Part IV. Structural and lexical peculiarities of a
business letter
Bredgate 51,
DK 1260,
Sender's address Copenhagen K,
DENMARK
9th May 2001
Date
Sounsonic Ltd.,
Warwik House,
Inside address Warwik Street,
(Receiver's address) Forest Hill,
London SE23 1JF
UNITED KINGDOM
Attention line For the attention of the Sales
Manager
Salutation Dear Sir or Madam,
Please would you sent me details of your
quadrophonic sound system, which were
advertised in the April edition of "Sound Monthly"?
Body of the letter
I am particular interested in the Omega
range of eguipment that you specialize in.
Complimentary close Yours faithfully,
Ekaterina Gadyukova
Signature E. Gadyukova (Ms)
Per pro p.p. D. Sampson
Company position Sales manager
Enclosure Enc.
1. Structure of a 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.
The date is written below the sender's address, sometimes separated from it
by a space. In the cases of correspondence with the 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, 11.01.1998 means 11th January 1998 in the UK, but
1st November 1998 in the US. 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 mis-filed 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.
Inside's (or receiver's) address
This is written below the sender's address and on the opposite side of the
page, i.e. the left-hand one.
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 fist 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; the abbreviated form 'mister' should not
be used) is the usual courtesy title for a man.
. Mrs (with or without a full stop; no abbreviated form) is used for a
married woman.
. Miss (not an abbreviation) is used for an unmarried woman.
. Ms (with or without a full stop; no abbreviated 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; abbreviation for Messieurs, which is
never used) is used occasionally for two or more men, e.g. Messrs P.
Jones and B.L. Parker) but more commonly forms part of the name of a
firm, e.g. Messrs Collier & Clerk & Co.
. Special titles, which should be included in addresses are many. They
include:
. academic or medical titles, e.g. Doctor (Dr.), Professor
(Prof.)
. military titles, e.g. Captain (Capt.), Major (Maj.), Colonel
(col.)
. aristocratic title, e.g. Sir (which means that he is a
Knight; not 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 a full stop; abbreviation for Esquire) is seldom
used now. If used, it can only be instead of 'Mr' and is placed after the
name, e.g. Bruce Hill Esq., not Mr Bruce Esq.
2. Title known
If you do not know the name of the person you are writing to, you may know
or be able to assume his/her title or position in the company, e.g. the
Sales Manager, or the Finance Director, 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 Sales Department, or The Accounts Department.
4. Company only
Finally, if you know nothing about the company and do not want to make any
assumptions about the person or the department your letter should go to,
you can simply address it to the company itself, e.g. Soundsonic Ltd.,
Messrs Collier & Clerke & Co.
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 and in the US, is as follows:
|British style |American style |
|1. Inside |Address (company) |
| | |
|Messrs Black & Sons, |International Trading Company |
|159 Knightsbridge, |Sabas Building |
|London SWL 87C |507 A. Flores Street |
| |Manila |
| |Philippines |
|The International Trading Company |The American Magazine |
|24 Churchill Avenue |119 Sixth Avenue |
|Maidstone, Kent |New York, NY 11011 |
|ZH8 92B | |
|2. Addressing an individual |on company business |
|The Manager |Mr. C.C. Pan |
|The Hongkong and Shanghai |Far East Jewelry Co. |
|Banking Corporation |68 Queen's Road East |
|Main Office |Hong Kong |
|Kuala Lumpur | |
|Malaysia | |
|Dear Sir, |Dear Sir: |
|Dear Sirs, |Gentlemen: |
|Messrs Mahmound & Son |The Standard Oil Company |
|329 Coast Road |Midland Building |
|Karachi, Pakistan |Cleveland, Ohio 44115 |
|3. Addressing an individual |on private business |
|T. Hardy, Esq., |Mr. C. Manzi |
|c/o Waltons Ltd., |Credito Milano |
|230 Snow Street, |Via Cavour 86 |
|Birmingham, England |Milan |
| |Italy |
|Dear Tom, |Dear Mr. Manzi, |
|Miss Claire Waterson |Continental Supply Company |
|c/o Miller & Sons Pty. Ltd. |321 Surawongse |
|Box 309 |Bangkok |
|Sydney NSW 2000 |Thailand |
|Australia | |
Style and punctuation of addresses
Both the addresses may be 'blocked' (i.e. each line is vertically aligned
with the one above) or 'indented', as below:
Bredgade 51,
DK 1269,
Copenhagen K,
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.
'For the attention of'
An alternative to including the recipient's name or position in the address
is to use an 'attention of'.
e.g. For the attention of Mr. R. Singh (British English) or
Attention: Mr. E.G. Glass, Jr. (American English)
Salutations
. Dear Sir opens a letter written to a man whose name you do not know.
. Dear Sirs is used to address a company. Note: in the US - Gentlemen.
. Dear Madam is used to address a woman, whether single or married, whose
name you do not know.
. Dear Sir or Madam is used to address a person you know neither the name
nor the sex.
