UNIT 1

BASIC CONVENTIONS FOR LETTER

AND EMAIL WRITING

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 1.1. LETTERS: LAYOUT AND STYLE

LAYOUT OF A BUSINESS LETTER

PRINTED LETTERHEAD

(Sender’s address)

References

Receiver’s address

Date

Private and Confidential

Attention Line

Salutation

Subject heading

Body of the letter

The opening
The main message
The complimentary close

Signature

Per pro (p. p.)

Company position

Copies (c. c.)Enclosures (enc. or encl.)

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SENDER’S ADDRESS
Not sender’s name.
Name of building or house, number of building and name of street, road or avenue.
Name of town or city and postcode.
Name of country.

Eg. Warwick House

54-59 Riverside St.
Cardiff CF1 1JW
UK

REFERENCES
They are quoted to indicate what the letter refers to (your ref.) and the correspondence
to refer to when replying (our ref.). They may appear in figures or in letters.

Eg.
• 661/17 (661 may be the chronological number of the letter and 17 the number
of the department)
• DS/MR (DS stands for Donald Sampson and MR for Mary Roig)

DATE
The month should not be written in figures as they can be confusing. In British English,
they write the day first, but in American English they write the month first. Remember to
use a capital letter for the month. You do not have to write th, rd, nd or st after the day.

Eg. 11. 1. 99
In the US 1st November 1999. In the UK 11th January 1999.

RECEIVER’S ADDRESS

-If you know the surname of the person:

• Mr J. Smith ( Mr… is used for a man)
• Mrs M. Brown ( Mrs… is used for a married woman)
• Miss K. Jansen (Miss… is used for an unmarried woman)
• Ms H. Bird (Ms… is used for both married or unmarried woman)
• Messrs Carlton ( Messrs… abbreviation for messieurs, is used for two or more
men).
• Esq is placed after the name. It’s the abbreviation for Esquire. E.g. Bruce Hill
Esq (It’s old-fashioned)
• Dr Johnson (Dr for Doctor)
• Prof Smith (Prof for Professor)

-If you do not know the name of the person you are writing to, you may assume
his/her title or position in the company.
Eg. The Sales manager

You can address the letter to a department: Ex. The Sales Department or if you know
nothing about the company or do not want to make any assumptions about the person
or department your letter should go to the company itself: Eg. Soundsonic Ltd.

Private and Confidential

When the letter is intended only for the named recipient. It may appear on the
envelope.

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Attention line
For the attention of the Production Manager
It is an alternative to including the recipient’s name or position in the address.

Salutations
• Dear Sir (to a man whose name you do not know)
• Dear Sirs (to address a company)
• Dear Madam (to a woman single or married whose name you do not know)
• Dear Sir or Madam ( to address a person you know neither the name nor the
sex or to address a company).
• Dear Mr Smith (NOT Dear Mr John Smith) to a man when you know his
surname.
• Dear Mrs Carlmann (to a married woman)
• Dear Miss Jansen (to an unmarried woman)
• Dear Ms Hollingsworth (to a married or unmarried woman)
• Gentlemen (in the US).
• Dear John or Dear Mary, to address to a friend or someone you know well.

Notes:
• Letters do not usually open with “Dear Mr John” or “Dear Mr John Smith”.
• Unless you know that a woman prefers to be known as “Miss” or “Mrs”, it is
best to use “Ms”.

Subject line (Re)

This line provides a further reference. It saves introducing the subject in the first
paragraph. It immediately draws attention to the topic of the letter and allows the writer
to refer to it throughout the letter.
Eg. Application for post of typist
Re: Application for post of typist

Body of the letter

There are two ways of laying out business letters, block style or indented. The first one
is the most useful because it is accepted everywhere.

Complimentary closes
If the letter begins Dear Sir It will close Yours faithfully
Dear Sirs
Dear Madam
Dear Sir or Madam

If the letter begins Dear Mr Jordan It will close Yours sincerely

Dear Mrs Robinson
Dear Miss Kenton
Dear Ms Peterson

If the letter begins Dear John It will close Best wishes

The Americans tend to close with Yours truly or Truly Yours

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Signature
Always type your name after your handwritten signature.

