Unit Eleven

Business Letter

I. General Information

• A good business letter is brief, straightforward, and polite. If possible, it should be limited to one single-spaced typewritten page. Because it is so brief, a business letter is often judged on small, but important, things: format, grammar, punctuation, openings and closings. A business letter is not the place to try out fancy fonts or experimental writing styles.

II.Parts of Business Letters

• seven standard parts :• letterhead, reference and date, inside

address, salutation, body, complimentary close, and signature.

• optional items:• Attention line, subject line, file or

account number, enclosures, carbon copy notation, mailing notation and postscript.

• Letterhead

• Position: at the center or at the left margin on the top of the page. Contents:

• The company’s name , address, postcode, telephone number, telex number, fax number, the name of the officer or the director and even some picture or slogan for a symbol of the company.

• Reference and Date

• A typewritten date in the heading.

• full block style :two lines below the last line of the letterhead at left margin

• indented style: ending with the right margin

• Inside Address :

• directly below the date line at the left hand margin.

• To an individual: the person’s courtesy title, name, business or executive title and address

• To a group: the full group name and the address.

• Salutation :• at the left margin two lines below the inside

address and two lines above the body of the letter.

• Dear Mr. Smith,Dear Ms. John,Dear Prof. Hobart,Dear Dr. Walter,

• Dear Sirs, Ladies and gentlemen or Gentlemen (To a firm)

• Attention Line ( 提请注意） -- 亲启• Position: between the inside address and the

salutation or above the inside address

• Eg.

• Attention: Import Dept.

• For the attention of Mr. Donnan, Sales manager

• Attention of Mr. Standard, General Manager.

• Subject line: a part of the body of a business letter.

• Position: the salutation and the body of a letter

• Purpose: call attention to what content the letter is about.

• Dear Ms. Smith,

• Our Catalogue No.2,

• Opening Sentence

• The first paragraph of the body is introductory.

• It will always begin with reference to the previous letter received and provide an introduction to what will be discussed.

• We are pleased to inform you that the arrangements have now been made to ship the cotton underwear under your Order no.456.

• We regret up to the time of writing we have not heard anything from you about the shipment under the captioned contract.

• Complimentary close ： a polite way to end a letter.

• Position: in the middle of the page and two lines below the closing sentence for indented layout.

• at the left-hand margin for fully blocked letters.

• Signature:

• the addresser’s signature ,title

• Name of the company if it is previously printed on the letterhead.

• Signing on behalf of somebody else ,it is usual to write for pp or per, before he letter.

• Enclosure :Enc. Or Encs.

• two lines spaces after the signature of the address

• Enc.: 1 Price List

• Postscript

• When you find something forgotten to be included in the letter body before the envelope is to be sealed up.

• The adding of a P.S. should, however, be avoided as far as possible.

• PS: the catalogue was sent to you on July 7th.

III. Format of a Business letter

• Full block form

• modified block form with indented paragraphs

• Full block form: the most popular practice of displaying business letters.

• at the left-hand margin

• indented form: the traditional British practice with the heading usually in the middle and the date on the right-hand side.

IV. Writing Rules for Business Letters ---7 “C”

• Consideration

• Completeness

• Correctness

• Concreteness

• Conciseness

• Clarity

• Courtesy

• Consideration:

• Try to put yourself in his or her place to give consideration to his or her wishes , demands, interests and difficulties.

• Find the best way to express your better understanding and present the message.

• Correctness

• Correctness means not only proper expressions with correct grammar , punctuation and spelling, but also appropriate tone which is a help to achieve the purpose.

• Completeness

• As you work hard for completeness, keep the following guidelines in mind:

• Why do you write the letter, what are the facts supporting the reasons, whether you have answered all the questions asked or not and what the reader is expected to do.

• Concreteness• What the letter comes to should be specific,

definite rather than vague, abstract and general.• Take for example, some qualities or characters of

goods that should be shown with exact figures and avoid words like short, long or good.

• Give specific time (with date ,month, year and even offer hour, minute if necessary).

• But avoid expressions such as yesterday, next month , immediately and etc.

• Conciseness• Conciseness means complete message but briefest

expression with no sacrificing clarity or courtesy.• A good business letter should be precise and to the

point.• Single words are more efficient than phrases.• Wordy languages and redundancy require more time

and money to type and to read.• They are not what modern business people want.

• Clarity• Keep constantly in mind what you want to say in

your letter.• It is welcomed if you express yourself clearly and

directly in the simplest language.• Plain, simple words are more easily understood.• A properly paragraphed message is required for

the purpose of clarity.• For instance ,we use semimonthly instead of

bimonthly for two times a moth., because bimonthly may mean both two times a month and once every two month.

• Courtesy• Courtesy means to show tactfully in your letters

the honest friendship, thoughtful appreciation, sincere politeness, considerate understanding and heartfelt respect.

• Answer letters in good time and write to explain why if you fail to do it promptly.

• Even if you don’t think the recipient is right, you should still respond tactfully and politely.

• Sometimes it is a help to use you-attitude instead of I-attitude.