ДИЯ (Лекция 1)

Лекция 1.

Structure and presentation

The letter shown on page 6 is from a private individual to a company in the UK. It shows some of the 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. Usually on the first or last line of the receiver’s address. In the case of correspondence with a printed letterhead, it is also usually written on the right-hand side of the page.

The month in the date should not be written in figures, as they can be confusing; for example, 11.1.08 means 11th January 2008 in the UK but

1st November 2008 in the USA. Nor should you abbreviate the month, e.g. Nov. for November, as it simply looks untidy. It takes a moment to write a date in full, but it can take a lot longer to find a misfiled letter which was put in the wrong file because the date was confusing.

Many firms leave out the abbreviation 'th' after the date, e.g. 24 October instead of 24th October. Other firms transpose the date and the month, e.g. October 24 instead of 24 October. These are matters of preference,

but whichever you choose you should be consistent throughout your correspondence.

the date should be written in arable figures with no abbreviations as

“16 February, 2005” . Do not add “ st”, “nd”, “rd”, “th” to the date or

street address. In the body of a letter you may use this endings, as “ on the 14th of May” , or “ on the fourteenth of May”, or “ on the 14th”

Inside (or receiver's) address

This is written below the sender's address and on the opposite side of the page.

1 Surname known

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 (with or without a full stop; pronounced /'mıste /; the unabbreviated form mister should not be used) is the usual courtesy title for a man.

Mrs (with or without a full stop; pronounced /'mısız/; no unabbreviated form) is used for a married woman.

Miss (pronounced /mıs/; not an abbreviation) is used for an unmarried

woman.

Ms (with or without a full stop; pronounced /mız/ or /məz/; no unabbreviated form) is used for both married and unmarried women. Many women now prefer to be addressed by this title, and it is a useful

form of address when you are not sure whether the woman you are writing to is married or not.

Messrs (with or without a full stop; pronounced /'mesəz/; abbreviation for Messieurs, which is never used) is used occasionally for two or more men (Messrs P. Jones and B.L. Parker) but more commonly forms part of the name of a firm (Messrs Collier & Clerke & Co.).

Special titles, which should be included in addresses, are many. They include academic or medical titles: Doctor (Dr.), Professor (Prof.); military titles: Captain (Capt.), Major (Maj.), Colonel (Col.), General (Gen.); aristocratic title: Sir (which means that he is a Knight; not to be confused with the salutation Dear Sir and always followed by a given name – Sir John Brown, not Sir J. Brown or Sir Brown), Dame, Lord,

Baroness, etc.

Esq (with or without full stop; abbreviation for Esquire and pronounced /es'kwaiə/) is seldom used now. If used, it can only be used instead of

Mr and is placed after the name.

Don't use Esq and Mr at the same time:

Bruce Hill Esq, not Mr Bruce Hill Esq.

All these courtesy titles and special titles, except Esq, are also used in salutations.

The Sales Manager, The Finance Director, The Reservations Manager), in which case you can use it in the address.

3 Department known

Alternatively you can address your letter to a particular department of the company (e.g. The Reservations Department, The Sales Department, The Accounts Department).

4 Only company known

Finally, if you know nothing about the company and do not want to make any assumptions about the person or department your letter should go to, you can simply address it to the company itself (e.g. Louis Cruise Liners Ltd., Messrs Collier & Clarke & Co, Ambassador Hotel, Tour Agency “Amelia”).

The names of company types are usually abbreviated, as Plc — Public Limited Company; Ltd — Private Limited Compa ny; Inc — Corporation.

Order of inside addresses

After the name of the person and/or company receiving the letter, the order and style of addresses in the UK, USA and Russia could vary:

The sequence of writing an address in Great Britain:

•Postal service head-office abbreviation and number

•Name of the country

The sequence of writing an address in the USA:

The sequence of writing an address in Russia:

If the letter is addressed to London, the name of the city 'London' should be followed by a shortened name of the corresponding postal district: e.g. EC — East Central; NW - North West; WC — West Central etc.

If the letter is addressed to the USA, the name of a city or town should be followed by the name of the state. Postal Service Abbreviations of the American states:

Some European addresses may place the numbers of the building after the name of the street. It is also common to substitute the name of the country with an initial before the district code number. Look at the two examples below:

(You are advised to follow the one order and style given below, even though variations are possible: for example, the name of the county, e.g. Lancashire, may, if known, be written on the line below the name of the town or city; the postcode may be written on a separate line; the name of the town, as well as the country, may be in capital letters.)

General recommendation of order of an inside address is following:

Name of house or building

Number of building and name of street, road, avenue, etc.

Name of town or city and postcode

Style and punctuation of addresses

Both the addresses may be 'blocked' (i.e. each lineis vertically aligned with the one above):

Bredgade51,

DK 1260,

Copenhagen K,

DENMARK

There are no rules stating that one style or the other must be used, though blocking, at least in addresses, is more common. In any case you must be consistent, i.e. do not block the sender's address and then indent the inside address.

If punctuation is used, each line of the address is followed by a comma, except the last line. But the majority of firms now use open punctuation, i.e. without any commas.

These examples show the most widely used methods of writing addresses.