Writing business letters

There are three kinds of letters: personal letters, business letters and official letters. There are some “Golden Rules” for writing business letters and memos.

1 Give your letter a headline.

2 Decide what you are going to say before you start writing.

3 Use short sentences.

4 Put each separate idea in a separate paragraph.

5 Use short words that everyone can understand.

6 Think about your reader: your letters should be clear, complete, concise, correct and addressed in a sincere, polite tone.

The Structure of a Letter

1 Headline.

Harper & Grant Limited

A. Smith & Co., Limited

or Brentwood School,

Hambledon, Cumberland.

The headline may include the reference with initials of the author of the letter and the typist, the number of a file

Our reference (or our ref.) AC/DD/156

Your reference (or your ref.) 15/16/1865

In your reply please refer to FL/KD/151621

Kindly mention Ex. 16.11716 in your reply our file №12/16/1865

Please quote №1245/AB when replying

2 Date

Date is written in the right corner of the letter under the headline. You may use one of these ways of writing the date.

12^th September, 2006

12 September, 2006

September 12^th, 2006

September, 2006

The names of the months are often shortened (except of March, May, June, July).

January – Jan	September – Sept
February – Feb	October – Oct
April – Apr	November – Nov
August – Aug	December – Dec

3 Address.

Address (where the letter is sent to) is written on the left

John Martin, Esq.,

Sales Manager,

Harper & Grant Ltd.,

Great West Road, London, W. 25

or The Manager

Windermere Bank,

68 Cambridge Street,

London, W. 27

The address on the envelope is typed. The way of delivery should be mentioned.

Registered

Air-Mail

Express Delivery.

Back address is typed in the bottom of the envelope or on the backside of it.

4 Enclosure.

If there is an enclosure, than the word Encl. is added after signature.

3 Enclosures or 3 Encl

Encl: Cheque

Enclosures: Bill of Lading, Insurance Policy, Invoice

5 The body of the letter.

Business letters typically follow a number of steps, including the followings:

1) opening and closing greetings;

2) stating the reference at the beginning of the letter;

3) requesting;

4) explaining the reason for writing;

5) thanking;

6) enclosing documents;

7) apologizing;

8) expressing urgency;

9) confirming;

10) ending the letter.

Here is some of the language typical of business letters

1 Opening and closing greetings:

a) If you don’t have a contact name:

Dear Sir or Madam

Yours faithfully

b) If you know the name of the person:

Dear Mr. Jones

Dear Mrs.(Miss, Ms) Jones

Yours sincerely

c) If you know the person as a friend or a close business colleague:

Dear James

Best wishes/regards.

2 Stating the reference at the beginning of the letter.

You can start with either:

Subject _________

or expressions like:

With reference to ______________

I thank you for your letter of 1 July

Further to our telephone conversation, ___________

3 Requesting.

I would be grateful if you could __________

I would appreciate it if you could _________

Could you please ______ ?

4 Explaining the reason for writing.

I am writing to inform / apply / request etc. ________

5 Thanking.

Thank you for _____________

We were very pleased to ____________

6 Enclosing documents.

Where other documents are included with the letter, you can say:

Please find enclosed / attached _________

7 Apologizing.

I regret that

I am afraid that

8 Expressing urgency.

________ at your earliest convenience

________ without delay

________ as soon as possible

9 Confirming.

I am pleased to confirm that ______

I confirm that __________

10 Ending the letter.

I look forward to seeing / meeting you ______

Finally, I would like to thank / remind you _______

Exercise 1 Read the letters and put questions to them.

Here are two short letters. The first is an example of what is called a letter of introduction. Mr.McPherson ought to have written to Mr. Grant to introduce his friend George Duncan. If he had written this letter (but he did not) Mr. Grant, and Elizabeth, his wife, would have known all about him. Mr. Duncan should also have written to ask for an appointment as he was only going to be in London for such a short time. Arriving, as he did, without much warning, he risked finding Mr. Grant away or too busy to see him.

47, Douglas Street,

GLASGOW

17^th July, 2002

Dear Mr. Grant

A good friend of mine, George Duncan, is shortly coming to London and would very much like to meet you and see over your factory.

Mr. Duncan is the Managing Director of G.P.Duncan and Go Ltd., manufactures of artificial fertilizers.

His company is building a new office block and he is interested in obtaining quotations for the cost of furnishing these new offices, so his visit may be of value to you.

With best wishes to you and your wife,

Yours ever,

Jock McPherson

Hector Grant, Esq.,

Managing Director,

Harper and Grant Ltd.,

Great West Road,

London, W.25.

G.P.DUNCAN & CO. LTD.