Rules for business correspondence by email. Business letter: sample. How to send a letter by email. What are Cc and Bcc and how to use them in customer support

Probably everyone has at least once had to deal with the need to write a business letter. When compiling it, you involuntarily come to the conclusion that it is not at all easy. There are many business letter writing rules and regulations that you need to know. The article describes in detail the process of drawing up a document, provides samples of business letters, and discusses their types and design.

Form

Ready-made forms will add solidity and indicate the reliability of the company. They contain necessary information about an organization such as:

• Name.
• Address.
• Contact phone numbers.
• Website.
• Email.
• Logo.
• Other contact details.

There are no strict rules regarding forms. Therefore, each organization independently decides what information to include in them.

How to write business letters correctly? Preparation

Business letters are written and formatted in a certain way, subject to their inherent rules and requirements. Depending on the goal, the author thinks through the content in detail in order to obtain the result he is calculating. He must clearly understand what information the addressee already knows about the subject of the letter, what to base it on and what will be new in it. The arguments depend on what goal the author is pursuing. The process of preparing a business letter can be divided into the following stages:

• Studying the issue.
• Writing a draft letter.
• Its approval.
• Signing.
• Registration.
• Sending to the recipient.

Structure of business letters

When composing a letter, it is necessary to saturate it with information, that is, put all the necessary information there. It can be simple or complex. In a simple letter, the content clearly and concisely conveys information that generally does not require a response from the recipient. A complex one may consist of several sections, points and paragraphs. Each paragraph presents one aspect of information. These types of business letter samples typically consist of an introductory, body, and closing section.

Below is an example of writing a business letter - its introductory part.

The main part describes situations and events, provides their analysis and evidence. It is in this part that they convince that they need to act in one way or another, prove how things were and inform about the need to participate in any event, giving various arguments.

The conclusion contains conclusions that are made in the form of suggestions, requests, reminders, refusals, and so on.

An example of writing a business letter - its final part - is presented below. This summarizes the requirement stated in the main one.

All information provided should be optimally consistent and understandable.

Each letter begins with a centered address. This small part is extremely important. When choosing it, the author must consider:

• Addressee's position.
• The nature of the relationship.
• Formality.
• Etiquette.

There should be a polite form at the end of the letter. For example: “...I express hope for further cooperation (gratitude for the invitation)...” These phrases are followed by the author's signature.

Style

All letters must be written in an official business style, which means the use of language for official business relations. The features of such a language are formed under the following circumstances:

• The main participants in business relations are legal entities, on behalf of whose managers and officials letters are written.
• Relations in organizations are strictly regulated.
• The subject of communication is the activities of the company.
• Management documents generally have a specific addressee.
• Often, in the course of an organization's activities, the same situations occur.

In this regard, the information contained in a business letter should be:

• Official, impersonal, emphasizing the distance between participants in communication.
• Addressed, intended for a specific addressee.
• Current at the time of writing.
• Reliable and impartial.
• Reasoned to induce the recipient to perform any action.
• Complete for decision making.

Requirements

A business letter must meet the following requirements:

• Speech is standardized at all levels - lexical, morphological and syntactic. It contains many expressions, terms and formulas.
• The tone of writing is neutral, restrained and strict, without the use of emotional and expressive language.
• Accuracy and clarity of the text, without logical errors, clarity and thoughtfulness of wording.
• Conciseness and brevity - without using expressions that carry additional meaning.
• The use of language formulas formed as a result of repeated situations.
• The use of terms, that is, words or phrases that have special concepts.
• The use of abbreviations, which can be lexical (that is, compound words formed by removing letters from parts of words: LLC, GOST, and so on) and graphic (that is, word designations in abbreviated form: grn, zh-d, etc.).
• The use of constructions in the genitive and instrumental cases.
• Phrases with verbal nouns (“provide support” instead of “support”).
• Using simple common sentences.

The above business letter samples below are shown in full version(with the main part). The information meets all the requirements of an official business style.

Types of business letters

It is best to write a business letter on one specific issue. If it is necessary to solve several issues at once, it is recommended to draw up several different options.

Business letters can have the following content:

• Accompanying. Such letters are usually needed to inform you where to send documents.
  (How to write a business letter? Sample cover letter will help those who need to draw up this type of document.)

• Guaranteed. They are written to confirm any promises or conditions. For example, payment for work, rent, delivery times, etc. can be guaranteed.
• Thanks. They began to be used especially often in Lately. Such letters demonstrate good tone partnerships. They can be issued on regular letterhead or on colored paper with a beautiful print.
  (How to write a business letter? A sample of the thank-you variety is drawn up in free form, depending on the tasks that it solves. In this case, the letter expresses its essence in the shortest form. Such a sample, made on colored paper with an ornament, can hang on the wall in the room company in a place of honor.)

