Лингвистический фон деловой корреспонденции (Linguistic Background of Business Correspondence)

Лингвистический фон деловой корреспонденции (Linguistic Background of Business Correspondence)

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.

Date

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 | |

| | |

| | |

|British style |American style |

|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,

DENMARK

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

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

the fact that, since the writer knew the name of his correspondent he

should have begun the letter Dear Mr Arrand and ended Yours sincerely.

There is no reference to the date or reference number of the enquiry.

Catalogues should be have sent with a reply to the enquiry; it is

annoying for a customer to have to wait for further information to be sent.

Even if a catalogue is sent, the customer's attention should be drawn to

particular items that would interest him/her in the line of business.

He/she might be concerned with the upper or lower end of the market. He

might want moderately priced items, or expensive ones.

3. The right length

Here is a letter that is more suitable:

Dear Mr Arrand, Thank you for your enquiry of 5 November.

We have enclosed our winter catalogue and price-list giving details of

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