5. Decide on Physical layout of letter.
The physical appearance of a letter consists of the paper and the envelope.
The first thing a recipient sees is the envelope. It is essential that it
is of suitable quality with the name and address spelt correctly.Quality
envelopes and paper suggest a professional company. It is wise to make
sure the envelope matches the size of the paper.While you will use 81/2 x
11 inches(A4 size) sized paper for the majority of letters - a 4 x 6
inches(A5) can be used for specific shorter letters.But insist that
properly sized envelopes are used for this A5 size paper,allowing you
maintain and convey an coordinated image.
Technical layout of letter:
1.Letterhead:
This will include your company's name, address, telephone number, fax
number and email address. Include your web address if available. Other
information may be required depending on the legal status of your business
formation.Contact your legal adviser for exact details.
2. Name and address:
Always include the recipient's name, address and postage code. Add job
title if approriate. Double check that you have the correct spelling of the
recipient 's name .
3.Date:
Always date your letters.Never abbreviate January to Jan. 31.
4.Reference:
These are optional.They are a good idea if you have a large volume of
correspondence.These day modern word processors made this an easy task to
complete and maintain.
5.Salutations:
The type of salutation depends on your relationship with the recipient.
Always try to personalise letter thus avoiding the dear sir/madam
situation.
6.Subject matter:
Again this is optional, but its inclusion can help the recipient in dealing
successfully with the aims of your letter. Normally the subject sentence is
preceded with the word Re: It should be placed one line below the greeting.
7.Communication:
This will contain a number of paragraphs, each paragraph dealing with one
point and one point only.
8.Signature:
The signature should be clear and legible-showing you are interested in the
letter and consequently the recipient.Your signature should also be
followed underneath by a typed version of your name and your job title.
9.Enclosures:
If you include other material in the letter, put 'Enclosure','Enc', or'
Encs', as appropriate, two lines below the last entry.
A letter's style:
Previously we created the main points of our letter, now we must transform
this into a final version.To do this, four main considerations are
necessary.
1.Format:
There are three main formats: blocked, semi-blocked and indented.
The former has all entries tight against the left -hand margin.The semi-
blocked format sets the references and the date to the right margin for
filing and retrieval purposes, with the remaining entries placed against
the left margin.
The indented format follows the same layout as either of the above, but
indents each paragraph by five or six spaces.
2.Prose:
Clarity of communication is the primary goal. Don't use technical jargon if
the recipient is unlikely to understand it. Short sentences are less likely
to be misunderstood or misinterperted. Be precise , don't ramble. Check
each sentence to see if it is relevant.Does it add to the point ?
3. Manner:
Always try to personalise your letters. Always try to be civil and friendly
even if the subject matter is stern and sensitive.Give the impression to
the recipient that some effort and thought has gone into the letter.
4. Accuracy:
Once the final version of the letter has been created, polish it off with a
final spelling and punctuation check.
Letter writing etiquette
Always make sure you start and end your letters correctly. If you are
writing to Mrs Jane Smith then you should start the letter 'Dear Mrs Smith'
and finish it with 'Yours sincerely' - N.B. 'sincerely' does not start with
a capital 'S'.
Particular care is required when you are writing to a woman. If she has
just written her name as Jane Smith do you start the letter 'Dear Jane' or
'Dear Ms Smith'. She might be offended if you refer to her as 'Ms' and you
might not feel comfortable writing 'Dear Jane' as it sounds too familiar.
To get round this problem all you have to do is ring the company and ask
them how she likes to be addressed. If there is not a telephone number for
the company in the advertisement just call Directory Enquires (dial 192 in
the UK). When you ring the company all you have to say is that you are
writing to Jane Smith and you would like to know whether she is a Ms, Mrs
or Miss so your letter can be correctly addressed.
If the advertisement just says reply to J. Smith how would you address the
letter? Dear Sir? or Dear Madam? Dear Mr Smith? You would be well advised
to ring the company and find out J. Smith's full name and title
(Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss). Remember politeness costs you nothing, but it can really
pay dividends and you will probably be the only person who has bothered to
find out. This may distinguish you from everyone else who applied - being
noticed is the key to writing a potential interview-winning covering
letter.
If the advertisement just says write to the Personnel Department or reply
to Box Number 55 it may not be possible for you to find out who will be
handling your reply. In these cases you will have to start your letter
'Dear Sir/Madam' and finish the letter with 'Yours faithfully'. Please note
that 'faithfully' does not start with a capital 'F'.
Striking the Right Tone
An underlying goal of most business letters you write is to
promote goodwill between you and your reader. Especially when writing to
someone for the first time, you should use a tone that will encourage that
person to listen to you and want to work with you now and in the future
If your letter is primarily informational or contains good news, a
direct approach is usually best. State your point or offer your news
immediately and briefly, and then explain any other information the reader
needs to know.
Finding the proper tone is more difficult if you are delivering bad
news. In this case, taking an indirect approach may be a better strategy.
In the first few sentences, for example, you could begin on a positive note
by stating how much you want to work with the reader’s company or by
reminding the reader of times you accommodated his or her requests in the
past. When you do get to your point, try to minimize the reader’s
disappointment or anger by delivering the message in carefully considered
language that conveys your news clearly but tactfully.
Establishing a Courteous Tone
The fast pace of letters makes it easy to send a message
without fully considering the nuances of its tone. If you do not take the
time to think about your words and how they may be perceived, your letters
may seem overly blunt or even insulting.
A simple rule can keep you from writing inadvertently offensive
letters: Always ask yourself how you would feel if you received the message
you are sending. If you would bristle at its terseness, you can assume the
reader will as well. If you are unsure how the message might be taken, ask
for someone else’s opinion, or let it sit overnight and read it again the
next morning with a fresh eye.
If someone sends you a rude e-mail message (or “flame,” in e-mail
slang), take a moment to calm down before responding. The best way to douse
a flame is to write back using the most neutral and measured tone you can
muster. In some cases it’s best not to respond to a flame.
4. Style of a business letter
Now I will deal with some common writing problems that do not involve rules
of grammar. These problems—of parallelism, redundancy, and the like—are
more rhetorical than grammatical; that is, they involve choices you must
make as a writer trying to create a certain style of expression. You must
determine what stylistic choices will afford greater clarity and cogency to
each of your efforts to communicate. We all make different choices when
faced with different communicative tasks depending on what we feel will be
most effective. An expression that is appropriate for a formal letter may
be utterly off-putting in an informal message.
A successful and distinctive writing style is an elusive bird of
paradise. It is unmistakable once you see it but difficult to find. It
involves many things: creating an appropriate voice for your purpose,
choosing the right words for the subject and audience, constructing elegant
sentences whose rhythm reinforces their meaning, presenting an argument in
a logical fashion that is both engaging and easy to follow, finding vivid
images to make thoughts accessible to your readers. You can probably add to
this list. You may, for example, want to shock or jolt your audience rather
than court it, and this strategy requires stylistic features that are quite
different from those you would use for gentle persuasion.
Parallelism
Most memorable writing has as one of its recognizable features the ample
use of parallel grammatical structures. A basic guideline about parallel
constructions is to make sure that all the elements in a balanced pair or
in a series have the same grammatical form. That is, if you start with a
