COMMERCIAL CORRESPONDENCE

- Letters in Details-
By Hanan Ismaeel– June, 16, 2019
CONTENTS
Letters layout 1
Sender’s Address
Inside Address
Salutation & Complementary close
Layout 2: Letterhead/ Ref/ per pro/ enclosures
Layout 3: Private/ copies
How to have effective letters
Styles of typing
Case study
 Letter in details
Letter Layout (1)
The letter is from an individual in Denmark to a company in the UK. It shows the basic
features of a simple business letter

Return Address
Top- right-hand corner, left is acceptable but less
common, no punctuation. Date is directly below
separated by a space.

Inside Address
Bellow the sender’s address, left-hand side of the page

Attention line
It is an alternative to including the recipient’s name or job
title in the inside address

Body of the letter

Separate each paragraph with a space

Complimentary close & Signature

End your letter with a compliment and sign your name
(full/initials), add either your full name or courtesy title so
the correspondent identifies your sex.
Inside Address (courtesy titles)
If you know the name of the person you are writing to, write it as the
first line of the address.
01 Mr.
is the usual courtesy title for a
man. The unabbreviated form
Mister should not be used.
04 Ms.
pronounced/ mrz/ or /mas/, no
unabbreviated form) is used for both
married and unmarried women. It is
advisable to use this form of address
when you are unsure.
02 Mrs.
(pronounced /mrsrz/, no
unabbreviated form) is used for
married woman.
05 Messrs.
s (pronounced /mesaz/,
abbreviation for French
‘Messieurs' which is never used)
is used occasionally for two or
more men.
If Name is not known, then WHAT?
03 Miss.
Not an abbreviation, used
to refer to an unmarried
woman.
06 Others
Doctor (Dr.), Professor (Prof.);
military titles Captain (Capt.) Major
(Maj.), Colonel( CoI.), General (Gen) ;
and aristocratic titles, e.g. Sir, Dame,
Lord, Lady.
 Inside Address
Order of the Inside Address

 Name of house or building

 Number of the building & name of the

street

 Name of town or city and postcode

 Name of country
e.g. e.g.
Warwick House Industrial House
Warwick Street 34-4t Craig Road
Forest HiIl Bolton
London SE23 lIF BL4 8TF
UK UK
Complimentary Close

TITLE STATUS Complimentary close

Mr Married or unmarried male Yours Sincerely

Mrs Married female Yours Sincerely

Miss Unmarried female Yours Sincerely

Ms Married or unmarried female Yours Sincerely

Sir Male – name not known Yours Faithfully

Madam Female – name not known Yours Faithfully

Sir/ Madam When unsure whether addressing a male or a female Yours Faithfully

Medical/ academic/ military These titles do not change whether addressing a male or a female Yours Sincerely
 Letter in details
Letter Layout (2)
This is the company's reply to the letter from the prospective customer in Denmark.
It shows some more features of atypical business letter
Letterhead
The printed letterhead of a company gives a great deal of
info about it (company type – address – register number)

References
They indicate what the letter refers to (Your Ref.) and the
correspondence to refer to when replying (Our Ref.)

Per Pro
It means (PER PRO) = for and on behalf of

Job title
Include your job title in the signature block, especially if
your recipient has not dealt with you before

Enclosures
If there are any documents enclosed with a letter,
although these may be mentioned in the body of the
letter, it is also common to write Enc. or EncI. below the
signature block
 Letter in details
Letter Layout (3)

Private and confidential

This phrase may be written at the head of a Ietter and,
more important, on the envelope, in cases where the
letter is intended to be read only by the addressee.

Subject title
Directly after the salutation. It provides further reference
and saves introducing the topic in the first paragraph.

Copies
When copies are sent to people other than the named
recipient, c. c. (carbon copy) is added, usually at the end
of a letter, before the name/s of the recipients of the
copies.
 How to Write effectively
Characteristics of the tone:

The Reader’s Interest

Try to adopt the reader’s viewpoint not your own. You
should understand his/her feelings, needs and interests
when writing a business letter.
e.g.
o “Attached is a questionnaire we are sending to all
our retail stores in this area.”

o “The attached questionnaire is designed to give us

information, so that we can make this year training
program most useful to you and your sales forces”
 How to Write effectively

Courtesy & Consideration

Try to use polite and diplomatic expressions. It is the
quality that enables us to do a favor, refuse a favor and
keep a friend.
e.g.
o “please accept my apologies for not answering your
letter soon.”

o “may I send you the catalogue sometime next week”

 How to Write effectively

Personalization
Try to use and adopt personal and expressions rather
than impersonal expressions, such as using the pronouns
(I – we).
e.g.
Impersonal
o “Hoping to hear from you soon.”
o “looking forward to meeting you next week.”

Personal
o “I (we) hope to hear from you soon.”
o “I (we) look forward to meeting you next week.”
 How to Write effectively

Naturalness & Sincerity

Try to write with genuine interest to the reader.

e.g.
Avoid
o “I have the pleasure of informing you…...”
o “please favor us with an early expression of your views.”
o “at your earliest convenience.”

Say
o “I am pleased to tell you…..”
o “please let us have your opinion soon.”
o “as soon as possible.”
 How to Write effectively

Proper tone
Avoid using expressions that are likely to antagonize the
reader.

e.g.
Negative tone
o “We cannot ship you the order because you did not
send us the payment.”

Positive tone
o “We shall be glad to ship your order as we receive
your check.”
Styles of Typing

Full-block style Block style Indented style

Case Study
Your Turn Now...........

Task A
You are a local company specialized in car sales; write a letter
to BMW car company asking them to send you their price list
of their new car collection.
- Remember to add all main parts of the letter.
- Don’t forget your reference.
- Be effective.

Task B
A B
You are the BMW company; reply to the letter you wrote in
Task A and attach the price list of the collection along with
their catalogue
THANK YOU