• Informational.
• Instructive.
• Congratulations.
• Advertising.

There are also letters:

• Proposals for cooperation. Quite common in recent times, sent to organizations, are often of an advertising nature, for example, like this sample. It is quite difficult to write commercial letters; you need to take into account many nuances in order to get attention, and even more so, to become interested. But if you compose it according to the sample below, it has every chance of success.

• Invitations. They are sent, offering to participate in various events. They are usually addressed to a manager or official, but can also be addressed to an entire team.
• Requests.
• Notices.
• Requests and many others.

How to write a response to a letter. Example

The answer must begin by repeating the request stated in the first letter. Then the results of its consideration are given and approval or a reason for refusal is expressed. A business response letter may contain an alternative solution to the expected information. Typically it meets the following principles:

• Availability of a link to the first letter and its contents.
• Identical language means.
• Comparable scope and content aspects.
• Compliance with a certain sequence.

Decor

In addition to using corporate letterheads for business letters, it is necessary to take into account other subtleties when designing them. These are details, rules for abbreviations, writing addresses, headings, text length, field widths, and more.

Samples of a business letter help you compose it, taking into account all the subtleties and nuances. They are used by both beginning office workers and experienced workers. Thanks to the samples, they learn how to write letters correctly and save a lot of time.

In Microsoft Outlook, you can specify that for all messages you send, an automatic Bcc (Bcc) will be sent to other distribution lists or users.

One scenario in which this rule is useful is when all group members reply to incoming email messages, such as Center technical support. When one group member replies to a message, other group members automatically receive a copy of the reply, keeping all outgoing messages up to date.

client rules

Create a rule

Now, every time you send a message, be it a new message, forward a message or reply, people or groups that are specified in the rule will be automatically added as copy recipients. The names of people or groups do not appear in the Cc line of the compose message, but those names will appear to all recipients of the message.

Disable a rule

In the Mail view, on the tab home click the button rules > Manage Rules and Alerts.

On the tab in the section Rule

Click the button OK.

Rules and Alerts.

Advice: For more information about how to quickly disable this rule for individual messages, see the next section ("").

Use a category to disable automatic CC for individual messages

If you want the flexibility to turn off automatic new copy rules based on a single message without having to navigate through the dialog box rules and alerts, you can use the categories feature in Outlook, along with a rule.

Advice:

First, you need to create a rule to automatically send blind carbon copy (CC) for all email messages you send.

This specific rule is called client rules. Client rules run only on the computer on which it is created and run only if Outlook is running. If you were to send an email using account email on another computer, the rule will not be executed from that computer so that it is created on this computer. This same rule must be created on each computer that plans to use it.

Create a rule

Now every time you send a message, be it a new message, forward a message or reply, people or distribution lists specified in the rule will be automatically added as copy recipients. The names of people or distribution lists do not appear in the Cc line of the compose message, but those names will appear to everyone who receives the message.

Disable a rule

To prevent a copy from being sent automatically, you must first disable the rule.

In Mail in the menu Service click the button Rules and Alerts.

On the tab Email Rules In chapter Rule uncheck the box corresponding to the rule you created.

Click the button OK.

You can now send a message without automatically sending a copy to other people or mailing lists. The rule will be inactive until it is re-enabled in the dialog box Rules and Alerts.

Advice:

Use a category to disable automatic CC for individual messages

If you want to disable the new automatic Send CC rule for individual messages without calling the dialog box Rules and Alerts, you can set the rule to a category that is available in Office Outlook 2007.

Modify the rule you created earlier so that when you add the specified category to a message, the rule does not automatically send a copy.

Whenever you want to disable the auto-cc rule for a message, apply a category to it.

Advice: You can use a keyboard shortcut if you specified it when creating the category.

When you send a message, the auto-copy rule will not apply.

Most email clients, including Gmail, Yahoo, Mail.ru, Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, provide the ability to send one email to a large number of recipients. Usually you can do this using the function Copy(on English language the abbreviation used to denote it SS), or Hidden copy (CCB). When sending a message to Copies Recipients can see the email addresses of other people who also received the email. In the second case, the identity of additional recipients is hidden.

Adding a recipient's address

To specify the recipient(s) of the email, enter their email address in the field To whom (That):

Some email clients allow you to simply enter your username into a field, which is then automatically filled in by the program.

If you use this field to send an email to multiple people, each of them will be able to see full list other recipients.

