Levon Gzokyan● Business or English ● Business communication skills
‘INTRODUCTION’ POINT
Introduction
Writing a business letter requires nothing more than basic knowledge of general English and familiarity with special words to describe business terms. Much more attention should be paid to the ability to write in plain and natural style.
With the advent of e-mail written communication is becoming more and more vital for personal and business purposes. The messages are short and less formal than they used to be, but otherwise the rules that governed letter writing in the past have remained practically unchanged. The old principle of 3 C’s – clearness, conciseness and courtesy – has been replaced by the KISS:
Keep
It Simple and Short
Since faxes and emails should be written, in most cases, in the same way as business letters are, while learning business writing skills, we will keep that in our minds.
Business letter layout
There are two main types of business letter writing styles: indented and block.
►Compare two letters: the first written in an indented style and the second written in a block style. What are the differences?
(1) – letterhead/heading
(2) – date
(3) – (inside name: Am) and address
(4) – salutation
(5) – body of the letter
(6) – complimentary close
(7) – signature
(8) – name
(9) – title
(1) The Association of Russian Bankers
21 Leninsky prospect, Moscow, 149390, Russia,
Tel.: +7 495 387 99 40, Fax +7 495 387 99 41
(2) 15 April, 2010
(3) Mr. John Smith
The Managing Director
The West Bank,
177, Picadilly,
London, W1R 7GL
England
(4) Dear Mr Smith,
In order to keep our files updated, I would appreciate if you could send me your latest Annual Report and at the same time put our Association on your mailing list.
(5)Would you please send us your full Annual Report and not a condensed one?
I am looking forward to hearing from you.
(6) Yours faithfully
(7) (signature)
(8) Nina Zarechnaya
(9) (title)
The Association of Russian Bankers
21 Leninsky prospect, Moscow, 149390 Russia
Tel. +7 495 387 99 40 Fax +7 495 387 99 41
15 April, 2010
Mr. John Smith
The Managing Director
The West Bank,
177, Picadilly,
London, W1R 7GL
England
Dear Mr Smith,
In order to keep our files updated, I would appreciate if you could send me your latest Annual Report and at the same time put our Association on your mailing list.
Would you please send us your full Annual Report and not a condensed one?
I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully
(signature)
Nina Zarechnaya
(title)
Now let’s consider the parts of a business letter.
Letterhead or heading and sender’s address
This is normally printed on paper. It gives the necessary information (see Figure 1). If unheaded paper is used, put your address on the right-hand side (see Figure 2). You may also give your mailing address below your signature on the left (American style). The sender’s name usually does not appear in the address. However, the Americans put the name of the sender with the address (Figure 3).
Figure 1.
Western Trades Company Ltd.
506 Shaftesbury Avenue, Westminster, W1D 6EX London, Tel: +44(0)20 555 5555
Fax: +44(0)20 555 5556, E-mail: west.trade@com.co.uk
Figure 2.
Date
17 Templeton Place,
Kensington and Chelsea,
SW5 9NB London
Figure 3.
Date
Inside address
Body of the letter
Signature
Mailing address:
Mr. Richard Duke
13, Queen’s Avenue
Knightsbridge,
Westminster, DU35 5B4
England
Date
There are two ways of writing the date:
17 May 2007 (British style)
May 17, 2007 (American style)
The International Standards Organization recommends writing the date as follows, especially for computer use: 2007-05-17