Business letters

1
Business letters
2

• Letter head1
• Address2
• Date2
• Greeting3
• Body of the letter4
• Close3
• Signature5
• Enclosures5

• Messrs Kenneth Beare
• 2520 Visita Avenue
  
• Olympia, WA 98501
• USA
• Jackson Brothers Ltd.
• 3487 23rd Street
• New York, NY 12009
• USA
• 
  September 12, 2005
  
• RE Enquiry
• Your ref.
  
• Our ref.
• Dear Sirs
• With reference to your advertisement in
• yesterday's New York Times, could you please
• send me a copy of your latest catalogue. I

3
Parts of a business letter

• A business letter has usualy 5 parts
• Letter head which includes the address of the
  sender
• Address (of the buyer) and Date
• Greeting and Close
• Body of the letter
• Signature and Enclosures

4
Address

• Messrs Peter and Paul
• 25 Oak Street
• Denver, Colorado,25698
• USA
• The word Messrs is used before the name of a
  firm, the abbreviations Inc. and Ltd. are used
  after the name
• The number of the house comes before the name of
  the street
• In Britain the postcode follows the name of the
  city, in the USA the name of the state

• AAA Ltd. (Inc.)
• 23 Blue Street
• London LK5 4MN
• Britain

5
Date

• There are four basic possibilities how to write
  the date
• 5th June 2006 (the fifth of June)
• 5 June 2006 (the fifth of June)
• June 5th 2006 (June the fifth)
• June 5 2006 (June the fifth)
• There is no full stop after the ordinal number
• The date in the letter may be flush right or
  flush left but never centred
• September 12, 2005 September 12,
  2005

6
Greeting and closea letter sent to

• The USA
• Gentlemen
• Dear Sirs
• Dear Mr Brown
• Yours (very) truly
• Yours sincerely

• Britain
• Dear Sirs
• Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms
• Brown
• Yours faithfully
• Yours sincerely
• There is no comma after the greeting and close of
  the letter
• There is no full stop after Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms
• The title Ms is used to avoid distinguishing
  whether the woman is married or not

7
Body of the letter

• The body of the letter includes the particular
  text (content) of the letter which is different
  according to the type of the business letter
• The most obvious types of business letters are
• Inquiry Offer
• Reply to offer Order
• Complaint Reply to complaint
• Advice of dispatch Execution of orders

8

Put the lines into the correct order to make an
address, then suggest correct greeting and close

• 2520
• Kenneth Beare
• Washington 98501
• Olympia
• USA
• Visita Avenue
• Messrs

Messrs Kenneth Beare 2520 Visita Avenue
Olympia, WA 98501
USA Gentlemen Dear Sirs Yours (very)
truly Yours sincerely
9
Put the lines into the correct order to make an
addressthen suggest correct greeting and close

• MO 21 KP
• 236
• Ltd.
• Adam Smith
• Green Street
• Brighton
• England

• Adam Smith, Ltd.
• 236 Green Street
• Brighton MO 21 KP
• England
• Dear Sirs
• Dear Mr Smith
• Yours faithfully
• Yours sincerely

10
Put the letter into correct order, name its
parts.What parts are missing?

• David Black
• We are pleased to inform you that your
• order was dispatched from the factory
• on 5 January.
• Enc. (5)
• Browe Ltd.
• 25 White Lane
• Chester MN7 J5H
• England
• Dears Sirs
• Yours faithfully
• 1 January 2006

• Signature6
• Body of the letter4
• Enclosures7
• Address1
• Greeting3
• Close5
• Date2
• The missing part is the letter head

11
Explain the abbreviations

• asap.
• RSVP
• No
• pc(s).
• Enc(s).
• re
• Rgds
• Ltd.
• Inc.

• As soon as possible
• Please reply
• Number
• Piece(s)
• Enclosure(s)
• Regarding
• Regards
• Limited
• Incorporated