Eg. Yours faithfully

(Miss) M. Brown

Per pro (p, p.)

It means on behalf of

Company position
When signing on behalf of your company it is useful to indicate your position in the firm
in the signature.

Copies (c.c.)
c.c. is written usually at the end of the letter when copies are sent to people other than
the named recipient.

Enclosures (Enc. or Encl.)

If there are any enclosures, eg. leaflets, prospectuses etc. with the letter, these may be
mentioned in the body of the letter. But many firms write Enc. or Encl. at the bottom of
the letter. If there are a number of documents, these are listed.

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LETTER LAYOUT: BLOCK STYLE

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7
PUT IN THE MISSING OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS

a. The Manager b. John Hall c. Ms B Carrillo

Fuchi Bank Ave Paul Hymans 26 Restaurante Flor
Tokyo 101 1200 Brussels Guadalajara
Dear………… Dear………………. Dear…………..
Yours……….. Yours……………... Yours…………

d. The Manageress e. Trufit Shoe Co. f. Mrs H Cheng

Bells Supermarket 841 Pacific St 5 Hatton Road
76 Oxford Road Los Angeles 901 Hong Kong
Bath BA2 5HD ………………… ……………….
…………………. ………………… ……………….
………………….

There are ten mistakes in this letter. Can you find them? Write out the letter
correctly, in ‘block style’.

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Join these openings to the right ending.

a. Dear Mrs Wilson

b. Dear Madam Yours sincerely
c. Dear Ms Hemsuchi
d.Dear Susan Best wishes
e.Dear Mr Soler
f. Dear David Yours faithfully
g. Dear Sir or Madam

Read the following statements and decide which are true (T) and which are false
(F).

1. If a letter begins with the receiver’s name, e.g. Dear Mr Ross, it will close with
Yours faithfully.
2. The abbreviation c.c. stands for “correct carbons”.
3. If you were writing a letter to Mr Peter Smith, you would open with Dear Mr
Peter Smith.
4. The head of a company in the UK is known as “The President”.
5. In the USA, it is correct to open a letter with the salutation Gentlemen.
6. The abbreviation enc or encl means there are enclosures with the letter.
7. In the UK, the abbreviated date 2. 6. 05 on a letter means 6 February 2005.
8. If a secretary signs her name on a letter and her signature is followed by p.p.
per pro) Daniel Harris, it means she is signing on behalf of Daniel Harris.
9. If you did not know whether a female correspondent was married or not, it
would be correct to use the term Ms, e.g. Ms Tessa Groves, instead of Miss or
Mrs.
10. Rather than use the UK close of Yours sincerely/faithfully, Americans often
choose Yours truly.

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 1.2. E-MAIL: LAYOUT AND STYLE

GENERAL OUTLINE

• General characteristics of e-mail communication

• Elements of an e-mail message

o Sender’s address

o Receiver’s address

o Copies

o Subject line

o Attachments

o The message

Salutation

Body of the message

• Length

• Content

• Form

• Courtesy

Complimentary close

Signature

o Getting rid of messages

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GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF E-MAIL COMMUNICATION

Although e-mail is a relatively new medium, in most organisations and businesses it is

now the de-facto communication method, both internally and with external bodies.
However, many people make the mistake of treating e-mail as a lesser form of
communication, when it deserves the same amount of care and attention as putting
pen to paper.

Another common error is to assume that all e-mails are necessarily informal. One must
distinguish personal messages between business colleagues, which may be very
casual, from company to company e-mail, which is not radically different from
traditional correspondence and requires a certain degree of formality. It is safer,
especially in international communication, to initiate the contact formally and then
switch to a more relaxed register if your correspondent replies informally. It is easy and
natural to progress from formal to friendly, but it is awkward to have to step backwards
from friendly to formal if the receiver replies in a formal way.

When writing e-mail, it is important to follow the rules of “Netiquette” (short for
“network etiquette”), i.e. the code of conduct regarding acceptable online behavior. In
the pages that follow, we will deal with different netiquette issues concerning form,
content or politeness.

