WEEK 1

Bussiness

Correspondence Letter

“The structure of a bussiness letter”

 DATE / DAY
01
• US standard : month date, year

September 25, 2009

• Europe standard : date month year

25 September 2009
• Avoid date in figures: 25/9/2009 or 25.9.09
 01
SALUTATION
Dear … / Dear …,
A comma after the salutation is optional
E.g. “Dear Mr Smith,” or “Dear Mr Smith.”
(In American English) a colon is usually used after the salutation
E.g. “Dear Mr Smith:,” or “Gentlemen:”

< T >
The Complimentary Closure
 DEAR …,
A. To a company: “Dear Sirs,” or “Gentlemen:”
B. To a company by designation (do NOT know their name):
+ Know their sex: “Dear Sir” or “Dear Madam”
+ Do NOT know their sex: “Dear Sir or Madam”
C. To a company by designation (know their name):
+ Know them well: Dear + First name* ( E.g. Dear John,)
+ Do NOT know them well: Dear + Courtesy titles + Last name*
E.g. Dear Mr Smith
NOT Dear Mr J. Smith/ Dear Mr John Smith
< Courtesy title >
 Comma is Optional

● Formal: Dear Sir, Dear Sirs, Dear Madam, or

Yours faithfully, Dear Sir or Madam
● Informal: Dear + Courtesy title + Last Name

Yours sincerely,
Dear + First name

Best wishes,
● Less formal: personal relationship

Yours truly, E.g. banker & customer, doctor & patient

< >
COURTESY TITLES

Mr /‘mista/ Mrs /'misiz/ Miss /mis/

For a man. For a married woman For an unmarried woman

Ms /miz/ Messrs /'mesaz/ Other titles

For married & unmarried commonly forms part of Doctor (Dr ), Professor (Prof.)
women. the name of a company military titles, Captain (Capt.)
Major (Maj.), Colonel (Col.)
General (Gen.)
01 LAYOUT 1 - BASIC

A private individual in Denmark to a

company in the UK

02 LAYOUT 2 – MORE

The company's reply to the letter from

the prospective customer in Denmark.

03 LAYOUT 3 - FURTHER
 Sender’s address
– Top right-hand corner
– No punctuation
– Blocked style

Date is 1 or 2 space below the

sender's address

- 1 space below the date and 2 spaces above the attention line
- 2 spaces above the salutation in the left margin
( if there is no attention line)

To a particular member of an
organization and 1 or 2 spaces
above salutation

– After complimentary close (4-5 spaces)

– Type the name of the sender
INSIDE ADDRESS
1. Name / Job Title/ Department ( e.g. The Sales Department)/ Company ( e.g. Compuvision Ltd)

2. Name of house or building

3. Number of building and Name of street/ road/ avenue
4. Name of town/ city and postcode
5. Name of country
 The letterhead contains the company name (type),
address, telephone number, fax, email/ website,
Letterhead postal code

Reference number helps sender and the receiver to

find out it easily if emergency arises.
References E.g. bạn viết một lá thư đặt hàng có mã Our ref:
A123, lúc đó đối tác sẽ viết thư phản hồi lại cho
bạn với mã Your ref: A123

Or may either appear in figures

e.g. 661/17, where 661 may refer to the number of
the letter and 17 refers to the number of the
department
Or as in the letter on page 13
e.g. DS/MR where DS stands for Donald
If signed by other, add:
• for Sampson, the writer, and MR for his assistant,
• p.p. (per procurationem) = on behalf of
Mary Raynor.
Per pro
good idea to include your job title in the
signature block, especially if your recipient has
not dealt with you before Note The Your Ref. in layout 1 letter is a date, as
Job title If there are any documents enclosed with a letter, it is also common to
write Enc. or Encl. For example:
Ms Kaasen did not give any reference in her
Enc. original letter
Bill of lading (3 copies)
Enclosure Insurance certificate (1 copy)
COMPANY + THE TYPE
• Ltd./ Co., Ltd hay LLC. (Limited Liability Company): Công ty trách nhiệm hữu hạn
• Pte. Ltd (Private limited liability Company): Công ty trách nhiệm hữu hạn tư nhân
• PLC. (Public Limited Company): Công ty đại chúng
• JSC. (Joint Stock Company): Công ty cổ phần
• Corp./ Inc. (Corporation/ Incorporated): Tập đoàn

NOTE: “(&) Co.” indicates that a company is a partnership

e.g. F. Lynch & Co. Ltd
R. Hughes & Son [Son/s, Bros (Brothers), or Daughter/s may be added]

If neither Ltd nor & Co. appear after a company's name, then it may be a SOLE TRADER
i.e. a person who owns and runs a business on their own.
 May be written at the head of a letter and, more
important, on the envelope, in cases where the
letter is intended to be read only by the
Private and confidential addressee.

Subject title

c. c. (Carbon Copy/ Courtesy Copy /

Copy Circulated) is added when copies are sent to people other
than the named recipient

b. c. c.(BLIND CARBON COPY) the recipient doesn’t know that

Copies the third person is receiving a copy
Should be shown only on the file copy and bcc copy/ies