Republic of the Philippines

Region I
PANGASINAN STATE UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDIES
Urdaneta City, Pangasinan

Course Title: CAE 214 Theories and Practices of Research

Professor: Dr. Jessica J. Jimenez
Sub Topic: Writing Effective Business Letter and Memos

Objectives:

Definition:

A. Letter – it is a written message; addressed to a person or organization.

B. Memo – it is a document or other communication; helps the memory by recording
events.

Business Letter
 Writing for a business audience is usually quite different than writing in the humanities,
social sciences, or other academic disciplines. Business writing strives to be crisp and
succinct rather than evocative or creative; it stresses specificity and accuracy. This
distinction does not make business writing superior or inferior to other styles. Rather, it
reflects the unique purpose and considerations involved when writing in a business
context.
 When you write a business document, you must assume that your audience has limited
time in which to read it and is likely to skim. Your readers have an interest in what you
say insofar as it affects their working world. They want to know the “bottom line”: the
point you are making about a situation or problem and how they should respond.
 Business writing varies from the conversational style often found in email messages to
the more formal, legalistic style found in contracts. A style between these two extremes
is appropriate for the majority of memos, emails, and letters. Writing that is too formal
can alienate readers, and an attempt to be overly casual may come across as insincere
or unprofessional. In business writing, as in all writing, you must know your audience.
 In most cases, the business letter will be the first impression that you make on someone.
Though business writing has become less formal over time, you should still take great
care that your letter’s content is clear and that you have proofread it carefully.

Pronouns and Active Voice versus Passive Voice

 Personal pronouns (like I, we, and you) are important in letters and memos. In such
documents, it is perfectly appropriate to refer to yourself as I and to the reader as you.
Be careful, however, when you use the pronoun, we in a business letter that is written on
company stationery, since it commits your company to what you have written. When
stating your opinion, use I; when presenting company policy, use we.
 The best writers strive to achieve a style that is so clear that their messages cannot be
misunderstood. One way to achieve a clear style is to minimize your use of the passive
voice. Although the passive voice is sometimes necessary, often it not only makes your
writing dull but also can be ambiguous or overly impersonal. Here’s an example of the
same point stated in passive voice and in the active voice:

Passive voice: “The net benefits of subsidiary divestiture were grossly

overestimated.”
[Who did the overestimating?]
Active voice: The Global Finance Team grossly overestimated the net benefits of
subsidiary divestiture.

The second version is clearer and thus preferable.

 Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. What if you are the head of the
Global Finance Team? You may want to get your message across without calling
excessive attention to the fact that the error was your team’s fault. The passive
voice allows you to gloss over an unflattering point—but you should use it
sparingly.

Importance of Business Letters

 Business letters are an important communication tool. This type of business of business
communication allows for professional correspondence with businesses, as well as
clients.
 Properly writer business letters can give a positive reflection on a business and
individual.
 Effective communication can shape company’s reputation, improve productivity, develop
clientele and allow the company to run more efficiently.

8 Essential Steps to Writing a Business Letter

1. Decide what type of letter you need to write - Business letters have a sender and a
recipient (person who receives the letter). The sender can be a person or a group (like a
company) and the recipient can be another person or group.

Depending on the sender’s reason for writing, there are several types of letters. Have a look at
the main types of business letters:
 Letter of complaint: A business letter written by someone (a person or a company) who
is dissatisfied with the products or services offered by a company. When writing a letter
of complaint, it is important to try to keep a polite tone, even if you are very upset or
have a lot of complaints to make.
 Letter of inquiry: This type of letter is written by someone who has questions about the
activity of another company. If you are planning to write a letter of inquiry, make sure you
try to find out as much information as you can before writing. Then make a checklist with
everything else you need to find out about, so that you don’t forget some important
points.
 Cover letters: These are written by people who are applying for jobs. They are usually
sent together with a resume. A good cover letter can get you a job, but people writing
cover letters often make mistakes or try too hard to impress the reader.
 Adjustment letters: These letters are sent as replies to letters of complaint. They can
be tricky to write because your reader is usually a dissatisfied customer who is hoping to
get the most out of a bad business situation.
 Order letters: This type of business letter is sent to place an order with a company.
Order letters need to include correct information, so you need to double-check all figures
before sending them. Your language needs to be accurate so that there is no room for
mistakes. It is better to use simple and clear language. Long sentences can be
ambiguous (uncertain) and difficult to follow.
 Other letters: There may be all sorts of other business situations in which people may
be writing letters. For example, a person might write a letter to:
o to convince others to buy their products or services;
o to recommend employees for jobs;
o to announce their resignation.