ELEMENTS OF AN E-MAIL MESSAGE

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• In e-mails there is no need for the layout of ordinary letters, especially with regard
to the sender’s address, the receiver’s address or the date, since these elements
appear under a different form.

o Sender’s address: when you send a message, your e-mail address (e.g.
vpellegrini@italialink.it) will be automatically specified, so that the receiver
knows who wrote the e-mail.
• Normally, when setting up an e-mail account, you attach a “personal
name” (e.g. “Vincenzo Pellegrini”) to your address, because that
name identifies you better than your address can on its own. Use a
sensible personal name: “Guess who” or other such phrases are
annoying as personal names and hinder the recipient’s quick
identification of you and your message. In business, that would be
suicidal.
• After opening up an account, it is a good idea to send yourself an e-
mail first. That way, you can check that your name and your return
address are correct, and that the message is displayed correctly.

o The receiver’s address goes on the “To:” line (1). Instead of an e-mail
address you can simply write a nickname (2), if you have previously set up
an address book (3) matching addresses and nicknames (e.g. “Tim” could
be a nickname for timothy.dawson@microsoft.com). Even though they are
very convenient, the problem with address books is that many viruses
spread automatically to all the recipients listed in them.

o The date (and time) is also marked automatically when you send a
message

Note: structure of an e-mail address

E-mail addresses follow the pattern user@domain.ext.

• “@” is pronounced “at”, and “.” is pronounced “dot”.

• The domain name generally designates the institution/company the person belongs to (e.g.
profesor@ull.es, john.doe@cocacola.com), or to the email provider used by the person (e.g.
jackfry@hotmail.com).

• The domain name extension (abbreviated as “ext” above) is a two or three-letter code that
identifies the type of organisation or the country the e-mail address belongs to. Examples:

Domain extension Type of organisation

.com Commercial
.net Network services
.org Non-profit
.edu Education (within the U.S.)

Domain extension Country

.es Spain
.fr France
.pt Portugal
.it Italy
.uk United Kingdom
.jp Japan

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 • Copies

“Cc:” (4) stands for “carbon copies”. On this line you can write the address of the
person(s) you want to send a copy of the message to. If you write several addresses,
separate them by means of a comma (e.g. bclaire@beatty.com, jpatrick@ecoplan.net).

“Bcc:” (5) stands for “blind carbon copies”. This line is used for the same purpose as
the “Cc:” one, but in this case the recipients do not know that copies are being sent to
other people.

• The subject line (6)

-Always include a subject line in your message, since it is often the only clue the
recipient has about its contents when checking his daily e-mail or filing and searching
for messages. Messages that arrive with no subject are very likely to be treated as junk
mail.

-Make the subject line meaningful. For example, sending a message to Apple
Technical Support with the subject “Apple” is practically as unhelpful as having no
subject at all.

-If you are replying to a message but are changing the subject matter, change the
subject line, too. Even in back-and forth messages with the same subject matter, it is
easier to keep track of things if you alter the subject line to match the current phase of
conversation, as shown in example (b), as opposed to (a):

a)
(Original message) Subject: Complaint
(1st reply) Subject: Re: Complaint
(2nd reply) Subject: Re: Complaint
(3rd reply) Subject: Re: Complaint

b)
(Original message) Subject: Complaint
(1st reply) Subject: Apologies, transport strike
(2nd reply) Subject: Refund?
(3rd reply) Subject: Delivery in 3 days

• Attachments (7)

-You use this feature to send files (texts, pictures, databases, etc.) together with
your message. Make sure that you give a meaningful name to the attached file,
rather than a generic name like “file.doc”.

-It is a good idea to compress any file that is over 100K in size, using programs like
WinZip, which can be downloaded for free from the web. If you have to send
multiple files, compress all of them into a single attached file.

-Try to send files only in widespread formats, to make sure the recipient is able to
open them. Sometimes, however, the receiver will be still unable to convert the file,
so it is always useful to say what you are attaching, as in the example below.

