6. The Signature

Always sign your letters by hand, in ink and in the same style. One must not sign Eric Castle on one occasion and E. Castle on another.

A signature must not carry a title. Do not, for example, sign as Mr J. Piatt or Professor R. Butler. There is one exception to this: a woman writing to a stranger should indicate whether she is married or single and may do so by adding (Mrs) or (Miss) in brackets in front of her signature thus:

(Miss) Alice H. Brooks

If a married woman in business wants to be known by her unmarried name she must of course be addressed as Miss, e.g. Dear Miss Thompson

Because many signatures are not clear, it is good modern practice to type the name of the signer and to place his signature immediately above it, thus:

H.W. Webster

(From: Model Business Letters by L. GARTSIDE)

letterhead ['letahed] n шапка на фир­менном бланке

inside name and address название и имя фирмы, которой адресовано письмо

message (= body of the letter) n зд. собственно письмо

cotnplimenlary closure заключи­тельная фраза письма

signature I'signstfa] n подпись

limited liability [,lara'brlitrj ограни­ченная ответственность

in full полностью

(im)polite [дтрэ'1аЛ] а (не)вежли-

ВЫЙ

courtesy title ['кз.Чга 'taitlj титул

Colonel ['кэ:пэ1] n полковник

formal opening официальное нача­ло (письма)

waste v тратить (впустую)

to keep short зд. писать короткими фразами

reflect v отражать

matching зд. соответствующие

UNIT 2 CARRYING OUT DESIGN WORK

A.

TEXT

Construction of a project begins with carrying out certain types (stages) of work based on the needs of the Customer (Purchaser). The work thus done can be qualified as design documentation.

At the Customer's request the Supplier can do the following:

prepare a Technical Proposal for construction;

send Russian engineers to collect initial data and agree upon the assign­ment for Feasibility Study (FS)' elaboration;

elaborate a Feasibility Study;

prepare a Design Assignment;²

carry out a Detailed Project Report (DPR) ³ including Working Draw­ings as part of the DPR or as a separate stage. Every type of the above-mentioned work is done under a contract signed for a specific purpose, which stipulates the Customer's consideration and approval.

Here is an illustration of successive steps taken by the parties in prepar­ing a DPR:

The Industrial Corporation of... made a decision to construct a ... plant with product capacity of... tons per year.

As a result of the talks with one of the Russian companies, engaged in constructing similar projects, an agreement was concluded. Under a sepa­rate contract a Feasibility Study (Report) was elaborated by the Supplier and sent to the Customer for consideration.

B.

A month later the Supplier received a letter, which ran as follows:

1st September, 20... Dear Sirs,

We have pleasure in informing you that we accept the Feasibility Study you elaborated for the project. We highly appreciate the work you have done for us. We also find convincing your conclusions on the economic benefits of the construction.

39

Our Corporation intends to continue work on the project and we shall be glad if you will be willing to cooperate with us⁴ further in this endeavour.

We look forward to a visit of your experts with a view to discussing the Feasibility Study for final approval. We would also like to consider some points concerning the preparation of a Draft Contract for carrying out a De-« tailed Project Report.

Yours, faithfully, Chairman of the Industrial Corporation ...

A team of Russian experts arrived in the Customer's country to discuss the Feasibility Study. After the approval of the Document it was agreed that our experts together with the Customer's engineers would collect ini­tial data and prepare the Design Assignment on the basis of which the De­tailed Project Report was going to be worked out.⁵ The parties also made tentative conclusions on the amount of work involved and the required time limits for the design work.

Based on the information received, the Russian side worked out a Draft Contract for the elaboration of the DPR and sent it to the Customer. After a careful study of the Draft Contract the Customer's experts came over to Moscow to discuss some terms and conditions that were not fully accept­able to them.

С

1. DISCUSSING THE AMOUNT OF WORK

Supplier: I think we can get down to business right away.

Customer: Very good. Let's start. On the whole the draft suits us quite well,

but there are some points we'd like to raise today. S. All right. Shall we go point by point then, or is there anything that you'd

like to discuss first? C. Yes, first comes the amount of work. Could you prepare working draw­ings along with the DPR? That would ease things around and reduce

the total time limits. S. Well, it's a big project and that's why Working Drawings come as a

separate stage. But in this case there is some benefit for you too. C. Could you be more specific, please? Just to show how we shall benefit

by this. !

S. Certainly. In a DPR we usually give the amount of construction work, j

And with the help of detailed specifications attached to the DPR you'll!

i 40

be able to decide exactly what kind of equipment and materials you will provide yourselves, even at that stage.

С This does sound very attractive,⁶1 must say. Shall we go only by speci­fications to make our choice?

S. Not only. You'll have drawings of the general view of equipment, shops layout as an example, to give you an idea of the future production.

C. Thank you, Mr N. You are quite convincing. I believe the original provi­sion in the draft is quite reasonable.

S. Good. May I suggest a break now?

C. No objections.