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
c.i.f. prices to London and explaining our discounts which we think you
will find very generous and which we hope will take full advantage of.
We are always available to offer you further information about our
products and can promise you personal attention whenever you require
it. This service is given to all our customers throughout the world,
and as you probably know, we deal with countries from the Far East to
Europe and Latin America., and this fact alone bears out our reputation
which has been established for more than a hundred years and has made
our motto a household world - Time for Everyone.
Once again may we thank you for your enquiry and say that we look
forward to hearing from you in the near future?
Yours sincerely,
There are a number of things wrong with a letter of this sort. Though
it tries to advertise the products and the company itself, it is too wordy.
There is no need to explain that stores or shops are stocking for
Christmas; the customer is aware of this. Rather than draw attention to
certain items the customer might be interested in, the letter only explains
what the customer can already see, that there is a wide selection of
watches in the catalogue covering the full range of market prices.
In addition, the writer goes on unnecessarily to explain which
countries the firm sells to, the history of company and its rather
unimpressive motto.
2. Too short
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your enquiry. We have a wide selection of watches
which we are sure you will like. We will be sending a catalogue soon.
Yours faithfully,
There are number of points missing from this letter, quite apart from