2. Write a short outline - After you have decided what type of letter you are going to write; it is
important to stop and think. Write an outline before you start typing. If you don’t do this, you
could be wasting a lot of time. At the end, you can easily make minor changes, but big changes
are more difficult to make.

Remember to have only one main idea in a paragraph. This will help the reader follow your
points more easily, and your letter will be structured and logical. Your reader will also be happy
(and you want to keep your reader happy) if your ideas are nicely connected. Remember to use
connectors to make transitions within and between paragraphs.

3. Use the right layout and salutation - Business letters have quite strict rules when it comes
to layout (format and order). You need to include the sender’s and the recipient’s addresses and
follow some simple rules:
Start with the sender’s address. You can write it in the top right or left corner. Don’t include your
name or title because these will appear at the end of your letter.
Leave an empty line and write the date just below the sender’s address. If you are writing to a
company in the United States, remember to use the American date format: month, date, year.

Leave another empty line and write the recipient’s title, name, position and address. Pay
attention to titles. We use Mr. for men, Miss for unmarried women, Ms. for women we are not
sure are married and Mrs. for married women. It is always safest to just use Ms. for women.
Here is an example:

14 Bridge Street
Baviera, California 92908

March 11, 2016

Ms. Jane Smith

Customer Care Manager
Chapman and Litt
711-2980 Nulla Street
Mankato, Mississippi 96522

Start the letter with the right salutation, depending on whether you know the recipient and how
well you know them. In American English, we use a colon after salutations in formal business
letters. In British English, we use a comma. Here are some examples:
Dear Ms. Smith: (If you know the recipient’s name.)

Dear Jane: (If you know the recipient quite well and call each other by your first names.)

Dear Sir or Madam: (If you don’t know the recipient’s name.)

To Whom It May Concern: (If you don’t have a specific person to whom you are writing. It is a bit
more general than “Dear Sir or Madam.” It is best to try to find a contact person when writing a
business letter.)

Close the letter appropriately, depending on the salutation you used at the beginning:
(Dear Ms. Smith:) Yours sincerely / Sincerely / Sincerely yours,

(Dear Jane:) Best / Best regards / Kind regards,

(Dear Sir or Madam: / To Whom It May Concern:) Yours faithfully / Faithfully / Faithfully yours,

Sign your name if you are sending a hard copy and then write your name (your title is optional)
and your position:
[Signature]

[Ms.] Rebecca Smith

Director of Acquisitions

4. Use appropriate vocabulary for the type of letter you are writing - Depending on the type
of business letter you are writing, you can choose to use some of the sentences and phrases
suggested below.
 Letters of complaint:
I am writing to complain about…/I am writing to draw your attention to…
 Letters of inquiry:
I am writing to inquire about…/Would you be kind enough to provide me with some information
about…
 Cover letters:
I am writing to apply for the position of…/I am writing in response to your advertisement…
 Adjustment letters:
Please accept our apologies for…/We sincerely apologize for…
 Order letters:
We would like to place an order for…/We look forward to receiving your offer for…

5. Check your spelling - When writing a business letter, perfect spelling is essential. If
possible, use spell check to make sure your spelling is correct.

If you are writing a business letter as part of an exam, try to avoid spelling mistakes. You can
simply replace words that you are not confident about with other words. For example, if you are
not sure how to spell occur, you can use happen instead.

Another useful thing to do, especially if you are writing a cover letter or if you are trying to
impress your reader, is to consider whether they use American or British spelling. There are a
lot of words that are spelled differently, so it may be useful to have a look at this site which gives
you the main differences.

6. Check your grammar - Grammar mistakes are a bit trickier. Of course, the safest route is to
learn the rules and practice them as much as possible. You can use grammar books or online
exercises or both, depending on what you find more convenient.

Another thing you can do is to know your grammar weak spots. For instance, do you tend to
forget adding s for the third-person singular when using the present simple? Or do you overuse
the? Then it is time to double-check for these mistakes.

7. Check your punctuation - It is so difficult to focus on different types of mistakes all at once
—spelling, grammar and punctuation. So, try to make time to proofread your letter a separate
time for punctuation mistakes.

