商务信件写作格式及方法Business Letter Writing

Business Letter Writing Business Letter—layout I. Basic Layout: Note the position of 1. Letterhead 2. The dateline 3. The opening (inside address)    4. The salutation 5. The body 6. The Closing 7. The signature and name 8. P.S. (Postscript)  There are two styles of composing letters. One is indented style, and the other is block style. Nowadays, block style is more popular especially in business world. For indented style, you should indented 4 letters at the beginning of each paragraph, and you need not leave space between paragraphs. While for the block style, you need to leave space between paragraphs, but you need not indented 4 letters at the beginning. Just write along side. 1.. Letterhead The letterhead is also called return address, which is the full address of the writer. It is typed in the upper right- hand corner of the first page. In business world, letterhead is normally printed on the top of the letter paper in the middle. Thus you need not to write it again. Just write the date. For personal letter, you also need not to write the letterhead. Notes for letterhead: 1) You should be aware of the order you write letterhead is just reversed from that in Chinese ,i.e., from the smallest unit to the biggest unit. For example, the number of the room, number of the building, number of the street, city, province and then the country. 2. Dates Be careful! In China the 14th April 2003 is written 2003/04/14 In England the 14th April 2003 is written 14/4/2003 or 14/04/2003 In America the 14th April 2003 is written 4/14/2003 or 04/14/2003 It is probably safest to write 14th April, 2003 or April 14, 2003 !!! 3. The opening The opening is also called the inside address, which is the address exactly the same as that on envelope. The opening goes above the salutation on the left, which is always omitted in personal letters. The order of the inside address is the same as the order of letterhead. While in business world, if you know the receivers’ name and position, you should write them before the company name and address.  4. The salutation The salutation is the greeting, which goes one or two spaces below the opening at the left-hand margin. Usually it is best to say “Dear…” if you know the name of the receiver, or just “Dear Sir/Madam” if you do not know the receiver’s name. Then you should use a comma (,) or nothing. We Chinese normally use a colon (:) After the salutation, while, in English letter, colon should not be used. It is not correct. In salutation, you still should pay much attention to the title, Mr. for male, Mrs., Miss, Ms. For female. They should be followed by surname, family name. For example, Mr. Brown, Mrs. Brown (husband’s surname), Ms. Smith, Miss White etc. Note: In China, people always address the title of one’s position, such as manager, director, and teacher etc. In English, however, these are not the addressing. It is not correctly used that you write “Dear Teacher Zhang”, “ Dear Manager Yang”, and so on and so forth. 5. The body It is the most important part of the letter—the content of the letter. It is one or two spaces bellow the salutation. The length of the line should be adjusted to the length of the paper. Leave margins on either side. The paragraph should be blocked or indented, according to the style chosen. Usually it is single—spaced for a business letter. It usually consists of at least two paragraphs—even if the second paragraph is nothing more than “ Thanks and best wishes to you,” or something. It contains introduction, purpose and conclusion in the body of the letters. 6. The closing It is the way of saying goodbye. In business writing, it is always the complimentary closing. There are various of words to choose in English closing. It should match the tone established by the salutation and carried through the body of the letter. It is usually two spaces bellow the body of the letter, together with the signature group. How a letter is closed depends on how it is opened. The closing should match the opening. If you use a comma (,) after the salutation, you should use a comma after the closing. If you use nothing after the salutation, you also should use nothing after the closing.  Dear Sir or Dear Madam Dear Sir/Madam Yours faithfully Dear Mr. Smith, Dear Mrs. Wang, Dear Ms. Lee, Yours sincerely, Yours truly,* Dear Rose Dear Jack Best wishes With kind regards Yours Love (informal, close friends) Cordially yours,     7. The signature and name The signature is the last part of a letter. Skip a line after the closing and sign your name in line with the first word of the closing. In business letters, you should sign your full name. Your name should be typed also in another line. In order to make the people know how to address you when reply, lady writers should list Mrs. Ms., Or Miss in parenthesis after your name. However, in personal letters, you can sign your full name, first name or nick name according to the relationship with the receivers. 8. P. S. (postscript) This should be located at the bottom of the paper. If you are not on purse forget to mention something in your letter, you can write P. S. and then just add what you forget. There are some phrases for polite expression: I would like to… would you like…, Would you please… I will be grateful if…, I am afraid that…, Thank you for… It was kind of you to have… I wonder if it is possible that… You were most thoughtful to… Please accept my apology for the delay in sending… Certainly, you have every right to expect better service, and I… 1. Invitation I would very much like to invite you for…. Would you please attend the annual conference held…. We will hold a party this weekend. We would like to invite you to be out guest. On behalf of …, I am extending to you our formal invitation to visit… I have great pleasure, on behalf of…to invite you to attend the…on…sponsored by…held in(place) on (date)/from…to… Accept the invitation: I accept with my pleasure your kind invitation…. I would love to attend your party. I would like to visit you…. I would be very pleased to…. Refuse the invitation I would very much love to take part in your party, but …. I am sorry that I will have another meeting on that day, …. It is so pleased to get your invitation, while I will be on business trip during that period. Sample letters Read the samples in the following parts and write your own letter of the same type. 1. Letter of invitation Commerce Chamber 46 Woodworth Road London EC3 5FG April 8, 2004 Henry Jones 51 Grant Avenue Toronto, Ont. Canada M4C 4C9 Dear Mr Jones We would like to invite you to join us for the annual sales conference and invite you to give a talk at the conference on June 12th. The conference will start at 9:00 am. More than 500 company directors are expected to attend. We would be very grateful if you could inform us whether you will be available on June 12th and tell us the topic of your speech. Yours sincerely Helen Henderson Helen Henderson (Miss) the Secretary Exercises 1.4.1-1 : The students union will hold a party on this Saturday at 6:00 at the students club.  Write an invitation letter to your English Teacher. Then exchange with your partner to check. After that write a reply to accept or refuse. 