ТЕМА 1. ДЕЛОВЫЕ ПИСЬМА (BUSINESS LETTERS)
Text 1.
STRUCTURE AND PRESENTATION
Read, translate and discuss the text. Make use of the vocabulary notes.
Developments in technology have made a great impact on business com munication as they have made it possible to have instant communication all over the world. Speed has become the key to successful business communications. Fax messages and electronic mail superseded telex messages and letters. But the importance of the first impression of your printed communication is as essential as it was 50 years ago. High communication standards are vitally important in today's competitive business. By setting high standard in the important area of printed com munication you will be helping to create the corporate image of your or ganization.
Nowadays companies use printed stationery with their own letterhead, which comprises:
The company's name
The full postal address
Contact numbers - telephone, fax, e-mail address
The printed letterhead of the company also gives information about the type of the company: abbreviation Ltd. is used for private limited companies with limited liability whose shares are not available to the public. In the USA the term Incorporated (Inc.) is used.
The abbreviation PLC (Public Limited Company) shows that the company's shares can be bought by the public.
The fully blocked layout is now the most widely used method of display for all business documents. The style is considered to have a businesslike appearance. Open punctuation is often used with the fully blocked style. However some companies may prefer the indented style, but whichever layout you use for your business documents, the most important is consistency, i.e. ensuring all the documents are displayed in the same format.
Blocked style
Arnett House
Hawks Lane
Canterbuty
Kent CT 1 2 NU
UK
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Indented style:
Arnett House,
Hawks Lane,
Canterbuty,
Kent CT 1 2 NU,
UK
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Specimen Letter 1
Letterheaded paper
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ICF Ltd
International Conferences and Fairs
Am Hofgarten 953113 Berlin Germany
Tel.: +49 228 3011725 Fax: +49 228 3011755
e-mail: icf@berlin.com
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Reference (initials of writer/typist, some times a filing refer ence)
Date (day, month, year)
Inside address (name, title, company, full address, postal code)
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DE/KM
12 November 20__
Mr. Paul Norman
Director
BSE
Daisy House, 26 Harley Road
Bournemouth
BH2IW
United Kingdom
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Salutation
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Dear Mr. Norman
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Heading (to give an instant idea of the theme)
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The Berlin Conference
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Body of Letter (one line space between paragraphs)
Complimentary close
Name of sender
Sender's designation or department
Inc (if anything is inclosed)
Show if any copies are circulated (if more than one, use alphabetical order)
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If you are sending students abroad and are looking for new partners or wish to keep in contact with existing ones, we invite you to attend the Berlin Conference taking place in Intercontinental Hotel in Berlin March
29-30, 20
THE BERLIN WORKSHOP will put you in face-to-ace contact with education providers from around the world, including hoarding schools, hotel management and hospitality schools, МBA programmes, language programmes and summer schools, as well as colleges and universities offering graduate and post-graduate studies, who are interested in appointing new student recruitment partners.
Please find enclosed the programme of the event and visit our site for details.
Yours sincerely,
Dorothee Elger
Assistant Manager
Appointment section ICF
Enclosure
BSE Branch Manchester
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Specimen Letter 2
Letterheaded paper
Include the main
heading "FAX MES SAGE"
These headings are important so that all the essential details can be inserted along side
It is important to state the number of pages being sent
A salutation may be included if preferred
The heading should state the main topic of the fax message
The body of the fax message should be composed similarly to a business letter
A complimentary close is not necessary
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Homebase PLC Tel: +44 207 2871123
Fax:+44 207 2811243 E-mail: homebase@intel.uk
21 Bond Street
London WC1
UK
FAX MESSAGE
To Petro Cifani, Manager
Company Bruno Ltd
Fax Number 39 55 383557
From Jane Gartfield, Sales Manager
Ref JG/AD
Date 12 January 20
Number of Pages
(including this page) 1
Dear Mr. Cifani
Reply to enquiry
I am sending under separate cover a catalogue and a price list for our culculators as requested in your letter of 10 January 20_______.
At the moment we have in stock both models you are interested in. But as these models are extremely popu lar we cannot make you a firm offer. Please, contact me if I can provide any further help.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Jane Gartfield
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Specimen Letter 3
e-mail letter
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From julliancolbourn@aol.com
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To Dupont@netscape.net
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Sent 1 December 2004 10.27 a.m.
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Subject Christmas post card quotation
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Attached December price list
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Hi Leo
Nice to hear from you. Yes, we did enjoy the holiday which regretfully was too short.
As to your request I've attached the December price list and a leaflet for the latest range of Christmas post cards.
Plenty to choose. Promise to do my best about the delivery dates but I have to hear from you asap.
Best wishes
Jullian
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Parts of a business letter
Reference
The reference includes the initials of the writer and the typist, a file or departmental reference may also be included. Normally the reference is inserted on the line above the date.
Example
DH/FN
Date
The date should be always shown in full. In the UK it is usual to show tin date in the order day/month/year. No commas are used.
