Лингвистический фон деловой корреспонденции (Linguistic Background of Business Correspondence)
Part IV. Structural and lexical peculiarities of a
business letter
Bredgate 51,
DK 1260,
Sender's address Copenhagen K,
DENMARK
9th May 2001
Date
Sounsonic Ltd.,
Warwik House,
Inside address Warwik Street,
(Receiver's address) Forest Hill,
London SE23 1JF
UNITED KINGDOM
Attention line For the attention of the Sales
Manager
Salutation Dear Sir or Madam,
Please would you sent me details of your
quadrophonic sound system, which were
advertised in the April edition of "Sound Monthly"?
Body of the letter
I am particular interested in the Omega
range of eguipment that you specialize in.
Complimentary close Yours faithfully,
Ekaterina Gadyukova
Signature E. Gadyukova (Ms)
Per pro p.p. D. Sampson
Company position Sales manager
Enclosure Enc.
1. Structure of a business letter
Sender's address
In correspondence that does not have a printed letterhead, the sender's
address is written on the top right-hand side of the page.
In the UK, in contrast to the practice in some countries, it is not
usual to write the sender's name before the sender's address.
Date
The date is written below the sender's address, sometimes separated from it
by a space. In the cases of correspondence with the printed letterhead, it
is also usually written on the right-hand side of the page.
The month in the date should not be written in figures as they can be
confusing; for example, 11.01.1998 means 11th January 1998 in the UK, but
1st November 1998 in the US. Nor should you abbreviate the month, e.g. Nov.
for November, as it simply looks untidy. It takes a moment to write a date
in full, but it can take a lot longer to find a mis-filed letter, which was
put in the wrong file because the date was confusing.
Many firms leave out the abbreviation 'th' after the date, e.g. 24
October instead of 24th October. Other firms transpose the date and the
month, e.g. October 24 instead of 24 October. These are matters of
preference, but whichever you choose you should be consistent throughout
your correspondence.
Inside's (or receiver's) address
This is written below the sender's address and on the opposite side of the
page, i.e. the left-hand one.
1. Surname known
If you know the surname of the person you are writing to, you write this on
the first line of the address, preceded by a courtesy title and either the
person's initial(s) or his/her fist given name, e.g. Mr J.E. Smith or Mr
John Smith, not Mr Smith. Courtesy titles used in addresses are as follows:
. Mr (with or without a full stop; the abbreviated form 'mister' should not
be used) is the usual courtesy title for a man.
. Mrs (with or without a full stop; no abbreviated form) is used for a
married woman.
. Miss (not an abbreviation) is used for an unmarried woman.
. Ms (with or without a full stop; no abbreviated form) is used for both
married and unmarried women. Many women now prefer to be addressed by
this title, and it is a useful form of address when you are not sure
whether the woman you are writing to is married or not.
. Messrs (with or without a full stop; abbreviation for Messieurs, which is
never used) is used occasionally for two or more men, e.g. Messrs P.
Jones and B.L. Parker) but more commonly forms part of the name of a
firm, e.g. Messrs Collier & Clerk & Co.
. Special titles, which should be included in addresses are many. They
include:
. academic or medical titles, e.g. Doctor (Dr.), Professor
(Prof.)
. military titles, e.g. Captain (Capt.), Major (Maj.), Colonel
(col.)
. aristocratic title, e.g. Sir (which means that he is a
Knight; not be confused with the salutation 'Dear Sir' and
always followed by a given name - Sir John Brown, not Sir J.
Brown or Sir Brown), Dame, Lord, Baroness, etc.
. Esq (with or without a full stop; abbreviation for Esquire) is seldom
used now. If used, it can only be instead of 'Mr' and is placed after the
name, e.g. Bruce Hill Esq., not Mr Bruce Esq.
2. Title known
If you do not know the name of the person you are writing to, you may know
or be able to assume his/her title or position in the company, e.g. the
Sales Manager, or the Finance Director, in which case you can use it in the
address.
3. Department known
Alternatively you can address your letter to a particular department of the
company, e.g. The Sales Department, or The Accounts Department.
4. Company only
Finally, if you know nothing about the company and do not want to make any
assumptions about the person or the department your letter should go to,
you can simply address it to the company itself, e.g. Soundsonic Ltd.,
Messrs Collier & Clerke & Co.
Order of inside addresses
After the name of the person and/or company receiving the letter, the order
and style of addresses in the UK and in the US, is as follows:
|British style |American style |
|1. Inside |Address (company) |
| | |
|Messrs Black & Sons, |International Trading Company |
|159 Knightsbridge, |Sabas Building |
|London SWL 87C |507 A. Flores Street |
| |Manila |
| |Philippines |
| | |
|The International Trading Company |The American Magazine |
|24 Churchill Avenue |119 Sixth Avenue |
|Maidstone, Kent |New York, NY 11011 |
|ZH8 92B | |
| | |
| | |
|British style |American style |
|2. Addressing an individual |on company business |
| | |
|The Manager |Mr. C.C. Pan |
|The Hongkong and Shanghai |Far East Jewelry Co. |
|Banking Corporation |68 Queen's Road East |
|Main Office |Hong Kong |
|Kuala Lumpur | |
|Malaysia | |
| | |
|Dear Sir, |Dear Sir: |
|Dear Sirs, |Gentlemen: |
| | |
|Messrs Mahmound & Son |The Standard Oil Company |
|329 Coast Road |Midland Building |
|Karachi, Pakistan |Cleveland, Ohio 44115 |
| | |
|3. Addressing an individual |on private business |
| | |
|T. Hardy, Esq., |Mr. C. Manzi |
|c/o Waltons Ltd., |Credito Milano |
|230 Snow Street, |Via Cavour 86 |
|Birmingham, England |Milan |
| |Italy |
| | |
|Dear Tom, |Dear Mr. Manzi, |
| | |
|Miss Claire Waterson |Continental Supply Company |
|c/o Miller & Sons Pty. Ltd. |321 Surawongse |
|Box 309 |Bangkok |
|Sydney NSW 2000 |Thailand |
|Australia | |
Style and punctuation of addresses
Both the addresses may be 'blocked' (i.e. each line is vertically aligned
with the one above) or 'indented', as below:
Bredgade 51,
DK 1269,
Copenhagen K,
DENMARK
There are no rules stating that one style or the other must be used, though
