Communication in Business

UNIT 1 BASICS I WRITING BUSINESS LETTERS (p. 12)

1.1 Key facts
In recent times, most of the correspondence in international trade is handled by email since this is the quickest and cheapest way of communication. However, in certain cases it is still necessary to write a letter, eg when sending a contract or samples and patterns. Therefore, we will focus on the following:

 ,Layout ,

Punctuation ,

Parts of a business letter

1.1.1 Layout
Nowadays business letters are written fully blocked. Block letters have every line flush with the left margin.

1.1.1.2 Form of a business letter

Please note that there are no standard rules regarding the spaces between lines and paragraphs. However, all paragraphs of a business letter should be clearly defined. The spaces below are common and should be regarded as an example. For more information please visit

http://bellevuecollege.edu/writinglab/letter.html
1.1.2 Punctuation

You are free to choose between open and full punctuation, though it is worth noting that with the advent of word processing open punctuation is now widely used.

Open punctuation: all punctuation marks are omitted except full stops at the end of a sentence.

Full punctuation: punctuation marks are placed after the following: ,

Date

 ,Salutation

 ,Complimentary close

 ,Abbreviations

 ,Initials

1.1.3 Parts of a business letter

(1) Usually, the letterhead is pre-printed and indicates the company’s logo, full address, phone and fax number, email address and homepage. It can be aligned to the left, right or centre of a page.

(2) The company’s reference number and/or initials identify who in the company sent the letter. Generally, the writer’s initials are in all capitals, followed by a slash, and then followed by the typist’s initials in lowercase letters.

(3) The date is written differently in BE and AE, this may cause confusion when written only in figure form. For this reason, it is often better to write the date in full.

(4) The name and the address of the addressee are indicated. If you write to the attention of a person, the name and the function of the person is mentioned before the company name of the addressee. When writing to a particular department, the department is mentioned after the company name in the address.

(5) In German and American letters, the subject line is placed before the salutation, however, in Great Britain it is different.

(6) The correct salutation must be used with the complimentary close. Once again there are differences in BE and AE:

Mrs is used for married women only.

Ms is used for married or unmarried women, and should be used if the addressee’s marital status is unclear.

(7) The text of the letter should be drafted according to the KISSprinciple: Keep It Short and Simple! There must be one clear line space between paragraphs to divide the text into manageable sections.