Business English

Correspondence

Abdul Muhid
 Introduction
A. Description
• This course will study based concept and practice of English letter ,
and prepares the students to mastery well the form of letter
B. Standard Competency
• After joining the lecturing the students are able to compose letter of
business, letter of application, etc.
• Business English is not as same as a general English. To learn
those both languages are also quite different. The case is, in
business English needs to mastery on the terms or specific
idioms, phrases or opening lines are very characteristic and well-
establish form.
• A business English correspondent should own the knowledge of;
– English Grammar
– Commercial Knowledge
– Idioms Business English
 Formal Letter
• Formal letter isn’t used in trade or by merchant
merely but it could be used by others.
• Formal letters can be divided into:
– “Formal Official Letters”, which are addressed to
government, parliament and/or people’s consultative
congress, in the Army, in trading and the contents of
the letters are very formal
– “Informal Official Letters”, those people whose letters
are not very formal or half formal
Letter forms

 Commercial letters is generally typed, and can be

divided into 8 parts; YAYASAN PENDIDIKAN EKSEKUTIP KOMPUTER
AKADEMI BAHASA ASING (ABA) BUMIGORA MATARAM
1. Letterhead SK. Mendiknas RI No. 170/D/0/1999
Jl. Ismail Marzuki Mataram, No. Telp. (0370) 629761

Date & Letter-number

---------------.
2.

Inside address
3.
---------------
4. Salutation
5. Body --------------
6. Complimentary Closing ---------------------------------
7. Signature ---------------------------------
8. ---------------------------------
Superscription /outside address

--------------
-----
1. Letterhead

 In this part you’ll find: name of company, name of city,

name of street/building, name of area, name of country.
It is usually stitched at the top of paper.
Example:
YAYASAN PENDIDIKAN EKSEKUTIP KOMPUTER
AKADEMI BAHASA ASING (ABA) BUMIGORA MATARAM
SK. Mendiknas RI No. 170/D/0/1999
Jl. Ismail Marzuki Mataram, No. Telp. (0370) 629761
2. Date & Letter-number

 The date of the letter is usually placed at the right top

corner under letterhead….”name of the city”
 And on the left top corner it’s about 2 lines under the
name of city….”No”, the no. of letter is an obligation to
the company itself, for it sends and receives letter to
/from outers. Each big companies has it own ways in
filing system
Example:
LOMBOK, September 17, 2008.
Denpasar, 2 March 1998.
Singapore, 21st July 1999.
Banyuwangi, April 30th 2007. (rarely found)
3. Inside Address

 Inside address might be written on the left top corner it’s

about 4 to 5 cm from margin.
 If the contents of letters are short, it suggested to start your
letter in the mid of the paper to avoid too many blanks.
 Inside address is no more than 4 lines, notice the examples
bellow:
-----------------------, -----------------
-----------------------, -----------------
-----------------------, -----------------
-----------------------. -----------------.
Uses comma and dot no comma only dot at the end
At the end
4. Salutation

 The salutation is about 2 to 3 cm under inside address.

Example:
Plural Dear Sirs, or Gentlemen,
Dear Sirs: Gentlemen:

Singular Dear Sir, or Gentleman,

Dear Sir: Gentleman:
5. Body

1. Opening paragraph
2. Contents of letter
3. Closing paragraph
6. Complimentary Closing

 Formal Official: Respectfully yours,

Yours respectfully,
Yours very
respectfully,
Yours sincerely,

 Informal Yours faithfully,

Yours sincerely,
Yours cordially,
Yours gratefully,
etc.
7. Signature

 If the signature is unreadable it’s usually rewritten the

name or the degree of the sender. E.g. Manager /
president
 For married or unmarried woman, before the name
usually written Mrs. Or Miss, and it should be in
brackets.
See you then….
Form of informal or formal letter
1287 West Broadway,
New York City,
Mach 23,2009.

Sir.
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________

Respectfully yours,
(signature)
Secretary

Mr.Tarzan
Jl.Ricak Pinggir Kali
Mataram-NTB 83511
• Inside address may be located above the salutation or at
the left corner bottom of the page, it’s about several lines
under complimentary close.