Consult a dictionary and practice the pronunciation of the following words. Pay attention to the stress
To estimate; typically; externally; internally; to those within…; whenever; salutation; purpose; to persuade; to propose; advertisements; to sign; resume; challenging; particularly; to analyze; to determine; to gather information, to be complete, to be concise, to be courteous.
2. Read the following letters. What is a purpose of each letter?
Who are the receivers?
Letter 1.
Dear Sir or Madam
……………………….
This year the Daily Observernewspaper will print a special report on travel agencies. We were wondering if your company would like to put an advertisement in it.
I enclose our price list and look forward to hearing from you.
……………………………….
Renate Makosh
Advertising Manager
Letter 2
Memo
GREEN SUPERMARKETS
To Purchasing Supervisor Date 15th April 2004
From Stock Manager Subject Order 564
We sent an order for orange juice to Corona on 4th January but we have still not had a delivery.
Please write to them and ask them when they can deliver the orange juice. Their address is Calle Mayor 340.28014 Madrid, Spain.
……………………………………….
Letter 3
FAX MESSAGE
To: M. Russel Universal Books Ltd
Manager, Ashworth Bookshops PO ox 379 Jersey,
Fax: 01272 781422 Channel Islands
23 September 2004 …………………….
Dear Ms Russel
I regret to tell you that Niegel Westwood is no longer working for us and I can find no record of the money you say you have paid to him. Ihave passed your papers to the Jersey Police who are investigating a number of other cases concerning Mr Westwood. Mr Westwood himself seems to have disappeared, although the police believe he may be somewhere in France.
The police will no doubt contact you shortly.
Yours sincerely
( signature)
Consider a scheme of a Ukrainian document.
Емблема фірми Гриф обмеженого доступу
Назва фірми Гриф затвердження
Юридична адреса фірми: Адреси:
вул., буд., місто, індекс,
тел., факс, розрахунковий Резолюція:
рахунок у банку:
РІЗНОВИД ДОКУМЕНТУ
Дата ____________№____________
На №____________від___________
Заголовок до тексту
Початок тексту ( з абзацу)
ТЕКСТ
Додаток
Посада особи,підпис Ім’я або ініціали, прізвище
яка підписала документ
Прізвище виконавця і телефон
Відмітка про виконання документа Відмітка про надходження
і направлення на розгляд
Note!There are a lot of companies that have their own individual forms of business letters.
4. Try to write in Ukrainian/English any business letter of your own.
Read and translate the text:
( b) Structure of Business Letters
Business letters in different countries are identical. As a rule a business letter consists of the following principal parts : Writer’s Address; Date; References; Inside Address ( address of the addressee ); Salutation; Subject Heading; Opening Paragraph ; Body of the Letter; Closing Paragraph; Complimentary Close; Signature; Per Pro; Enclosures, Postscripts and copies sent.
Writer’s Address./Inside Address. The writer’s address is usually written on the top left-hand side of the page. The name and address of the company written to are usually typed on the left-hand side below the writer’s address, all lines starting at the same margin, not diagonally. Firms are addressed as Messrs (the plural of Mr) only when the firm's name includes a personal name without any other courtesy title and only when the firms are partnerships. e.g. Messrs Brown & Smith. Messrs is never used when addressing a registered company whether a public limited company (PLC) or a private limited company (Ltd). It is recommended to address the correspondence direct to the company's representative for whom it is intended - the managing director, the sales manager, the export manager, and so on, in which case the company is specified but not addressed. The name of the company becomes part of the address in the same way as the name of the street or town. If we do not know which of the company's officers will deal with our letter, we should address it to 'The Company Secretary', since by the Companies Act every registered company must have one. Letters to men can be addressed as follows: "Mr Brown, Mr T. Brown, Mr Thomas Brown" (preferably the way he signs the letters). Unmarried women and young girls can be addres as'Miss'. Married women are addressed Mrs M(ary) Brown (previously it was Mrs T(homas) Brown). Where it is not known whether a woman addressed is married or single 'Ms' has recently crept into use instead of 'Miss' and 'Mrs'. When in doubt use "Miss" rather than 'Mrs'. Should there be doubt about the sex of the person addressed, use 'Mr'. In Britain the recommended form of postal address has the Post Town in capital letters, followed by the country in small letters, followed by the post - code (whose system has now been introduced). The use of the code as part of the address (e.g. CRO 5BL for Croydon) speeds delivery by enabling letters to be sorted mechanically.
When writing letters to other countries, always give the name of the country, even if the town is the country's capital. There is, for example, a London in England and another in Canada, a Boston in England and another in the USA, a Tripoly in Libya and another in the Lebanon, a Blantyre in Scotland and another in Malawi
Date. In English business letters the date (day, month and year) is typed on the right-hand side. It is customary to type the date in full, not just in figures as they can be confused : for example, 11.1.03 means 11th January 2003 in the UK but 1st November 2003 in the USA. In the USA the date may indicate the month first, then the date and then the year, so 15 April 2002 will look as 04.15. 2002 or 04/15/ 2002. The name of the month may be abbreviated: January, to Jan, February to Feb, March to Mar, April to Apr, June to Jun, August to Aug, September to Sept, October to Oct, November to Nov, December to Dec. Only May and July are written in full.