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-If you need to send a really large file, you may want to e-mail your recipient ahead
of time, asking for permission and letting him know what time you will be sending it
over.

-Make sure that the attachment is virus-free, too!

• The message (8)

o Salutation

Use appropriate salutations depending on the level of formality. As

mentioned above, it is better to initiate the contact in a formal way, using the
title (Mr, Ms) and the surname of the receiver (e.g. “Dear Mr Saffron”). If you
do not know the name of the receiver, use “Dear Sir/Madam”. If you are not
sure what to use in terms of formality, you can also send your first message
without a salutation, but in general it seems better to include one.

When replying, be guided by your correspondent’s signature. If he has

signed his first name, you may address him accordingly. If both first and last
names are used, it is safest to reply formally. If your correspondent uses
your first name, then use his.

o Body of the message

Length

-Try to match your message length to the purpose of the message: if

you are only making a quick query, then keep it short and to the
point. But it is important to say all you have to say, so do not kill
understanding with brevity.

-When replying to a message, you can quote from it to help your

reader know what you are talking about, even though most people
keep a copy of their outgoing messages in a “Sent items” folder (9).
However, include only the minimum you need from the original
message. It is extremely annoying to have your original 5-page
message quoted back at you in its entirety, with the words “Me too”
added at the bottom. Quote from the original message only where
relevant and make sure that there is some kind of visual indication to

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distinguish between text quoted from the original message and your
new text. Such visual markers (“>” is a traditional one) tend to be
automatically included in most e-mail programmes.

Content

-When initiating the contact, say where you obtained the e-mail
address of the person you are writing to, or mention the web page
name (URL), if you emailed off a web page.

-Keep to the subject as much as possible. If you need to branch off

onto a totally new and different topic, then it is often better to send a
new message, which allows the recipient the option of filing it
separately.

-Include enough information. For example, sending the message

“What has happened to my order?” to a company is rather unhelpful.
You should include the order number and any other details that
might assist in tracing your order.

-Make sure that the content is relevant to the recipients:

-Be careful when replying to messages sent to many

recipients. Are you sure you want to reply to the whole list?

-Do not send excessive multiple postings to people who have

no interest (e.g. chain letters, “make money fast” messages or
virus hoaxes). Nobody likes to receive spam.

-However, business acknowledges that direct mail works.

How can you satisfy the need to get new customers, which by
definition must be strangers to your business, and at the
same time be considerate? If you decide to send unsolicited
e-mail in search for new customers, only send one-line
solicitations, followed by “E-mail for details”. People who want
details will reply, those that do not, will not. Put the list of e-
mail addresses in “Bcc” to protect the privacy of the receivers.
Apart from the privacy angle, it is frustrating to receive a one-
line message preceded by 5 pages of e-mail addresses.

-Do not send unsuitable e-mail or attachments, especially anything

of a sexual nature, as they may be found by a third party.

-Don’t spread gossip or rumours– you have no control over them

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-Be very careful about including sensitive information (e.g. credit
card numbers) in e-mail messages, as they can be intercepted in
transit.

Form

-Insert “breaths” of empty space. Break your message into logical

paragraphs and keep sentences to a sensible length.

-Do not type in CAPITALS, as this is considered to be SHOUTING.

-Business communication requires proper use of capital letters.

Some offices permit all lower-case for internal memos. But this is
rude and slovenly when used for inter-company communications.
Would you write a business letter on company letterhead using all
lower-case?

-If your e-mail programme supports “fancy” formatting (bold, italic

and so on –see the formatting tool bar in (10)) in the messages it
generates, make sure that the recipient has a mail programme that
can display such messages. Also, be careful with graphic accents
and characters such as “¡, ¿, ñ”, since foreign e-mail programmes
may not support them.

-Here you are some expressions that are typical of e-mails:

Now complete the following e-mail using the correct forms of the
above-mentioned expressions that mean the same as the underlined
expressions:

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 -Some acronyms are typical of e-mail:

- AFAIK: as far as I know

- HTH: hope this helps
- IMHO: in my humble opinion
- FYI: for your information
- TIA: thanks in advance

However, these abbreviations should be used sparingly, and only

in casual communication (e.g. between business colleagues).

