How to write business letters correctly? Types and structure of a business letter

How to write a business letter that will not be lost in the "information garbage" and will be read? Rules, recommendations, examples

The word is an affordable business tool. In the business world, it is impossible to find a person who does not use the word in his work.

Modern business is gradually turning into a business by correspondence. With the help of letters - electronic or traditional - there is communication with customers, business partners, employers. The letter positions the author either as a professional or as a person with whom it is not worth continuing a relationship.

The professional should be able to write

• clearly
• effectively
• convincingly
• interesting

And it will never be learned how to do this. We begin with the basics: we comprehend the difference between business and ordinary writing.

What is the service letter different from usual? The specifics of a business letter

A letter is a short text with a volume of one or two pages, the purpose of which is to convey information about something to the addressee.

The nature of the information and the relationship between the sender and the recipient of the letter share correspondence on the

• business( formal)
• personal( informal)

The business letter is characterized by:

• conciseness
• accuracy
• reasoning and logicality
• informative
• evaluation and emotional neutrality
• standardization:
• officialforms
• used steady speech, special office terms and constructions
• number of topics - 1-2
• addressability
• clearly expressed subordination( if necessary)

What types of business letters exist?

Kind of business letter is defined by

1. Purposes of its writing

Commercial goals of

• You want to conclude a deal and offer its specific conditions - write out an offer letter( offer)

• for the addressee If you are not sure about the terms of the transaction acceptable for you - send an inquiry letter
• Would you like to inform your addressee of a breach of contractual obligations on his part? Compile a letter of complaint( complaint)

Non-profit objectives

• Thanks in a letter of thanks
• Confirm your obligations with a letter of guarantee and your consent with a letter of confirmation
• Write information letters if you think that your information will be of interest to the addressee of
• . Remind important agreements, obligations, penal sanctions with remind letters
• . Congratulations in letters-greetings, ask in letters-requests, condole in letters of condolence
• If you need to send important documents or tangiblesbe sure to compose a cover letter for your cargo

2. Receiver

If you address a letter to several recipients at once, then you are composing a circular letter

3. Contents of

Your letter may affect several topics at the same time, which automatically makes it multidimensional

4.

structure Regulatedthe letters suggest the compilation of the text part of the letter according to a certain sample, and the ad-hocs have a free form of exposition

5. The form of sending

• into a convmouth
• in electronic form by fax

structure of business writing: introduction, main part, conclusion

standard business letter structure requires more careful consideration.

Correctly formatted letter should correspond to the following scheme:

Let's consider some details of the scheme:

1. Title

As a rule, this is a summary of the subject of the letter.

Important: Make the title correctly if you want the recipient to read your letter.

The absence of headlines in business correspondence is peculiar to beginners who do not have elementary skills of conducting business correspondence.

2. Message

• has the traditional form "Dear"
• is written with a capital letter in the middle of the line

Important: The use of abbreviations in circulation is prohibited!

3. The

• preamble introduces the addressee to the main idea of ​​the
• letter. It prepares the addressee for the correct perception of the subsequent information provided in the

4. The main part of the text justifies the key idea stated in the

preamble. In this part of the

• letter, you clearly state the essence of the
• proposal /give arguments: facts, figures, other specifics on the subject of the letter.expert opinion, own positive / negative experience

For convenience of justification, you can use the following scheme:

Important: The last paragraph should contain a phrase indicating a particular step or expected result and prompt the addressee to the action of

5. Finally:

6. In the "Signature "the addressee information must be indicated:

• position
• Name

How not to make a mistake in choosing a style of writing?

In business correspondence, you always have to make a choice regarding the style of writing and the tone of communication with the addressee. How dry, formal, formal, or, conversely, lively, warm, human should your message be?

