Business E-mail Etiquette

Formatting a Business Letter

E-mail may be the quick and convenient way to relay daily business messages, but
the printed business letter is still the preferred way to convey important
information. A carefully crafted letter presented on attractive letterhead can be a
powerful communication tool. To make sure you are writing the most professional
and effective letter possible, use the business letter format and template below and
follow these basic business letter-writing.

Select a professional letterhead design for your small business

Your business letter is a representation of your company, so you want it to look

distinctive and immediately communicate "high quality."

Use a standard business letter format and template

The most widely used format for business letters is "block style," where the text of
the entire letter is justified left. The text is single spaced, except for double spaces
between paragraphs. Typically margins are about 1 inch (25.4 mm) on all sides of
the document, which is the default setting for most word-processing programs. If
you are using Microsoft Word, you can turn to its built-in Letter Wizard for additional
formatting assistance (look on the Tools menu).
Writing an Effective Business Letter

Business Letter Template Fields:

Date: Use month, day, year format, e.g., March 3, 2012 or 3 March 2012

Sender's Address: It is a good idea to include sender's email and url, if available.
Don't include this information if it's already incorporated into the letterhead design.
This will allow customers to find your small business more quickly.

Inside Address: Use full name. Mr./Ms. is optional.

Salutation: Be sure to use a colon at the end of the name, not a comma as in
personal letters.

Body Text: State why you are writing. Establish any connection/mutual relationship
up front. Outline the solution, providing proof in the way of examples and expert
opinions. Group related information into paragraphs

Closing "Call to Action": State what the reader needs to do and what you will do
to follow up

Signature Block: Sign your letter in blue or black ink

Enclosures: Use if you have an enclosure

Carbon Copy: Use if you are sending a copy to additional person(s)

Use a professional tone.

Save casual, chatty language for email - your printed business letter should be
friendly but more professional. As Scott Ober suggests in his book Contemporary
Business Communication, "The business writer should strive for an overall tone that
is confident, courteous, and sincere; that uses emphasis and subordination
appropriately; that contains nondiscriminatory language; that stresses the "you"
attitude; and that is written at an appropriate level of difficulty." That said, be sure
to sound like yourself - you don't want your letter to read as if a machine wrote it.

Write clearly.

State your point early in your letter. To avoid any miscommunications, use
straightforward, concise language. Skip the industry jargon and instead choose
lively, active words to hold your reader's attention.

Organize your information logically: Group related information into separate

paragraphs. In a long, information-packed letter, consider organizing information
into sections with subheads. You may want to highlight key words to make them
"pop" - this technique is possible with most word-processing programs and your
color multifunction printer.

Use Color to Emphasize Words in Text

It's easy to put a few words in color to draw attention to them. Just select the type
and click the arrow to the right of the Font Color button, choose the color you want,
then click the button. Or, try highlighting a few words in the text. Select the type
you want to emphasize, then click the Highlight button. Note: When highlighting
parts of a document you intend to print, use a light color such as yellow, light green,
or light blue. If you wish to remove the highlighting, select the text and click the
Highlight button again.

AutoText automates applying color (or any type style), which would ordinarily take
numerous clicks or commands. Say you're creating a report that compares your
organization's performance against that of your competitor. Word can automatically
color your company's name every time it appears, making those entries easy to
locate.
Be persuasive.

Establish a positive relationship with your reader right away. If you have a
connection to the reader - you've met before or have a mutual colleague, for
example - mention it in your introductory paragraph. Whether you think your reader
will agree with the point of your letter or not, it is important to find common ground
and build your case from there.

Understand your reader well enough to anticipate how he or she will react when
reading your letter. Address his or her needs or wishes, or a specific problem, and
then outline your solution. Provide proof in the way of examples and/or expert
opinions to back up your point. Make sure to maintain a friendly tone.

Conclude your letter with a "call to action." State clearly what your reader needs to
do or believe to achieve the desired solution and then state what you, the writer,
intend to do next to follow up.

Proofread your letter!

All your careful crafting and printing can't cover up spelling or punctuation errors,
which leave a lasting negative impression.

Now that you've learned the secrets of writing an effective business letter, you're
ready to start composing. Good luck!
Acronyms

When and when not to use acronyms and initialisms

There is a time and place for everything and using initialisms and acronyms is no
exception. The whole point of using these forms of abbreviation in your business
writing is to make your writing clearer. However, if you misuse or abuse initialisms
and/or acronyms, you'll accomplish just the opposite, turning your memos and
manuals into a confusing brew.

