Business writing Business correspondence or business letter is a written communication between two parties.

A means through which views are expressed and ideas or information is communicated in writing in the process of business activities. means it is a partnership of two person to improve their letter. The basics of good business letter writing are easy to learn. The following guide provides the phrases that are usually found in any standard business letter. These phrases are used as a kind of frame and introduction to the content of business letters. At the end of this guide, you will find links to sites that give tips on the difficult part of writing successful business letters - arguing your business objective. By using these standard phrases, you can give a professional tone to your English business letters. Once you understand these basics you can use this guide to different types of business letters to refine your skills for your business needs at your employers or your own small business organization. The Start Dear Personnel Director, Dear Sir or Madam: (use if you don't know who you are writing to) Dear Dr, Mr, Mrs, Miss or Ms Smith: (use if you know who you are writing to, and have a formal relationship with - VERY IMPORTANT use Ms for women unless asked to use Mrs or Miss) Dear Frank: (use if the person is a close business contact or friend) The Reference With reference to your advertisement in theTimes, your letter of 23 rd March, your phone call today, Thank you for your letter of March 5 th . The Reason for Writing I am writing to inquire about apologize for confirm Requesting Could you possibly? I would be grateful if you could Agreeing to Requests

I would be delighted to Giving Bad News Unfortunately I am afraid that Enclosing Documents I am enclosing Please find enclosed Enclosed you will find Closing Remarks Thank you for your help Please contact us again if we can help in any way. there are any problems. you have any questions. Reference to Future Contact I look forward to ... hearing from you soon. meeting you next Tuesday. seeing you next Thursday. The Finish Yours faithfully, (If you don't know the name of the person you're writing to) Yours sincerely, (If you know the name of the person you're writing to) Best wishes, Best regards, (If the person is a close business contact or friend) Sample Letter Here is a sample letter using some of these forms: Ken's Cheese House 34 Chatley Avenue Seattle, WA 98765 Tel:

Fax: Email: kenny@cheese.com October 23, 2006 Fred Flintstone Sales Manager Cheese Specialists Inc. 456 Rubble Road Rockville, IL

Dear Mr Flintstone: With reference to our telephone conversation today, I am writing to confirm your order for: 120 x Cheddar Deluxe Ref. No. 856 The order will be shipped within three days via UPS and should arrive at your store in about 10 days. Please contact us again if we can help in any way. Yours sincerely, Kenneth Beare Director of Ken's Cheese House

Tips for better business writing Todays business world is almost entirely information-driven. Whether you run a small business or occupy a small corner of the org-chart at a massive multinational corporation, chances are that the bulk of your job consists of communicating with others, most often in writing. Of course theres email and the traditional business letter, but most business people are also called on to write presentations, memos, proposals, business requirements, training materials, promotional copy, grant proposals, and a wide range of other documents. Heres the rub: most business people have little experience with writing. While those with business degrees probably did a bit of writing in school, its rarely stressed in business programs, and learning to write well is hardly the driving force behind most peoples desire to go to business school. Those without a university background might have never been pushed to write at all, at least since public school. If youre one of the many people in business for whom writing has never been a major concern, you should know that a lack of writing skills is a greater and greater handicap with every passing year. Spending some time to improve your writing can result in a marked improvement in your hireability and promotional prospects. Theres no substitute for practice, but here are a few pointers to put you on the right track. 1. Less is more. In business writing as in virtually every other kind of writing, concision matters. Ironically, as written information becomes more and more important to the smooth functioning of businesses, people are less and less willing to read. Increasingly, magazines and other outlets that used to run 2,000-word features are cutting back to 500-word sketches. Use words sparingly, cut out the florid prose, and avoid long, meandering sentences. As Zorro taught his son, Get in, make your Z, and get out! get straight to the point, say what you want to say, and be done with it. 2. Avoid jargon. Everyone in business hates business writing, all that blue-sky solutioneering and those strategical synergies that ultimately, mean nothing; brainstorming and opportunities to work together are more meaningful without sounding ridiculous. While sometimes jargon is unavoidable in a business requirement document or technical specification, for example try using plainer language. Even for people in the same field as you, jargon is often inefficient the eye slides right past it without really catching the meaning. Theres a reason that jargon is so often used when a writer wants to not say anything.

