Comments

1. Sender’s address (not the name).

2. The company’s and the customer’s reference numbers.

3. Receiver’s address.

4. Date.

5. Salutations. When you know the name of the recipient, use Dear Mr/Mrs/ Miss/ Ms Haakinen. In American English Mr., Mrs. and Ms. include a full stop, e.g. Mr. von Trotta. When you don’t know the name of the recipient:

Dear Sir or Madam (Br E)

Dear Sir or Madam: (Am E)

6. The subject summarises what the letter is about. In most cases it is more preferable to use the pronoun we when writing for your company. This is more formal than I.

7. The body of the letter should be clear and polite. Business letters are usually quite formal.

8. Ending. When your know the name of the recipient, write Yours sincerely.

When you don’t know the name of the recipient, write Yours faithfully.

In American English write Yours truly,

Sincerely,

9. Your signature. Sign the letter with both first and second names.

10. Your name and position. Print them under your signature.

11. Common abbreviations:

Re: regarding

pp (on behalf) when you sign the letter for another person

Enc(s). documents are enclosed with the letter

cc: copies (The names of the people who receive a copy are included in the letter.)

Check yourself:

1. What is a layout of a typical business letter?

2. What are the salutations and the endings of your letters like when

a) you know the name of the person you are writing to

b) you don’t know the name of the person you are writing to ?

3. What are the common abbreviations of business letters?

E-MAILS

E-mail, or electronic mail, sent over the Internet, is increasingly common. E-mails can have a formal business style or a very informal style, similar to spoken English.

This is an e-mail confirming that the two colleagues will discuss contracts at a trade fair. From: Judith Mahon@Waltersed – ema.com To: Marcel. Lieberman@Goldrickpub – ema.com Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2000 10:56:45 Subject: Trade Fair Thanks for the message. I’m looking forward to seeing you at the Hamburg trade fair next month. I’ll bring you the final contracts with me and we can discuss them over lunch. Best wishes Judith

Comments

Information about the sender and the receiver appears at the top, so the writer does not use the traditional greetings. The style is much more informal than in letters, and can be quite casual. The ending is Best wishes rather than Yours sincerely.

The informal style is most suitable for e-mails within your company and for people you know well. Then the greeting is often Hi, Hello or even How are you? Sometimes the ending is omitted and people use abbreviations of words if they want to save time:

CU = see you

tkx = thanks

RUOK? = are you OK?

Check yourself:

1. What is the style of e-mail?

2. What necessary information must it contain?

3. Do you know and use any typical abbreviations used in e-mail letters?