Business Letters

Effective commercial letters - ‘commercial style’

- RULES:

- clarity

- concision

- logical development of ideas

- politeness

PLUS:

- appropriate register

- elements to reveal the sender’s seriousness

- his awareness of drawing up a formal letter (no smiling faces, jokes, irony etc.)

- cohesions and coherence

- proof that the sender has been following a definite objective.

- it should draw the reader’s attention

LAYOUT – typical of commercial correspondence

CONTENT - should facilitate an easy reading and understanding by means of clear, precise and short sentences

- the ideas should be expressed in a logical development so as to avoid

misunderstanding

Therefore, avoid using:

- long sentences

- complicated expression

- exaggerations

- repetitions even if under different forms (‘elegant repetitions’).

Concision: - short sentences grouped together in paragraphs in a logical manner

Tone: - agreement with letter content:

- determined

- conciliating

- friendly

- persuasive etc.

The data (figures, dates etc.): correct and accurate

Correctness

Vocabulary: - (more or less) specific

- stereotype expressions in the suitable stylistic manner

Writing efficient business letters = having the ability to handle simple and direct language

being ‘polite without seeming timid

being direct yet not rude

concise rather than abrupt

firm but not inflexible.

THE LAY-OUT OF THE LETTER

RULES:

1. a balanced position of the text on the page, according to its length

2. the left margin of 2.5-3 cm

3. justified alignment of the text; on the right hand side a margin of at least 1 cm; the block alignment – typical of American correspondence, but in continuous extension: block alignment to the right, including heading, salutations etc.

4. no word division into syllables at the end of the line

5. creating paragraphs with 1-line spacing between them

6. continue the text on a new page only if it contains at least two lines

7. the second page should contain heading, date and page no.

8. enclosed documents should be indicated by using the abbreviations: Encl./En./Enc./Enclos. in the left bottom corner, below the signature

(e.g.: Enc. Invoice …

Yours faithfully,

John Smith)

9. No post-scriptum (PS), as it can denote carelessness on the sender’s part.

1.1 CONTENTS OF THE LETTER

It has been internationally agreed on the following elements that an official letter should contain:

- letterhead / letter-heading / heading (sender’s address) (antet)

- date

- reference line (referinţe)

- inside address (adresa destinatarului / interioară)

- attention line

- salutation (formula de salut)

- subject line (obiectul scrisorii)

- body of the letter (conţinutul scrisorii)

- complimentary close (formula de încheiere şi salut)

- signature

- enclosures (anexe)

- copies