3. Write once, check twice. Proofread immediately after you write, and then again hours or, better yet, days later. Nothing is more embarrassing than a stupid typo in an otherwise fine document. Its hardly fair typos happen! but people judge you for those mistakes anyway, and harshly. Except in the direct emergency, always give yourself time to set your writing aside and come back to it later. The brain is tricky and will ignore errors that its just made; some time working on something else will give you the detachment you need to catch those errors before anyone else reads them. 4. Write once, check twice. I know, I just said this, but I mean something else here. In addition to catching typos and other errors, putting some time between writing and re-reading your work can help you catch errors of tone that might otherwise escape you and cause trouble. For instance, when were upset or angry, we often write things we dont actually want anyone else to read. Make sure your work says what you want it to say, how you want it to say it, before letting it reach its audience. 5. Pay special attention to names, titles, and genders. OK, there is one thing more embarrassing than a typo: calling Mr. Smith Ms. Smith consistently throughout a document. If youre not positive about the spelling of someones name, their job title (and what it means), or their gender, either a) check with someone who does know (like their assistant), or b) in the case of gender, use gender-neutral language. They and their are rapidly becoming perfectly acceptable gender-neutral singular pronouns, despite what your grammar teacher and the self-righteous grammar nazi down the hall might say. 6. Save templates. Whenever you write an especially good letter, email, memo, or other document, if theres the slightest chance youll be writing a similar document in the future, save it as a template for future use. Since rushing through writing is one of the main causes of typos and other errors, saving time by using a pre-written document can save you the embarrassment of such errors. Just make sure to remove any specific information names, companies, etc. before re-using it you dont want to send a letter to Mr. Sharif that is addressed to Mrs. OToole! 7. Be professional, not necessarily formal. Theres a tendency to think of all business communication as formal, which isnt necessary or even very productive. Formal language is fine for legal documents and job applications, but like jargon often becomes invisible, obscuring rather than revealing its meaning. At the same time, remember that informal shouldnt mean unprofessional keep the personal comments, off-

color jokes, and snarky gossip out of your business communications. Remember that many businesses (possibly yours) are required by law to keep copies of all correspondence dont email, mail, or circulate anything that you wouldnt feel comfortable having read into the record in a public trial. 8. Remember the 5 Ws (and the H) Just like a journalists news story, your communications should answer all the questions relevant to your audience: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? For example, who is this memo relevant to, what should they know, when and where will it apply, why is it important, and how should they use this information? Use the 5W+H formula to try to anticipate any questions your readers might ask, too. 9. Call to action. The content of documents that are simply informative are rarely retained very well. Most business communication is meant to achieve some purpose, so make sure they include a call to action something that the reader is expected to do. Even better, something the reader should do right now. Dont leave it to your readers to decide what to do with whatever information youve provided most wont even bother, and enough of the ones who do will get it wrong that youll have a mess on your hands before too long. 10. Dont give too many choices. Ideally, dont give any. If youre looking to set a time for a meeting, give a single time and ask them to confirm or present a different time. At most, give two options and ask them to pick one. Too many choices often leads to decision paralysis, which generally isnt the desired effect. 11. Whats in it for your readers? A cornerstone of effective writing is describing benefits, not features. Why should a reader care? For example, nobody cares that Windows 7 can run in 64-bit mode what they care about is that it can handle more memory and thus run faster than the 32-bit operating system. 64-bits is a feature; letting me get my work done more quickly is the benefit. Benefits engage readers, since theyre naturally most concerned with finding out how they can make their lives easier or better. 12. Hire a freelancer. Not a writing tip per se, I know, but good advice nonetheless. Writing is most likely not your strong suit if its important, hire someone for whom writing is their strong suit. You may think freelancers are only for marketing material, but thats not true a good freelance writer can produce memos, training manuals, internal letters, corporate newsletters, blog posts, wiki