• Personal style in business correspondence emphasizes the individual qualities of the person who wrote the letter
• When using the formal style, the facts are stated and the corresponding conclusions are drawn on their basis
• Personal style implies the communication of the letter writer and the addressee on equal
• The formal style demonstrates a clear subordination and the strength with which the readerletters are forced to be considered

In order to choose the right style of communication in a business letter, think:

• in which weight classes are you and your
• recipient you want to negotiate in a good way or push from the position of strength

How to stick to the chosen style?

Personal style

• Personal pronouns: I, we, you
  For example: I apologize to you and sincerely hope that such mistakes will not happen again
• Direct requests and requests
  For example: Please do not leave personal belongings unattended
• Use of emotionalestimated expressions: star youth, deafening failure

Formal style

• Replacement of personal pronouns with abstract nouns
  For example: The administration of the cinema brings its sincere apologies for the treasonevening session schedule
• Replacement of personal requests and requests with
  statements For example: Please do not leave personal belongings unattended
• Use of common clericals: I bring to your knowledge, due to the fact that

The formal style is absolutely not suitable if you are writing a thank you letter ora letter of condolence, that is, those business letters in which feelings must be expressed. In a situation where you write a letter-request or a letter-proposal it is also better to stick to a personal style.

What is a letter of complaint and how to write it? How is it different from other kinds of letters?

Important: When composing a letter, focus the addressee's attention on what actions you expect from him. Also, specify the specific deadlines for the implementation of the tasks you set.

A letter of complaint template will help to compose it correctly:

What is an answer letter and how to write it?

There are two types of message letters:

• letter of rejection
• letter with positive response

Compilation of both types of letters has two general rules( provided that the initiative letter was compiled correctly):
1. The response letter retains vocabulary and speech speedof the initiative letter
2. The text of the response letter should not contain information about

• when
• was issued as its

registration number. An example of a friendly and correct rejection letter is given below:

OneO failure does not always have to be soft. There are situations when a rigid and strict style of communication is necessary. The following is a template for fault letters for all occasions: from hard to soft:

Information letter: it differs from letter-responses and letters of complaint

The information letter is multifunctional:

• reports( for example, price changes in price lists)
• notifies(on re-election of board members)
• notifies( about shipment of goods)
• declares( about intentions)
• confirms( receipt of goods)
• reminds( about fulfillment of obligations undertaken under the contract)
• advertises and informs( about the companyPosted in General, about the products / services in particular)

Perhaps the most pressing issue today is the question of how to create advertising and information letter.

The plan of the selling letter is presented in the diagram:

When composing the letter, be sure to use the following points:

• Promise
• Justification
• Ask price
• Call for action

The ready letter may look like this:

How can I write business letters? Typical examples of

errors

1. Lack of structure of
2. Presence of slang or informal vocabulary in the text
3. Sloppy design of
4. Abundance of spelling, syntactic, stylistic errors
5. Absence of reliable facts, objective information
in the letter 6. Violation of elementary rules of courtesyespecially in letters of complaint)
7. Use of cumbersome and incomprehensible
proposals in the text 8. Lack of logic in the presentation of the
material 9. Absence of abbreviations for
10. General blurringThe essence of the text in case of its purposeless compilation

What else should one know about business letters?

1. For modern business correspondence use the method of block structure of compilation of text.
This method saves time and maintains a common style of all business documentation. A characteristic feature of the method is open punctuation or the absence of points / commas( for example, when creating lists)

2. A sans-serif font( for example, Arial) can be used for the header of the letter. Such a font on the subconscious level is perceived as a stable and thorough

3. In the main text, use serif fonts( Times News Roman).Thanks to the serifs, the eyes move more easily from letter to letter, which makes the process of reading faster

. Important: There are letters that are always written by hand!
This is a letter of congratulations, letters of condolence, letters of thanks

How to write business letters: advice and feedback

A large amount of useful information on writing texts of business letters can be found in the video from Sasha Carepina.

Video: How to write clearly and humanly? Tips from Sasha Carepina

Video: How to write cover letters and summaries of

Video: "Learning from storytellers."Secrets of selling texts