What is an initialism?

Essentially, initialisms are shorter forms of words or phrases that can come in handy
when you need to repeat the same word or phrase a number of times throughout
the same piece of writing. They are pronounced as a series of letters. For example,
"World Trade Organization" is often written as "WTO." You can see how writing the
three-letter initialism can save you a lot of time and keep your business document
from sounding repetitive.

What is an acronym?

An acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of a name or phrase. It is

pronounced as if it were a word. Examples of common acronyms include "SARS"
(severe acute respiratory syndrome) and "UNICEF" (United Nations International
Children's Emergency Fund)imagine having to write that out each time in a 10-
page document on the organization's initiative to improve educational opportunities
for young girls in Africa!

Important things to consider before using an initialism or acronym

Outline what the initialism or acronym means

Short forms aren't always the best way to avoid redundancies. So, if you're going to
use initialisms and/or acronyms in your business writing, remember: The first time
you use an initialism or acronym in your document, the words should be written out
with the short form placed in parentheses immediately after. This way, it's clear to
the readers exactly what the letters mean. Here's an example:

A New World Order (NWO) came into effect after 9/11.

Be consistent

Readers will then be aware that any future reference to the "NWO" in your
document really refers to the New World Order. After you've established an initialism
or acronym in your paper, you must consistently use the short form in place of the
words.

Stick to one definition of the initialism or acronym

Always clarify in your own mind the exact definition of each acronym you use. If you
define SEM as "scanning electron microscopy" (which is a process), your acronym
should refer only to the process throughout your paper. For example, the following
sentence would be incorrect if included in the same paper:

We used an SEM in our experiments.

If you've already defined SEM as standing for the process, you cannot use SEM to
refer to the item (i.e., a scanning electron microscope, which you use to perform the
process of scanning electron microscopy), even though the first letters of each word
are the same. In short, the same initialism or acronym can only refer to one thing in
a document.

Don't forget about using articles

Remember that many initialisms or acronyms still require articles (i.e., "a," "an," or
"the"). Let's use the New World Order again:

Incorrect: NWO has emerged in the 21st century.

Correct: An NWO has emerged in the 21st century.

Remember that NWO stands for a noun "New World Order," and nouns require
articles before them.

If you're confused about whether to use "a" or "an" in front of an initialism or

acronym that begins with a consonant, remember to speak the abbreviated form
aloud. If the first letter of the initialism or acronym makes a vowel sound (regardless
of whether or not the first letter is actually a vowel), you should use "an." The
acronym "NWO" is a perfect example. While "N" is a consonant, it makes the short
e sound (i.e., a vowel sound) when you say it. Consequently, "an" should be used.

Check to see if there is already an established initialism or acronym for

your phrase

It's also important to remember that while you can sometimes make up initialisms
or acronyms, there are many words/phrases that require abbreviating that are
already established and universal. There are a number of online dictionaries you can
use to search for commonly used initialisms and acronyms.

Initialisms and acronyms in academic writing

If you're using initialisms and/or acronyms in academic writing, remember that
some scientific journals require you to introduce initialisms and acronyms once in
the abstract of your article and then again upon the first use in the body of the
article. Should you be unsure about how to use initialisms or acronyms when writing
an academic article, please refer to your journal's specific requirements.

Too many initialisms and acronyms can turn your business writing into
alphabet soup

Please remember that acronyms should only be used for words or phrases that are
repeated a number of times throughout your document. If you use too many
initialisms and acronyms, readers will become confused. Here's an example of
extreme initialism/acronym usage in a press release:

In the US, the notion of an NWO became popular after the terrorist attacks on the
WTC. However, officials in NATO and the WTO rarely refer to an NWO in proceedings
relating to the GATT, and it can be said that the MVTO, the MFN clause, and SROs
have little to do with an NWO.

As you can see, too many initialisms and acronyms can make your writing more
difficult to understand. If numerous acronyms are necessary, we recommend
including a glossary of initialisms/acronyms; your readers may then refer to it if they
become confused.

TTYLSave your casual initialisms and for text messages

Finally, while you may often be rotf with your bf about the Chem hw that you need
to get done asap, please remember that initialisms and acronyms used in instant
messaging are rarely, if ever, appropriate for business or professional writing.

While using initialisms and acronyms correctly may help readers understand your
work more easily, the incorrect use of initialisms and acronyms could turn your work
into a mess. When in doubt, submit your work to our business editors for a fast,
professional opinion.