Business letters

2. Learn how to write a business letter:

Letters are perhaps the most important communication because they officially represent your company or organization to the outside world. Your company will seem less attractive if your letters are not professional.

Addresses in England and the USA:

Ms J. Simpson Foreign Rights Manager Chapman& Hall Ltd. 11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE England

Ms A. Arafel Product Information Management McCraw – Hill Book Co 1221 Avenue of the Americas New York, N.Y. 10020 USA

The letterhead (шапка письма)

A letterhead is the name and address of a person or an organization printed at the top of a personal or office stationary. Your letterhead gives you more freedom to express the character of your company than any other part of the letter. The letterhead should give your correspondents all the information they might need if they want to contact you: your company name, your address, your telephone and fax numbers.

Your letter should follow certain order and style.

The date

British American

24^th October, 20 ___ October 24, 20____

2 4October 20 ____

24 Oct. 20____

This is used to be shown as 24^th October, 2011, but is now almost always shown as 24 October 2011 without the “th” after the day, and without a comma after the month. In American letters the date is written in the following way: October, 24, 2011 (October twenty fourth, two thousand eleven). If the date is written in figures, it will look as follows: month/date/year, 05/04/2010, which reads as follows: the fourth of May, two thousand ten

Your reference (ссылка)

A reference is not essential, but it can help you retrieve a letter from your filing system. It will usually be the initials of the person who dictated the letter and those of the person who typed it. It can also contain a file or account number.

The inside address (внутренний адрес)

It is placed in the top-left corner. Make sure you get the name and job title of you correspondent right. If you are replying to a letter, address the person in the form in which he or she has signed. If someone has signed his letter Hywell Walters, you should address him as Hywell Walters, not H. Walters.

Men can be addressed as:

William Sykes Esq.

Mr William Sykes

William Sykes

Women can be addressed as:

Miss (or Mrs or Ms) Hilary Briggs

Hilary Briggs

Esq. is a very formal form of address, it is considered a little old-fashioned. It is polite to use the following titles Mr, Mrs, Miss, Dr, but nowadays it is becoming more and more the norm to address people simply as Hilary Briggs, William Sykes etc. If you have never previously met a person you should use the title which is more formal. If you have met them, you should decide weather they will be offended if you leave the title out, or weather they regard you too formal if you use it.

The salutation (обращение)

It is a part with which the letter starts: the part which begins “Dear …” If you know your correspondent, you could begin “Dear John” or ”Dear Mary”.

If you don’t know your correspondent, the correct salutation is “Dear Sir or Madam”.

The beginning of the letter (начальный абзац)

Your beginning should be eye-catching because it is important to get attention and interest early on in the letter, to get a positive reaction from your readers, you need to make them want to read your letter.

Here are possible alternatives:

I was delighted to receive your letter of 3 July about …..

I was very sorry to hear from your letter of 3 July that ……

Thank you for taking the trouble to write and tell me about ……

I have thought carefully about the points you raised in your letter of 3 July and …..

The body of the letter (текст письма)

It should be logical flow through the letter to the end. The body should be brief, clear and direct.

The ending of the letter (заключительный абзац)

Your closing paragraph is as important as your opening. This is the last thing your correspondent will read, and the last impression he or she will have of you. You should use in two purposes: 1) to summarize your position, 2) to indicate any action that needs to be taken, and by whom.

Here are possible alternatives:

I hope this has helped you to understand our position.

These are problems I would like to review when we meet.

I think you will agree that this is a very special offer.

I am sure you will appreciate our concern over this matter.

I look forward to a long and profitable business relationship.

I will thoroughly investigate the problem and contact you as soon as possible.

If you need any other information, do let me know.

Thank you for your co-operation.

The complimentary close (заключительная формула вежливости)

Yours faithfully

Yours sincerely

With kind regards

With best wishes

The signature (подпись)

The name of the signatory

Sometimes a letter may be dictated by one person, but signed by another, usually a secretary. For example the Sales Manager might dictate a number of letters before going off on business trip, and leave them to be typed and signed by secretary. In that case the signature wood look as follows:

Pp Nicola Dunnet

Diana Childs

Sales Manager

Notes about enclosures (отметки о наличии приложений)

If you are enclosing something with your letter, you should type “Enc.”