Courtesy

Your style should not, however, be so simple that it becomes discourteous. Here is an example of a letter that is so short and simple that it sounds rude.

Dear Mr Rohn,

I have already written to you concerning your outstanding debt of £591. This should have been cleared three months ago. You don't seem to want to co-operate in paying us, and therefore we will sue you if your debt is not cleared within the next ten days.

Yours, etc.

In this version of the same letter, notice the stylistic devices that are used to make it more polite: complex sentences, joined by conjunctions, rather than short sentences; passive rather than active; full forms rather than abbreviated forms.

Dear Mr Rohn,

I refer to the previous letter sent on 10 October in which you were asked to clear the balance of £591 which has been outstanding since July. As you have not replied to the letter you leave little choice for me but to place the matter in the hands of solicitors. However, I am reluctant to do this and am offering you a further ten days to settle the account.

Yours sincerely,

2.4.3

Idioms and colloquial language

It is important to try to get the right 'tone' in your letter. This means that, generally speaking, you should aim for a neutral tone, avoiding pompous language on the one hand (as in the first letter at 2.4.1) and informal or colloquial language on the other hand.

A letter may be given the wrong tone by the use of inappropriate vocabulary, idioms, phrasal verbs, and short forms, among other things. Here are a few examples of each, together with a preferred alternative:

you've probably guessed

you probably know

you'll get your money back

the loan will be repaid

to go into property

to invest in property

a couple of hundred quid

two hundred pounds

prices are at rock bottom

prices are very low

prices have gone through the roof

prices have increased rapidly

These are perhaps extreme examples, but the general point is that you should be very wary of

using idiomatic or colloquial language in your letters. Apart from the danger of being misunderstood if your correspondent is a non-native speaker of English, you may also give an impression of over-familiarity.

2.5

Clarity

Your correspondent must be able to understand what you have written. Confusion in correspondence often arises through a lack of thought and care, and there are a number of ways in which it can happen.

2.5.1

Abbreviations

Abbreviations can be useful because they are quick to write and easy to read. But both parties need to know what the abbreviations stand for.

The abbreviations c.i.f. and f.o.b., for example, are recognized internationally as meaning cosr, insurance, and freight and free on board. But can you be sure that your correspondent would know that o.n.o. means or nearest offer?

Some international organizations, e.g. NATO, are known in all countries by the same set of initials, but many are not, e.g. EEC (European Economic Community) and UNO (United Nations Organization). National organizations, e.g. CBI (Confederation of British Industry) and TUC (Trades Union

Congress), are even less likely to be known by their initials in other countries. Note, for telephone purposes, that with a few exceptions (NATO is one of them) these abbreviations are not usually pronounced as a word, but as separate letters: /ti: j u: si: / not /Uk/.

If you are not absolutely certain that an abbreviation will be easily recognized, do not use it.

2.5.2