-Emoticons:

Sometimes, e-mail has very nearly the immediacy of

conversation, but is totally devoid of “body language”. Irony or
humour can be difficult to express in e-mails, which are usually
short and not very elaborate. Many people get round this by
using emoticons like the following:

:-) Amusement. Funny or ironic comment

:-( Disappointment or sorrow
;-) Something should be taken “with a grain of salt”

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 However, these emoticons are only appropriate in very casual
personal e-mails and, even in that context, they should not be
overused. Always make sure that the recipient understands what
they mean.

Emoticons are quite inappropriate for business use. The meaning

of your words should be contained within the words themselves,
and not need additional explanation with funny faces. In any
case, humour and irony should be avoided, as a rule, in business
correspondence.

-Accuracy:

Have a dictionary at hand, and check your grammar, vocabulary

and spelling. Most e-mail programmes have a spell checker
(11).

Do not rush. Re-read your message carefully before clicking on

the “Send” button (12). If you do not have time to finish the job
properly, save the message as a draft (13) and go back to work
on it later.

Courtesy

-Be polite, since e-mail messages are easily misinterpreted. Say

“please” and “thank you”. While this might sound trivial, it is
astonishing how many people who are perfectly polite in everyday
life seem to forget their manners in their e-mail.

-Avoid “flames” (i.e. messages sent in anger).

o Complimentary close

-You can end with “Yours faithfully” (when you do not know the name of
the receiver) or “Yours sincerely” (when you know the name of the
recipient), as in conventional correspondence.

-However, in e-mails it is more common to use one of the following:

-Best wishes
-All best wishes
-Regards
-Best regards

To people you know well, you can end with:

-All the best
-Best

o Signature

-Apart from writing your name below the complimentary close, it is a good
idea to include a signature (14) that will be added automatically at the end of
a message when you send it.

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 -In business communication, a signature should identify who you are and
include alternative means of contacting you. However, keep the signature
short (four to seven lines is a handy guideline for maximum signature
length). An example of signature is the following:

-In more personal e-mail correspondence you can use a quote or any other
element as a signature. You should consider the following basic rules
though:

-Keep it short. A 5,000 word excerpt from Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason
used as a signature will not win you many friends.

-Definitions of “offensive” vary widely: avoid quotes which might offend

people on the grounds of religion, race, politics or sexuality.

-Try to avoid local quotes, since they may be meaningless to recipients

in other towns, countries or cultures.

-Do not use an over-elaborate signature. Never include images, as these

tend to be very large.

• Getting rid of messages

-Remember that if anything goes wrong during the composition of an e-mail message
you can always cancel the process (15).

-You can also eliminate an incoming e-mail you do not want by selecting “Delete”. That
way, you move the message to the “Trash” folder, which you should empty from time
to time.

-To help prevent junk e-mail from entering your inbox, you can install a spam filter.

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SOURCES

Irvine, M. & M. Cadman. 1999. Commercially Speaking. Oxford: Oxford University

Press.

Littlejohn, A. 2000 (3rd edition). Company to Company. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Mascull, B. 2002. Business Vocabulary in Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.

The Art of Writing E-Mail: http://www.net-market.com/email.htm

Business Netiquette International: http://www.bspage.com/1netiq/Netiq.html

Dynamoo’s Email Etiquette: http://www.dynamoo.com/technical/etiquette.htm

Electronic Mail Etiquette: http://www.cs.queensu.ca/FAQs/email/etiquette.html

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1.3. BASIC GUIDELINES TO APPROACH THIS COURSE
A) ANALYSE LETTERS IN TERMS OF FUNCTIONS

In each of the units we are going to read some sample letters. Try to analyze
them in terms of the “functions” that make up the outlines of each of the letter types.
These outlines are given below:
A.1) COVERING LETTER FOR JOB APPLICATION

1. Opening: Say where you got the vacancy/job information from

(newspaper, magazine, web page) and when. In case the job ad refers
to more than one post, specify clearly which one you are applying for.
2. Summarize your qualifications (degrees, masters, specialization
courses) and, above all, your career. Be sure to include only relevant
information.
3. Explain clearly, but briefly, what your personal assets are.
4. Explain clearly, but briefly, what you think you can offer to the
company and why you are interested in working with them.
5. Show availability for a job interview.
6. Close your letter adding a formal ending.