Example
14 June 20_
In some other countries the date is typed in the order month/day/year
Example
June 14 20_
The month in the date should not be written in figures as they can be con fusing: for example, 11.01.02 means 11 January 2002 in the UK but 1 No vember 2002 in the USA.
Inside address
The name and address of the recipient should be typed on separate lines as it would appear on an envelope. Care should be taken to address the recipient exactly as they sign their letters. For example, a person signing as "June Mackenzie" should be addressed as such in the inside address preceded with the courtesy title "Ms". To address her as "Ms J. Mackenzie" would be inappropriate.
Example
Ms June Mackenzie
Marketing Manager
Abacus College
Threeways House
George Street
Oxford OX1 2BJ
UK
The name of the country should be always shown on the final line when writing letters overseas.
If a letter is sent by airmail, this should be indicated one clear line space above the inside address.
Example
AIRMAIL
Mr. Roland Ernst
General Manager
Actilingva Gmbh
Gloriettegasse 8
A-1130 Wien
Austria
Special markings
If a letter is confidential it is usual to include this as part of the inside ad dress, one clear line space above it. This may be typed in capital letters or in initial capitals with underline.
Example
CONFIDENTIAL
Mrs. Jane Morell
Development Director
636 Broadway, Surte 210
San Diego California 92101
USA
It should rarely be necessary to use an attention line in today's business communications where we almost always know the name of the person we are writing to. As shown in the above examples, the name of the recipient is included in the inside address, and a personalized salutation will be used.
In the past, however, an attention line was used when the writer simply wanted to ensure that the letter ended up on a certain person's desk, even though the letter was addressed to the company in general, and always began with "Dear Sirs".
Example
LAL Group
Possidonos Avenue
16675 Glyfada
Greece
FOR THE ATTENTION OF MR. PETER CASSALETTE, SALES MANAGER
Dear Sirs
Salutation
If the recipient's name has been used in the inside address, it is usual to use personal salutation.
Example
Dear Mr Hofmann Dear Eric Dear Mrs Hamwee
If your letter is addressed generally to an organization, then the more formal salutation "Dear Sirs" should be used. Note that in the USA a letter to a company usually opens with Gentlemen, followed by a colon, not Dear Sirs.
If your letter is addressed to the head of a department or the head of an organization whose name is not known, then it would be more appropriate to use salutation as shown here.
Example
Dear Sirs Gentlemen:
In the UK in the USA
If you letter is addressed to the head of a department or the head of an organization whose name is not know, then it would be more appropriate to use salutation as shown here.
Example
Dear Sir or Madam
Heading /Subject title
The heading gives a brief indication of the contents of the letter. It is usu ally placed one clear line space after the salutation. Capital letters are generally used, although initial capitals with an underline may be used if preferred.
Example
Dear Mrs Jackson
ICF Conference Prague November 10-11 20. ..
Complimentary close
It is customary to end the letter in a polite way by using a complimentary close. The two most common closes are "Yours faithfully" (used only with Dear Sir/Sirs/Sir or Madam) and "Yours sincerely" (used with personalized salutation). Note that Americans tend to close even formal letters with Yours truly or Truly yours.
Examples
Dear Sir
Dear Sirs
Dear Madam
Dear Sir or Madam
Gentlemen:
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Yours faithfully
Yours truly/Truly yours
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Dear Mr. Leighton
Dear Mrs. Jackson
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Yours sincerely
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Dear Melanie
Dear John
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Best wishes
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Signature
After the complimentary close 4 or 5 clear spaces should be left so that the letter can be signed. The name of the sender should then be inserted in whatever style is preferred - capital letters, or initial capitals only. The sender's position in the company or department should be shown directly beneath his/her name. In these examples note that the title "Mr." is never shown when the writer is male. However, it is usual to add a courtesy title for a female; this is shown in brackets after her name.
Examples
Yours faithfully Yours sincerely
Ronald Jones Emma Ernst (Mrs)
Chairman General Manager
When a letter has to be signed on behalf of the sender, it is usual to write "for" or "pp" in front of the sender's printed name; "pp" is an abbreviation for "per pro(curationem)", which simply means "on behalf of.
Example
Yours faithfully Yours faithfully
for Ronald Jones pp Jillette Ltd
Chairman Marketing Manager
Inclosures
There are many different methods of indicating that an enclosure is being sent along with the letter and "Enc" or "End" at the foot of the letter is the most common for indicating enclosures.
Example
Yours sincerely
Hugo O'Donnel
Marketing Manager
Enc.
Copies
When a copy of a letter is to be sent to a third party (usually someone in the Sender's organization) this may be indicated by typing "c.c." (carbor copy) or "Copy" followed by the mime and designation of the copy recipient. If there are two or more copy recipients, it is usual to show these in alphabetical order.
Example
Copy Mr Paul Norman, General Manager
Mrs Susan Wright, Accountant
Ms Judy Slight, Company Secretary
If the writer does not wish the recipient of the letter to know that a third person is receiving a copy of the letter, then "b.c.c." (blind carbon copy) is used. This should not be shown on the top of the letter, only on the file copy and bcc copy/ies.
Example
Bcc Mr James Freeman, Sales Manager |