entries, and just about any other kind of writing you can think of. Depending on your needs, you can farm work out as needed or move a freelancer into a cubicle on-site, or work out whatever other arrangements best fit your needs. Expect to pay at least $30 an hour, and more likely $50 $125 an hour, for good writing anyone who charges less is either not very good, or not very business savvy. (These rates are for writers in US metro areas rates may differ in other parts of the world.) Great writing may require a talent that few of us have, but effective writing is a learnable skill. If your business writing isnt up to snuff, follow the tips above and see if you cant improve it. If your writing does pass muster, how about leaving a tip or two in the comments below? A commercial business letter is a letter written in formal language, usually used when writing from one business organization to another, or for correspondence between such organizations and their customers, clients and other external parties. The overall style of letter will depend on the relationship between the parties concerned. General Format There are two main styles of business letters: 1. 2. Full block style: Align all elements on the left margin. Modified block style: Down the middle of the page, align the return address,

date, closing, signature, and typed name; align other elements on the left page margin. Elements Business letters (in the United States) usually contain the following elements, in order:

Sender's address & contact information Date of writing Recipient's name, title, company, & address Salutation/greeting Subject Message (body of the letter) Valediction/closing Sender's signature Sender's name, title, company

In some situations, a business letter may also include the following optional information:

Enclosures (Encl.: or Enc.:) Carbon Copy Recipients (cc:) Reference Initials (of the typist, if different from original author of letter) Line Spacing

In general, each element or paragraph of the letter is followed by a single blank line, except:

the date, followed by three or four blank lines; the final content paragraph, followed by two blank lines; the valediction/closing, followed by three or four blank lines (enough for the sender to the sender's title, followed by two blank lines. ]Margins

sign the letter); and

In general, left and right margins are one inch (2.5 cm). For letters that are a full page or longer, top and bottom margins are likewise one inch (2.5 cm). For letters shorter than a full page, the text is centered vertically so that the top and bottom margins match. Font Formatting No special character or font formatting is used, except for the subject line, which is usually underlined Punctuation The salutation/greeting is generally followed by a comma, although in the United States a colon is often preferred. The valediction/closing is followed by a comma. ]Example Template [SENDER'S NAME] [SENDER'S ADDRESS] (optional[SENDER'S PHONE] (optional[SENDER'S E-MAIL] [DATE] [RECIPIENT W/O PREFIX] [RECIPIENT'S TITLE] [RECIPIENT'S COMPANY]

[RECIPIENT'S ADDRESS] (Optional) Attention [DEPARTMENT/PERSON], Dear [RECIPIENT W/ PREFIX]: Re: [SUBJECT] [First Salutation then Subject in Business letters] [CONTENT.] [CONTENT.]

[VALEDICTION (Sincerely, Respectfully, Regards, etc.)],

[SENDER] [SENDER'S TITLE]

Enclosures ([NUMBER OF ENCLOSURES]) cc: [CC RECIPIENT], [CC RECIPIENT TITLE] [CC RECIPIENT], [CC RECIPIENT TITLE] Indentation Formats Business letters generally conform to one of four indentation formats: Block, Semi-Block, Modified Block, and Modified Semi-Block. Put simply, "Semi-" means that the first lines of paragraphs are indented; "Modified" means that the sender's address, date, and closing are significantly indented. Block In a Block format letter, (1) all text is aligned to the left margin, (2) paragraphs are not indented. 3) parts and paragraphs are separated by double or triple spacing. Semi-Block In a Semi-Block format letter, (1) all text is aligned to the left margin, (2) paragraphs are ind

Modified Block In a Modified Block format letter, (1) all text is aligned to the left margin, except for the author's address, date, and closing; and (2) paragraphs are not indented. The author's address, date, and closing are usually indented three inches from the left margin, but can be set anywhere to the right of the middle of the page, as long as all three elements are indented to the same position. Modified Semi-Block In a Modified Semi-Block format letter, (1) all text is aligned to the left margin, except for the author's address, date, and closing; and (2) paragraphs are indented. The author's address, date, and closing are usually indented