A.2) ENQUIRIES

1. Opening: Say where you got the information from.

2. Give some general information about your business.
3. Explain clearly what information you wish to receive.
4. Say why you need it.
5. Close your letter adding a formal ending.

A.3) REPLIES TO ENQUIRIES

1. Acknowledge receipt of previous correspondence. Thank for the

enquiry.
2. Say you are enclosing information or state what action you are taking.
3. Focus attention on specific information and answer specific
questions.
4. Try to persuade customers to do business.
5. Add an appropriate ending to close the letter.

A.4) ORDERS

1. Acknowledge previous correspondence.

2. State your reactions to the prices, discounts, samples…
3. Place the order.
4. Confirm or suggest terms of payment.
5. Set deadline for delivery (if appropriate).
6. Close the letter and add a formal ending.

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 A.5) REPLIES TO ORDERS

1. Acknowledge receipt of the order.

2. Confirm that you are able to supply the goods.
3. Say what you have done about the order.
4. Say what you are going to do next about the order.
5. Assure the buyer that you can meet the conditions of the order.
6. Close the letter.

A.6) COMPLAINTS

1. Opening: refer to the order.

2. State the reason for the complaint.
3. Suggest a possible cause of the problem (if you can think of any).
4. Suggest a solution (if you have one) and/or state the action you
require the other company to take.
5. State the action taken by your company.
6. Close the letter

A.7) REPLIES TO COMPLAINTS

1. Acknowledge the letter of complaint and thank the person for

having made the complaint.
2. Apologize.
3. Explain the cause of the problem, but never discredit your firm or a
member of staff.
4. Say the error was exceptional.
5. State the action taken to solve the immediate problem.
6. State the action taken to prevent the problem from happening
again.
7. Reassure the customer and end optimistically.
8. Close the letter

B) GRIDS FOR USEFUL PHRASES AND VOCABULARY

Every time you come across a sentence that expresses one of the
functions listed above, write the structure under the corresponding function.
Some examples are given below to help you.

You will need to make your own grids due to lack of space in the one given
here, which is simply a model.

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 ENQUIRIES

FUNCTION EXPRESSION
Say where you - Your firm has been recommended to us by ….
got the - I met your representative at the Hanover Fair this
information. year and…

Give some - We are a long standing company specialized in …

information and are interested in purchasing ….
about your
business.
Explain - Please would you send me an up-to-date price list
information you for…
wish to receive. - Please let us know your prices for…

Say why you - My office is being renovated and I am looking for

need it. new office furniture.

Close with - We look forward to receiving your reply.

formal ending. - We hope to receive an early reply.

Bear in mind that you do not have to find every single function in all the letters
you examine (some letters may deal with fewer points). Moreover, the order of the
functions may be different. The outlines given above are only a suggestion.

The purpose of this activity is twofold:

1. To become familiar with the typical structure of letters of these kinds,

in order to write coherent and well-organized texts.
2. To match each function with different phrases which can be used to
express that meaning. This way, you will enrich your range of
resources without depending on the mechanical (and often incorrect)
memorization of a single model of letter.

Get used to adding useful expressions to the grid every time you see an
interesting structure throughout the whole unit (not only when reading sample letters).

You should also use the vocabulary grid to record new words, especially
technical terms. Make sure you write a definition in English and a full example in
English, too, to learn how to use the term, as in the example shown below. A
monolingual dictionary can be very helpful for this activity.

VOCABULARY GRID

WORD CATEGORY DEFINITION EXAMPLE

inconvenience noun A state of difficulty “We are sorry for the
when things do not inconvenience this
suit one accident may have
caused”

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