Here are some of the most frequent punctuation mistakes to watch out for are commas,
exclamation points or emoticons and too many or not enough spaces.

8. Format your letter

Leave formatting for the end; it is less time consuming. Most business letters use a block
format, and are left-justified and single-spaced. You should use double spacing between
paragraphs to make it clear where a paragraph ends and where another one begins. The most
common font is Times New Roman 12, but Arial also works just fine.

Parts of a Business Letters

 The Heading – consists of the name of the firm or the individual and the address. These
are the essentials for a printed letterhead, although there may be additional printed data.
 The Date Line – consists of the month, the day of the month, and the year.
 The Inside Address – receiver’s complete name, title, company and address (Letter
Address)
- Consists of the name and address of the person or the firm to whom the
letter is written and should correspond in essentials to the envelope
address.
 Salutation
o Begin with Mr. or Ms. Before the receiver’s name
o Use Dear or Attention followed by an appropriate title, such as Customer Service
Department or Sales Manager.
o Use Dear Sir or Dear Madam or Ladies and Gentlemen. Include BOTH genders
for a general audience.
 The Subject Line – enables the readers to know at a glance what the letter is all about.
It may be placed in various positions (sometimes above the inside address).
 The Body – in the first paragraph, consider a friendly opening and then a statement of
the main point.
- The next paragraph should begin justifying the importance of the main
point.
- The closing paragraph should restate the purpose of the letter and, in
some cases, request some of the type of action.
 Closing – begins at the same horizontal point as your date and one line after the last
part of the paragraph.
 -
Capitalize the first word only (for example: Thank you) and leave four
lines between the closing and the sender’s name for a signature.
- A comma should follow the closing.
 Enclosure – if you have an enclosed any documents along with the letter, such as
resume, you indicate this simply typing Enclosures one line below the closing.
- As an option, you may list the name of each document you are including
in the envelope. For instance, if you have included many documents and
need to ensure that the recipient is aware of each document, it may be a
good idea to list names.
Sample:

Writing Memo
A memorandum or simply known as memo is a written report that is prepared for a
person or committee in order to provide them with information about a particular matter. A
memorandum is a short official note that is sent by one person to another within the same
company or organization.
It is good to know how to come up with the best memo so that whatever you are trying to
pass across to your audience is clear. In most cases, a memo is usually used to address very
critical matters and therefore it has to come out clear so that the content of the information being
passed is not distorted. Below are some of the tips that you need to pay attention to while
writing your memo:

A. Make it a s short as possible - the memo should not be lengthy because it will be
tiresome to read. Most people would want to go through it with the shortest time
possible but acquire all the information. You need to summarize as much as you can.
The shorter your memo will be, the more the readers because most people are prone
to be ignorant to lengthy notices.
B. Use simple English - you should not use complex language while writing your
memo because the readers may end up missing up important points and your
memorandum will not have served its purpose. Avoid too much use of vocabularies
in your work.
 C. Use a captivating heading - the heading of your memo should attract readers- you
should be very selective in the words that you use for your heading because that is
the first impression that your readers would come across. Others would just read the
heading and leave, so it is your responsibility to make them curious to read the rest
of the document. There are different ways that you can use to captivate the readers:
D. Use bolding on emphasize- you should use bold letters in the action that expect
your readers to take so that it can attract their attention and they will have gotten the
message.
E. Use a different color for the heading- you can decide to use a different color for
your heading so that it can attract readers from a distance.
F. Avoid simple grammar and spelling errors- you should be very cautious in memo
writing because a simple spelling mistake may confuse the intended information that
you needed to pass and that would be chaos especially if it is a critical matter that
affects an organization. You should go through your memo after writing to ensure
that everything reads as required.

A memorandum writing format

The format of your memo should adhere to the required rubric because one can be able
to identify a memo from its format. In the notice board you may find several notices of which
others are usually, meant for motivations purposes, so it is the format that will distinguish your
memo from other notices.

