English in Engineering I...English in Engineering I Yrd. Doç. Dr. Fatih M. NUROĞLU Writing Business Letters, Memos, and Emails Writing Business Letters XDate XSender’s Address

English in Engineering IYrd. Doç. Dr. Fatih M . NUROĞLU

Writing Business Letters, Memos, and Emails

Writing Business Letters

Date

Sender’s Address

Reader’s Address

Subject Line

Salutation

Body

Closing

Signature

Enclosures

Cc:/ Distribution

Yrd. Doç. Dr. Fatih M. Nuroğlu



Date

Business letters should be dated with the date the letter is completed and sent.Sometimes, it can take several days to complete a business letter (you may havemultiple drafts or need to wait for a supervisor’s approval before you can send aletter)—use the last day you worked on the letter in these cases. Write out the month,day, and year: October 12, 2001. Don’t abbreviate the month or include the day of theweek.

Sender’s Address

Most companies and many individuals have their own letterhead. When letterheadstationery is available and appropriate for your use, you should use it for businessletters. If your company doesn’t have letterhead stationery or if you are writing abusiness letter as an individual to a company and you do not have a personalletterhead, then you will need to type your full address before the date.



Reader’s Address

The reader’s address is also called the inside address—it includes the name of theperson and the place you are sending your letter. Write out the full name of theperson, his or her title, the company, and the address of the company. Avoidabbreviations—only Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr., and the state should be abbreviated.

Subject Line

This is a brief phrase telling the main idea of the letter. It is optional—manybusiness letters do not include this line. It usually comes before the salutation, butit can also come after the salutation. Often the subject is preceded by re: (anabbreviation for regarding) and is sometimes underlined or boldfaced for emphasis.If you use a subject line, make sure it tells your reader quickly and effectivelywhat the letter is about. The following are some examples.

Examples

Subject: Billing Error

Re: Account #3290Re: New Security Measures



Salutation

The salutation is your greeting. Salutations begin with the word Dear and are always followed by a colon— not a comma. Here are some examples:



Body

The body of the business letter is your message. It usually consists of three or moreparagraphs. The first paragraph should begin in a friendly, concise way telling the mainidea of the business letter. The middle paragraphs should deliver the point of thebusiness letter. Each paragraph should have a topic sentence and supporting details,just as any other good paragraph should. It’s appropriate, especially in longer businessletters, to use headings and/or bulleted lists in order to make it easier for your readerto digest the information. Thebody ends with a concludingparagraph. Your concludingparagraph should restate thepurpose of the letter and give atake-home message. Often, thetake-home message will requestspecific information or a specificaction on the part of the reader.Each body paragraph is usuallytyped single space. Double spacein between the paragraphs.



Closing

End your letter with a polite good-bye. Here are some ways to close:

Notice that only the first word is capitalized. The closing is followed by a comma.

Signature

Follow your closing with four blank lines. Then, type your full name. Beneathyour typed name, type your full title. If you plan to mail, fax, or hand-delivera hard copy of your letter, you should sign your name in the space betweenyour closing and your typed full name. Sometimes, letters are sentelectronically—in this case, it is not necessary to sign your name.



Enclosures

Often, you will need to include other documents with a business letter. Whenyou do, you should include a line to indicate that other documents areenclosed. It’s a good idea to list the documents you are enclosingso that you make your reader aware of what is supposed to be included in theletter. Here’s an example:Enclosures: Outline of proposed changes

It’s also acceptable to abbreviate: Enc. Here’s an example:Enc.: Appendix B

Cc:/ Distribution

If you will be sending your letter to people other than the named recipient atthe top of the letter, you can list these other people here after the letters cc:or CC:. These letters stand for carbon copy. List the names of the otherrecipients either in alphabetical order or by rank. You can include eachperson’s title, if you would like. Generally, if the information in the letterinvolves or references other people, you should consider sending a copy of theletter to them as well.


There are three main ways to format a business letter: block format, modified semi-block format, and semiblock format. Here is how they compare.

Many companies have their own guidelines for writing business letters. If your companyhas its own way of doing things—even if it contradicts these—you should follow yourcompany’s guidelines.

Formatting Business Letters


Example: Block Format


Example: Modified Block Format


Example: Semi-Block Format


Writer’s Checklist


Writing Memos

What’s the difference between a memo and a business letter? Here are some common differences:


Writing Memos

Memos generally have six parts.

■ To—tells who the memo is addressed to. You might address a memo to one person orto an entire distribution list. When you are addressing a specific person in a memo, usethe person’s full name and title.

■ From—gives your name or the names of the authors of the memo. This line couldinclude several people or be your department’s name.

■ Date—tells the date that the memo was written. Use the most recent date if thememo was written over a period of time.

■ Subject or Re—tells the topic of the memo. Try to be specific.

■ cc—as in business letters, sometimes this is used to list the names of people whoshould receive the memo, but are not named as recipients of the memo.

■ Body—reports the message of the memo


Writing Memos


Writing E-mailsKeep your message short and to the point. E-mail is not the medium for a 10-pageessay, unless you are sending it as an attachment to your e-mail message for thereader to print out and read at another time. It’s harder to read on screen than onpaper. Moreover, people do not have a lot of time to read e-mail, and they receivefar more than they’d like to every day

Write your e-mail messages carefully. Even though you can write and send an e-mail message in a just a few minutes, you should always read over and revise whatyou have written before pushing the send button. Quickly sent e-mails are oftenregretted because they are poorly worded, unclear, or were sent in a moment ofanger.

Keep the format simple. When possible, use headings, lists, and other ways ofbreaking up the text. You can use capital letters for emphasis, but don’t type anentire message in all caps—it’s hard to read, and it’s commonly considered virtualshouting. Other formatting, such as italics, bullets, tables, and graphs, can be lost inan e-mail message.

Use an appropriate tone and level of formality. When you’re writing, it’s easy toforget about the person who will be reading your e-mail message. If you are in an e-mail conversation, try to keep the tone (and length) of your reply in line with therest of the conversation. Don’t assume a level of informality with a person youwould otherwise communicate more formally with.


Writing E-mailsTake the time to check your

e-mail for spelling,

grammar, punctuation, and

usage errors. These types oferrors reflect poorly on youand can cause confusion.

End with a signature. An e-mail signature is textcontaining your contactinformation that comes atthe end of your e-mailmessage. Many e-mailsystems will automaticallyadd your signature at the endof all your messages. Includethis information in your worksignature: your name, title,company, address, phonenumber, fax number, andcompany e-mail address.


Achieve Approve Catalogue Conceive

Adapt Arrange Clarify Conduct

Address Assemble Classify Consolidate

Administer Assess Collect Contract

Advise Assign Communicate Contribute

Advocate Assist Compare Control

Analyze Attain Compile Correct

Apply Balance Complete Correspond

Appoint Begin Compose Counsel

Appraise Budget Coordinate Create

Vocabulary


Homework I

Write a business letter about any topic. Send it to instructor’s email address.

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English in Engineering I...English in Engineering I Yrd. Doç. Dr. Fatih M. NUROĞLU Writing Business Letters, Memos, and Emails Writing Business Letters XDate XSender’s Address