Salutation. The Salutation varies according to circumstances and should be in harmony with the Inside Address and the Complimentary Closing. If the letter is addressed to the company (which a not recommended, but very often done), the form of addressing is: Dear Sirs; if the letter is addressed to an individual, the most usual forms is :Dear Sir, or Dear Madam, (it applies to both married and single women). These are the usual greetings in English business letters. Americans prefer "Gentlemen:" and if they use "Dear Sirs:”, "Dear Madam" they use them with a colon instead of a comma. When the correspondent is unknown to you and may be either a man or a woman, always use the form "Dear Sir.". If the correspondent is known to you personally, or if your firm has traded with his firm for some time, you may use a warmer and more friendly greeting "Dear Mr Brown,".
The Subject Heading indicates the subject-matter of the letter (its topic), thus enabling the reader to see immediately what the letter is about, and is placed just after (below) the salutation and sometimes in the middle of the page.
References. References are quoted to indicate what the letter refers to (Your Ref.) and the correspondence to refer to when replying (Our Ref).
The Opening Paragraph will often state the subject-matter of the letter by giving the date of the letter, which is being answered, and the writers feelings on the subject: pleasure, regret, surprise or gratitude. A short opening sentence will often attract attention more successfully than a longer one.
The Body of the Letter. A letter should only deal with one specific subject as several subjects may require attention in different departments and may complicate the tilling system
Business letters should be simple and clear, polite and sincere, concise and brief. That means using simple, natural, short words and sentences; admittance of mistakes openly and sincerely; using concise words and sentences instead of wordy ones; and avoiding repetition or needless words and information. Express your self in a friendly way and with a simple dignity.
To make a letter easier to read and to a certain extent more attractive, divide it into paragraphs, each paragraph dealing with one idea, one aspect of the subject or giving one detail.
If several paragraphs deal with the same subject-matter (topic or theme), they should fit together smoothly, i.e. each new paragraph giving a new aspect of the topic under consideration should follow the previous one naturally. This is done either "by numbering the paragraphs or by using connective words, such as:
however, still, yet, but, nevertheless, otherwise, on the contrary ,again, and some others.
If a letter is lengthy, the paragraphs may be given headings, which may be typed in ordinary or capital letters, followed by a full stop, colon or a dash.
If the headings are typed in ordinary letters, they should be underlined to distinguish between heading and text. If more pages than one are written, they should be numbered. The second and following pages are typed on blank sheets (without the letterhead). The name or initials of the recipient should be placed at the top of left-hand margin of all continuation sheets, followed by the date after the page number.
The closing paragraph contains a statement of the writer's intentions, hopes and expectations about future actions, i.e. it serves as a summary of what has been discussed before and what is going to be the next step.
Complimentary close. If the letter begins Dear Sir, Dear Sirs, Dear Madam or Dear Sir and Madam, it will close with Yours faithfully. If the letter begins with a personal name — Dear Mr James, Dear Mrs Robinson, Dear Ms Smith — it will close with Yours sincerely. Avoid closing with old-fashioned phrases such as We remain yours faithfully, Respectfully yours, etc. The comma after the complimentary close is optional.
Signatures. Always type your name after your handwritten signature and your position in the firm after your typed signature.
Per pro. The term per. pro (p.p.) is sometimes used in signatures and means for and on behalf of.
Enclosures . If there are any enclosures, e.g. leaflets, prospectuses, etc., with the letter, these maybe mentioned at the bottom of the letter, and if there are a number of documents, they are listed.
Planning a Letter: 7 Steps
1.Write down your Aim:what is the purpose of this letter? 2. Assemble all the relevant information: copies of previous correspondence, reports, figures, etc. 3. Arrange the points in order of importance. Decide which points are irrelevant and can be left out. Make rough notes. 4. Write an Outline in note form. Check it through considering these questions:
- Have you left any important points out? - Can the order of presentation be made clearer? - Have you included anything that is not relevant?
5. Write a First Draft, leaving plenty of space for changes and revisions. 6. Revise your first considering these questions:
- Information: Does it cover all the essential points? Is the information Relevant, Correct and Complete?
- English: Are the grammar, spelling and punctuation correct?
- Style: Does it look attractive? Does it sound natural and sincere? Is it Clear, Concise and Courteous? Will it give the reader the right impression? Is it kind of letter you would like to receive yourself?
7. Write, type or dictate your Final Version.
Letter layout: block style
| NAGAKURA Leaders in the manufacture of electrical equipment Yoshomori Heights Kawasaki-shi Kanagava Ken 231 Japan Tel 81 44-932-2526 Fax 81 44-932-2884 Your ref Our ref JM / st /43Z The production Supervisor Leefung Plastics ( Singapore) Ltd Box 226 Brown Street PO Singapore 12 January 2005 Dear Sir or Madam Visit to Singapore I am now planning my forthcoming trip to South Asia and I would be very pleased If we could meet to discuss the new range of Nagakura products. I hope to be in Singapore on 9 and 10 March. Would it be convenient to visit you on March at 11.30 a.m.? I would also be grateful if, in your reply, you could tell me exactly where your offices are located. I look forward to hearing from you. Yours faithfully (signature) Jun Mizuno Technical Sales |
Reading check exercises