2. Complaint I must complain about (that)… I am not satisfied with… I feel something should be done about… May 4, 2002 Dear Sir/Madam, Further to my telephone call this morning, I would like to write to you for the tape-recorder I bought last month in you shop. I just used it only for a week when it broke. I took it to a local repair shop, they told us that it was factory defect and suggested that I take it to your branch company in our town. I waited for more than two weeks, and your company did not send a replacement. I will be grateful if you could replace the machine for me soon. Yours faithfully, James Christopher Exercises1.4.1-2: You bought a walkman at duty free shop at the airport. You found the machine does not work when you got back home. Write a letter to complain. 3. Apology I am terribly sorry, but… I am afraid I… I must apologize for… Dear Customer, I am writing to you to explain the reasons for the poor service we have given over the past few months. I apologize for the incomplete delivery and no replies to the inquiries.  I am extremely sorry for all the inconvenience caused by our poor services. The main reasons lie in our working procedures have not kept pace with the expansion of our company. First of all, we do not have enough staffs to deal with the deliveries and inquiries; secondly, our warehouse is not large enough to store our goods; thirdly, our computer systems are also not so modern as to satisfy the need of company’s expansion. I promise that orders will surely be delivered promptly and correctly. See to it that we have already taken some actions. Now we have already invited more staffs; and we have already rent a warehouse acquired; moreover, we have already invested enough money to improve the computer systems to cope with the pace of the expansion. Accordingly, the poor services as before will not appear anymore. Yours faithfully, Henry Henry, the manager Exercises1.4.1-3 : Write a reply to show the apology about the walkman mentioned above, and give your solution of the problem. 4. Information Asking for information Could you please tell me that… Could you possibly… Would it be possible to… I would be grateful if you would. …. Would you mind doing… I wonder if you could…    I am writing to you in the hope of…/ to inquire about… Offering information It is my pleasure to …. I would like to tell you… We would like to inform you that…. Thank you for your inquiry about… 5. Suggestion I’d like to suggest that… May I suggest that… Perhaps we could… Could you please… Sample letter Dear Sir/Madam I am organizing a group of students to pay a visit to the historical exhibition in your town. This visit will be part of our school’s activities to encourage the students to take part in social surveys. Therefore, I would be grateful if you would supply me with the following information: First of all, what are the opening and closing dates between which the exhibition will be held, and what are the daily opening hour? Secondly, what is the size of the exhibition, what is its theme and what objects are on display? Thirdly, are there any other activities being held in connection with the exhibition? I should let you know that I hope to bring over 100 students to the exhibition. So I would like to inquire if there is any discount available on entrance tickets for students. If so, how much is the discount and what is the minimum number of students necessary to qualify for it? I look forward to your reply. Yours sincerely, George Moore George Moore 2)  Dear Dr. Evans, Thank you for your letter. I was very pleased to hear you will be visiting Beijing and hope the following information will help you to enjoy your stay. First of all, Beijing is cosmopolitan city with a long history, which is the center of politics, culture and commerce. There are many international quality hotels and restaurants as well as shopping centers, markets and entertainment places. However, I think you would like to see some places that are unique to my country. I know you are interested in culture and history, so firstly I suggest you visit the Great Wall, it shows the talent of Chinese people. Secondly, the Palace Museum, for it will show you the lives of the royal family of China. And it has a large collection of art and other cultural items. Other interesting places are the Summer Palace, Heaven Temple and millennium monument etc. They will all show you the traditional Chinese cultures. I hope these suggestions will be helpful. As you only have a short time in Beijing, you probably will not be able to do much more sightseeing. But if I can help in any other way, please let me know. Yours sincerely, Amy Amy Exercises1.4.1-4: Write to a foreign university to inquire the courses they offer, and show your intention of study there. Then write a reply on be half of the university to offer the information required. 6. Congratulations I would like to deliver my congratulations to you. I was pleased to hear that you were promoted to be the General manager of your company. I was so happy to know that…. Congratulations on your… Sample letter Dear Holly, I was pleased to hear that you have been promoted to General manager of ACE company. This news came as no surprise to me; I always consider you as a person who was going places! I am very happy to see your abilities recognized --- I know you will do an excellent job in your new position. Please accept my sincere personal congratulations. I am so happy for your good future. Sincerely, Mary Exercises1.4.1-6: Your colleague just give a birth to a baby, write a letter to give your congratulations. 7. Thanks Thank you for your… I appreciate your help… Thank you very much for… I am grateful for …. Sample letter Dear Susan, Thank you very much for letting me live at your house while I was in Beijing. I had a great time at the football game. I really enjoyed myself. I hope that you can pay me a visit when you come to Guangzhou soon. Yours, James James Exercises1.4.1-5: One of your friend bought a book you need for you from abroad, write a letter to thank him. 8. Application and replies For a job I am a senior in Beijing University and will be graduated in July… I am interested in the job you offered… I learned from the newspaper advertisement that there is a vacancy for … I would like to apply …. in your company. I should like to apply for the post of which you advertised in yesterday’s China Daily… I am an experienced…. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you and I do hope I shall have the opportunity of an interview. I can come for an interview at any time convenient to you. Reply: I received your… and I am pleased to inform you… We would like to offer you the position of… We were very much interested in your letter applying for … Can you come in for an interview on… While we are very much interested in your qualifications, we are afraid that you do not quite meet our current needs. We shall keep your offer on file/in mind when there is a vacancy /should there be any openings. For entry to a college I am writing to ask whether you could send me some information about your college and for the application forms.