:
Іванову A. A. Голові компанії „Сантана-Трейдінг” 45, вул. Данилевського 61007, Харків-7 Укpaїна
Ms Paul Smith (The) Sales Manager of Union Trading LTD 7 Carswood Street Redhill Surrey TQ1 6 BD Great Britain
In English the number of the building precedes the name of the street without comma. In translation it is not recommended to render Ukrainian вулиця, площа by English street, square, etc. and vice versa to avoid confusion in mail delivery. So, вулиця Данілевського in English will be Vulytsia Danylevskogo, not Danylevsky or Danylevskogo Street as well as Carswood Street will be Карсвуд Стріт, not вулиця Карсвуд. Salutations. A letter written to a man should be addressed to, for example, Mr. D. Smith or to D. Smith Esq. (Esquire). A letter to a woman, should be addressed to, for example, Mrs. C. Jones or Miss C. Jones. Dear Sir opens a letter written to a man whose name you do not know. Dear Sirs is used to address a company. When you do not know the name of the person for whom your letter is intended, the salutation takes the form of Dear followed by a courtesy title and the person`s surname. Initials or first names are not generally used in salutations: Dear Mr Smith, not Dear Mr J. Smith or Dear Mr John Smith.
If the person you are writing to is known to you, you should begin with, for example, Dear Mr. Thompson, Dear Mrs. Warren, etc. Otherwise you should begin Dear Sir(s), Dear Madam, or Gentlemen: (Am.). Note that Gentlemen is followed by a colon. Co. and Ltd. are the usual abbreviations for Company and Limited. However it's better to address your letter to some individual—The Managing Director, The Personnel Manager, The Secretary, The Branch Manager, The Export Manager — followed by the name of the company. The body of the business letter usually includes: a) Reference, b) Information, c) Purpose, d) Conclusion.
You should begin your letter with a reference to a letter you have received, an advertisement you have seen, or an event which has prompted the writing of your letter. e.g.: Thank you for your letter of May 3 rd.
It was a great pleasure to receive your letter of July 1st that ….I recently called your agent in this country to ask about.... but he was unable to help me. lt is sometimes necessary to add some detailed information related to the reference, in a subsequent paragraph. Purpose is the most important part of the letter, where you are expected to state clearly and concisely what you want and answer carefully and clearly all the questions that you have been asked.
Conclusion usually consists of some polite remark to round the letter off. e.g.: I look (I am looking) forward to hearing from you soon. I sincerely hope you will be able to help me in this matter. I should greatly appreciate an early reply. Please accept our sincere apologies for the trouble this mistake has caused you. We apologize sincerely for the trouble caused to you, and will take all possible steps to ensure that such a mistake does not occur. Then usually follows the complеmentary close. If you begin your letter with Dear Sir(s) or Dear Madam you may end it with the words "Yours faithfully". If you address a person by name the words "Yours sincerely" are preferable. There is a modern tendency however to use "Yours sincerely" even to people you have never met.
The signature: sign your name clearly, in full, as it should appear on the envelope of the letter addressed to you. Always type your name after your handwritten signature and your position in the firm after your typed signature. The connectives play an outstanding role in writing a business letter. They are used for better comprehension of the contents. e,g.: Owing to, Unfortunately, However, We should be delighted, We do hope, It is possible that, We should be pleased, For this reason, We regret about, Taking into account that, Hopefully.
Summarizing all the above said it should be stressed that any business letter can be written using the following general scheme: 1. Heading (writer’s address, date of the letter) 2. Inside address ( name and address of the person or company receiving the letter) 3. Greeting (Dear Sir:) 4. Body of the letter (reference, information, purpose, conclusion) 5. Closing or complimentary close (saying good-bye) 6. Signature.