 The header - At the top of the page, you should indicate that it is a memo in capital
letters. This helps to give identity to your document.
 The recipient addresses - Immediately after the header, you should write the recipient
address. Be official in writing the name of the recipient whether it is one person or a
group of people. The address helps the readers to know whom the memo is being
addressed to. You should also include other recipients if you wish your memo to address
a different group of people. When you have more than one recipient, you can use the
following format:

MEMORANDUM

To:

Cc:

From:

Date

Subject

 The sender - After the recipient’s address, you should indicate where the memo is
coming from, write your name and your position if you have one so that the readers can
be able to know you.
 The date- After writing the senders name you should write the date in the right format so
that the readers can be able to know when was the memo sent. The date is important
because it distinguishes the old and new memos in the notice board.
 The title/Subject - After the date, you should write the title of the memo. In the title, you
should indicate what the memo is all about clearly. The title carries a heavy weight in
your memo because it should tell the reader what the memo is all about in the shortest
words.

On the formatting of the heading and the addresses you should:

1. Ensure that the content is double spaced. This helps to improve the clarity of your
document.
2. Align all the content to the left side of your page- you should align the date and the
addresses to the left side of the page.
 3. You should write the start of the address with capital letters. For example, when writing
to your staff and you are the IT director of a certain company you will proceed on as
follows:

To: All staff

From: The IT Director.

Date: 9/07/2018.

Subject: Promotions in Different Departments.

 The body - The second part of the memo format is the body. You should keep your
memo as short as possible by avoiding more stories in the body paragraphs.

Consider the following when writing the body:

1. Consider your readers - your readers, in this case, are the audience that you are
writing to. You should use the right tone depending on what you are writing on. You
should be able to note the needs of your audience because for instance if you are
requesting something from your staff as the manager, you have to use polite language
so that your staff can consider your request. You should ask yourself any question that
your readers are likely to come up with after reading your memo and address them
accordingly. You should also use a language that will suit the class of people you are
addressing.
2. Go directly to the point - after deciding on what you are going to write on, you should
avoid the salutations available in other letter writing formats. The thesis for your memo
should be your major issue.
3. Give a small background of the problem - after addressing the change that you need
you should proceed and give reasons for the implementation of that policy or rule.
Explain to your audience the sole reason that led to coming up with that decision or what
motivate you to that step. You can also mention the merits and the demerits of the
change.
4. Support your issue - after mentioning what you wanted of the readers, you can go on
and give illustrations just to be clear on what you mean or improve their understanding.
There are several ways in which you can support your points.
5. Use of lists - you can use a list to indicate what you need to be done if there are several
points.
6. Use of short subheadings - you can use a short subheading just to clarify to your
reader on the points you are addressing.
7. Give the actions that you need the readers to do - after explaining what you need you
should state the role of the readers in the implementation of your policies. You can also
give the conditions that should apply to your reader. you can, for example, give a
deadline to whatever you need to be done.
8. End your memo with a summary. You need to summarize your points and state the
cause of action needed by your readers. Try and be positive as much as you can while
closing your memo.
9. The last thing is signing - you can decide to sign at the end of the memo just to make
it official. Signing of the memo makes it official.

Types of memos - There are different types of memos that you can be asked to write. It is good
to get familiar with each type so that you can be able to classify and know where it falls. Below
are some of the memo types that you can come across:

 Request memo - in this type of memo you will be trying to get a favor from a certain
person or group of people. You are supposed to use persuasive language to win the
heart of your recipients.
 Confirmation memo - this document is written after a certain agreement between two
parties. You will be writing just to confirm that you agree to a certain demand. In this type
of memo, you should state the terms of the agreement and encourage the recipient to
ask for clarification where they did not understand.
  Suggestive memo - this type of writing is written in the case where the management is
requesting views from the employees on how to solve a certain problem. You will need
to request your readers to give their say about a certain issue and specify how they
should forward the suggestions.
 Report memo - this is a memo written after a certain period of time to give an account of
the progress.it takes the report format. In this memo, the body is mainly consistent of
values and charts to indicate the progress.
 Informal results memo - this is where you are required to give the results of a certain
action. It can be research that was done and people would wish to know the outcome, or
it can be even application results for various seats in a department.

Sample:

References:
 The Writing Center. (2020). Retrieved from https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-
tools/business-letters/
 Hopartean, A. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.fluentu.com/blog/business-
english/writing-a-business-letter-in-english/
 How To Write a Good and Clear Memorandum. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.aresearchguide.com/write-a-memorandum.html

Prepared by:
AQUINO, RAFFY A.
BELORO, ELOISA REI C.
BERNARDEZ, MAYBELYN S.
PULLIDO, VANESSA F.