Unit 6 - Business Letter
Business Letter
Business letters are more formal and are mainly used for communication with external customers and other businesses. Internal letters are mainly done by the Human Resource Department and may consist of: Suspension Letter, Job Letter, Termination Letter, Warning Letter, etc.
SAMPLE BUSINESS LETTER without letterhead
NOTES:
1. If the company has a letterhead, then it would not be necessary for the sender to put any contact information at the bottom or company info at the top.
2. The date can be either on the left side or the right side, depend on the style adapted by the company. Usually, a company would have its own particular style regarding format, fonts, indentation, etc.
3. If a secretary typed the letter in place of Sam Brown:
4. If the secretary signs on behalf of the boss:
OR the secretary could put "pp" (per procurationem" which means "through the agency of") before Sam's name, depending on the norms for the company's letters.
5. If you do not know the name of the recipient:
Instead of "Ms. Susan Smith"
Put: "The Supervisor of Product Development"
Instead of Dear Ms. Smith
Put: "To Whom It May Concern" OR Dear Sir/Madam
ENCLOSURES AND COPY NOTATIONS
Found at the end of the letter, enclosures let the recipient know that there are attachments in the envelope.
-Enclosure OR Enc- This means that there is only one attachment.
- Enclosures: 2 OR Enclosures (2) indicates that there are two attachments.
CC means courtesy copies (formally carbon copies) and is a list, in alphabetical order, of all the other persons who would be receiving the letter.
REFERENCES
"Your ref", "Our ref". This is mainly used by businesses that have a complex filing system. Usually this means that the letter refers to an existing matter.
Re (abbreviation for "regarding") states the subject of the letter.
MULTIPLE PAGES
When there are multiple pages, there is nothing at the end of page 1, no closing line or signature.
The following pages contain no letterhead, but must be printed on a plain page.
The header of page 2 would appear with the name of the recipient, the page number and the date.
For useful phrases and vocabulary for writing business letters,
For punctuation styles,
ADDITIONAL EXAMPLE. NOTES PROVIDED
William Smith Enterprises Limited
# 4 Gerry Drive
Port of Spain
623-5678
9 July 2016
IF THE LETTER IS SENT TO AN INDIVIDUAL
Mr John Smith
#4 Market Street
CHAGUANAS
Dear Sir
Or
Dear Mr Smith
IF THE LETTER IS SENT TO SOMEONE AT A BUSINESS
Mr John Smith
Marketing Manager
Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission
Johnson Street
AROUCA
Dear Sir
Or
Dear Mr Smith
IF THE LETTER IS SENT TO SOMEONE AT A BUSINESS, BUT YOU DO NOT KNOW THE PERSON’S NAME, ONLY THE PORTFOLIO
The Marketing Manager
Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission
Johnson Street
AROUCA
Dear Sir/Madam
IF THE LETTER IS SENT TO SOMEONE AT A BUSINESS, BUT YOU DO NOT KNOW THE PERSON’S NAME OR PORTFOLIO
Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission
Johnson Street
AROUCA
To Whom It May Concern
Dear Sir/Madam
Note:
You can use the open punctuation style– which is not ending a line with punctuation. This does not apply to the body of the letter, which contain sentences.
THE BODY
When starting the letter, you can choose to indent the first line of the paragraph or not. Example:
Indented
Dear Miss Jones
We wish to invite you .......
Non-indent
Dear Miss Jones
We wish to invite you ......
ENDING YOUR LETTER
Yours respectfully
WILLIAM SMITH ENTERPRISES LIMITED
Julie Jones
Sales Manager
1. Use “Yours respectfully” OR “Yours sincerely” OR “Yours faithfully”. “Yours truly” is only used for informal letters.
2. The name of the business can also be placed under the name of the business.
3. No title is given for the person who is sending the letter on behalf of William Smith Enterprises
4. The position of the sender is noted below the name
5. Julie Jones has to sign above her name. Some businesses would put a line for the signature.
Assignment
Complete the following task based upon the instructions you have received from your boss: Do a job letter for Ms. Paula Harris, of #19 Market Street, Chaguanas, to take to the U.S embassy. She is an Office Manager and receives a monthly gross salary of $6000.
Kindly send your answer to actira.tt@gmail.com