. When you do not know the name of the person you are writing to, the
salutation takes the form of Dear followed by a courtesy tille and the
person's surname. Initials or first names are not generally used in
salutations: Dear Mr Smith, not Dear Mr J. Smith. The comma after the
salutation is optional.
The body of the letter
This may be indented or blocked. It is as matter of choice. Whichever style
you use, you must be consistent and use that style all through the letter.
It is usual to leave a line space between paragraphs in the body of
the letter; if the blocked style is used, this is essential.
For the information concerning the linguistic aspect of writing the
body of the letter, consult the following chapters of my diploma paper.
Complimentary closes
. If the letter begins with Dear Sir , Dear Sirs, Dear Madam, Dear Sir or
Madam, it will close with Yours faithfully.
. If the letter begins with a personal name - Dear Mr James, Dear Mr.
Robinson - it will close with Yours sincerely.
. Avoid closing with old-fashioned phrases such as We remain your
faithfully, or Respectfully yours, etc.
. Note that Americans tend to close even formal letters with Yours truly or
Truly yours, which is unusual in the UK in commercial correspondence. But
a letter to a friend or acquaintance may end with Yours truly or the
casual Best wishes.
The comma after the complimentary close is optional. The position of the
complimentary close - on the right, left or in the center of the page - is
the matter of choice. It depends on the style of the letter (blocked
letters tend to put the close on the left, indented letters tend to put
them in the centre) and on the firm's preference.
Signature
Always type your name after your handwritten signature and your position in
the firm after you typed signature. This is known as 'the signature block'.
Even though you may think your signature is easy to read, letters such as
'a', 'e', 'o', and 'v' can easily be confused.
It is, to some extend, a matter of choice whether you sign with your
initial(s), e.g. D. Jenkins, or your given name, e.g. David Jenkins, and
whether you include a courtesy title, e.g. Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms. In your
signature block. But if you give neither your given name nor your title,
your correspondent will not be able to identify your sex and may give you
the wrong title when he/she replies. It is safer therefore, to sign to sign
with your given name, and safest of all to include your title.
Including titles in signatures is, in fact, more common among women
then among men, partly because many women like to make it clear either that
they are married (Mrs.) or unmarried (Miss) or that their martial status is
not relevant (Ms.), and partly because there is a tendency to believe that
important positions in a company can only be held by men. It would do no
harm for men to start including their titles in their signatures.
Per pro
The term 'per pro' (p.p.) is sometimes used in signatures and means 'for
and on behalf of'. Secretaries sometimes use p.p. when signing a letter on
behalf of their bosses.
When writing on behalf of your company, it is useful to indicate your
position in the firm in the signature.
Enclosures
If ther are many enclosures, e.g. leaflets, prospectus, etc., with the
letter, these may be mentioned in the body of the letter. But many firms in
any case write Enc. or Encl. At the bottom of the letter, and if there are
a number of documents, these are listed, e.g.
Enc.
Bill of landing (5copies)
Insurance certificate (1 copy)
Bill of exchange (1 copy)
Some further features of a business letter
1. 'Private and confidential'
This phrase may be written at the head of a letter above salutation, and
more importantly on the envelope, in cases where the letter is intended
only for ht eyes of the named recipient.
There are many variations of the phrase - 'Confidential', 'Strictly
Confidential' - but little difference in meaning between them.
2. Subject title
Some firms open their letters with a subject title (beneath the
salutation). This provides a further reference, saves introducing the
subject in the first paragraph, immediately draws attention to the topic of
the letter, and allows the writer to refer to it throughout the letter.
It is not necessary to begin the subject title with Re: e.g. Re:
Application for the post of typist.
3. Copies
. c.c. (= carbon copies) is written, usually at the end of the letter, when
copies are sent to people other than the named recipient.
. b.c.c. (=blind carbon copies) is written at the copies themselves, though
not, on the top copy, when you do not want the named recipient to know
that other people have received the copies as well.
2. Content of a business letter
Length
How long should a letter be? The answer is as long as necessary and this
will depend on the subject of the letter.
It may be a simple subject, e.g. thanking a customer for a cheque, or
quite complicated, e.g. explaining how a group insurance policy works. It
is a question of how much information you put in the letter: you may give
too little (even for a brief subject), in which case your letter will be
too short, or too much (even for a complicated subject), in which case it
will be too long. Your style and the kind of language you use can also
affect the length. The right length includes the right amount of
information.
The three letters that follow are written by different people in reply
to the same enquiry from a Mr. Arrand about the company's product:
1. Too long
Dear Mr. Arrand,
Thank you very much for your enquiry of 5 November which we receive
today. We often receive enquiries from large stores and always welcome
them, particularly at this time of the year when we know that you will
be stocking for Christmas.
We have enclosed our winter catalogue and are sure you will be
extremely impressed by the wide range of watches that we stock. You
will see that they range from the traditional to the latest in quartz
movements and include ranges for men, women and children, with prices
that should suit upper-market bracket priced at several hundred pounds.
But whether you buy a cheaper or more expensive model we guarantee all
merchandise for two years with a full service.
Enclosed you will also find our price-list giving full details on
Страницы: 1, 2, 3, 4
