Business Letters Main Functions Garside)……… of a Business Letter (By L.
to provide a convenient mean communication without personal contact
to seek or to give information to furnish evidence of transactions to provide a record for future reference *Business letters are legal documents *They are called “silent ambassadors” *Can be used to communicate even in remote areas *Promote goodwill
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TYPES OF LETTERS 1. Routine Letters (day to day operations) circulars orders quotations invoices 2. Special Letters (situational) appointment resignation promotion/demotion transfers
3. Goodwill Letters (Public Relations): Greetings, Thanks, Condolence, Sympathy, to shareholders. 4. Informational Letters (furnish facts): Press releases, minutes of meetings, to share holders.
PARTS OF A LETTER Heading *Printed sheet is called letterhead *It includes -Name of the company -logo -postal and e-mail addresses -telephone, telex and fax -One line introduction
Date *every official document must be dated *provides a reference for correspondence *Usually placed on the right hand side *In full block style it appears on the left hand side dd/mm/yyyy Spell the date mm/dd/yyyy OR dd/mm/yy Date month, year mm/dd/yy Month Date, year *Avoid ordinal number (outdated practice)
Reference number *appears at level with the date *”Ref. No.” may be printed on the letter head *Our reference no./your reference no. *companies have their own system of assigning reference numbers-letter no., file no., customer no. etc. Inside Address *Name and address of the receiver *mentioned in BLOCK or INDENTED form
BLOCK ABC Business School 55, XYZ Complex Indore 452001 INDENTED
ABC Business School, …….55, XYZ Complex, ……..Indore 452001 *“To” before the address is considered outdated
Attention Line • used only if you know the name of the person in the organization who is handling the matter about which you are writing • letter is directed to the attention of individual, by name, so that the letter is sent to the person • can be placed at the margin or centre • if the inside address has the name of the individual you do not need the attention line • Kind Attention : Mr. P.K. Gupta • Attention/Attn.
Subject Line *adds to the clarity of the letter *brief and quick indication of the letter’s content *it is placed above or below the salutation at the centre *In full block form, it is placed at the left *when there is an attention line, the subject line is placed after the salutation Kind. Attention: Mr. R.K. Sharma Dear Sir, Sub: Delay in delivery of raw material
OR Mr. R.K. Sharma ABC Complex Indore, 452 001 Sub: Delay in delivery of raw material Dear Sir, …A modern approach is Dear Mr. Sharma, BALANCE SHEET (2005-06)
Salutation *is followed by a comma *In American practice, it is followed by a colon (:) *in full block style it has no punctuation mark *if letter is addressed to… --the organization-plural e.g. Dear Sirs, --by designation-singular e.g. Dear Sir/Madam, --name of person-singular e.g. Dear Sir, --name of person-e.g. Dear Mr. Mishra,
Complimentary Close *is written two line spaces below the last line of the text of the letter *it is placed on the right and is followed by a comma *in full block style, it is placed on the left margin and has no comma *the common forms are… Yours Faithfully/Faithfully Yours/Yours Truly/Truly Yours *if the addressee’s name is used in the salutation, the complementary close is Yours Sincerely/Sincerely Yours *“Respectfully” is used only when writing to a high public official
Signature *is placed just below the complementary close *the name of the signatory is typed in bracket, three or four line space below *the company’s name can be added but is often skipped because it has already appeared in the heading
Yours Truly,
ABC Ltd. (R.K. Sharma) HR Manager
Yours Truly,
(R.K. Sharma) HR Manager ABC Ltd.
*Per Pro/P.P. signature is used when the person who signs is not personally liable but has been given the power of attorney to sign on behalf of the person or company who will be responsible
*P.P. – Per Procurationeum *P.P. is put before the name of the person or company on whose behalf the letter is sent
Reference Section -Enclosures – Courtesy Copies/Carbon Copies – Initials A) Enclosures *mentioned in the order of attachment *mentioned at the margin as… Enc(s): Encls: *in case of several enclosures, numbered/bulleted
they
are
B) Courtesy Copies/Carbon Copies *when the same letter is of concern to several parties *is mentioned as c.c. : Mr. R.K. Sharma OR c.c. : 1. Mr. R.K. Sharma 2. P.S. to the M.D. C) Initials *the dictator’s and the typist’s initials are placed at the bottom *used for future reference
* the person who prepares or dictates a letter is not necessarily the person who signs it *letter may be dictated by the administrative officer but may be signed by the manager
MD:rl MD,rl MD/rl
Postscript *a small piece of writing that must not exceed three lines *added after signature and enclosures *it is signed again without the complimentary close *information is not part of the main message *extra/unrelated point, written in hand at the time of signing the letter *should never be used for adding something which was forgotten while preparing the letter. Retype the letter if so is the case
* nowadays used to add a friendly personal note to a formal letter P.S. How is the new project at Surat coming up. My best wishes are always with you.