How to create a copy of an email

Field CC or Copy used for exchange by email in a more indirect way than the field To whom. If you are in your email are not addressing the person directly, but would like that person to follow the discussion in the email chain or simply be aware of this topic, field Copy will excellent option. The addressee, who is in Copies emails, receives an unread email on your mailbox like the one who was placed in the field To whom; the only difference is who you address the letter to first in the body of your email. In the professional world, mailing to Copies is used very widely and serves to keep colleagues informed about various events and topics.

You can list email recipients by simply entering a list of addresses in the field Copy, which is usually located immediately below the field To whom. Everyone in this chain of recipients will be able to see the names and email addresses of all other recipients:

How to BCC an Email

Every email client (Gmail, Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Yahoo, etc.) allows the sender of an email to reach a large number of people without exposing their information to other users in the email chain. This function is called BCC or Hidden copy. You can hide recipients by entering their addresses in the field Hidden copy instead of using fields To whom And Copy:

You can use this feature for both individual and group emails. This is especially useful if you want to keep your contacts private, protect them from spam and unwanted emails, or simply if you don't want your recipients to know who received the same message.

Field Hidden copy not always available by default for all email clients. For example, in Outlook You will need to go to Options to access settings; V Thunderbird you will need to select this function from the drop-down menu; V Gmail need to press a button Copy And Hidden copy; V Windows Live Mail You will need to press the keys simultaneously Alt + B.

Image: © Ruslan Nesterenko - 123RF.com

Some naive citizens submit applications very simply, i.e. they give them into the hands of the recipient and leave with a feeling of accomplishment. And when it comes to official proceedings, including court proceedings, they are surprised to hear that they did not file anything, and when the court asks to provide evidence of service of the application, they shrug their hands in bewilderment. Therefore, when submitting an application, you need to make sure that you have proof of its delivery.

Delivery against receipt

In any self-respecting institution, the employee responsible for receiving correspondence puts a stamp on a copy of each application, where the word “received” or simply the name of the institution may be written. He also writes the date of receipt and puts his signature.

Therefore, to deliver the application, you should come to the organization to which it is addressed and bring with you the original and a copy of the application, which can be made on a photocopier, typewriter, by hand, etc. The original will remain with the institution, and a copy with a mark of acceptance will remain with you and will serve as proof of delivery.

Ordered letter

It may happen that they refuse to sign your name on a copy of the application, because... legislation, with rare exceptions, does not provide for such an obligation.

Then you will have to go the other way and send it by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt. To do this, you need to go to the post office, fill out a notification form and pay for delivery, which will cost a little more than sending a regular letter.

You will be given a receipt, and the postman will only give the letter to the addressee when he signs the notice, which will then be returned to you and will serve as proof of delivery.

But this method of delivering applications also has inconveniences because postal workers do not certify copies of documents that we send by registered mail, so in this case it will be difficult to prove that they were in the letter and not something else.

Taking advantage of this, an unscrupulous addressee can say that he actually received the letter, but it did not contain a statement, but Blank sheet paper or advertising brochure.

True, very few people resort to such blatant fraud, which is why registered letters with return receipt requested are the most common way to send applications.

Valuable letter

The application and attached documents can be sent by a valuable letter, and then you will have in your hands an inventory of its contents, which will indicate the names of the documents that you sent.

Telegram

If the matter is urgent or you want to have a certified copy of the text of the application and are not short on funds, then it can be sent by telegraph. After some time, you will be able to receive a copy of the telegram certified with a post office calendar stamp.

In addition, a valuable letter and telegram, as well as ordered letter, can be sent with acknowledgment of delivery. If the addressee refuses to accept the letter or telegram, the postman will write about this in the notification, and the application will be considered received.

Notary services

The application can be sent through notaries, both private and those working in public notary offices.

The notary can deliver it personally or send it by mail with acknowledgment of receipt, or use telefax, computer networks and others for this purpose. technical means. At the request of a citizen, he is obliged to issue a certificate of transfer of the application, which must indicate its content.

This method is not widespread due to the high cost of this service, which is half minimum size wages and due to the fact that notaries are usually reluctant to take on this task.

Nevertheless, this method exists, and with some persistence it can be used.

Use of witnesses

If for some reason you cannot use any of these methods, then try to appear at the addressee with witnesses who can confirm the delivery of the application or refusal to receive it. We talked about working with witnesses in Chapter 4.

Lately, email has taken over everything. bigger place in business correspondence. Its advantages are obvious: efficiency, accessibility and ease of use. It should be remembered that email correspondence has its own nuances.

Receiving letters

1. Check your email at least 2 times a day – in the morning and in the afternoon. Otherwise, you can stall the work of other people and delay the resolution of issues;
2. If you received a letter, it means that someone sent it and did it for some reason. Therefore, the letters received must be read. Of course, spam is not considered here;
3. If you are a manager, your working day should begin by launching an email client that does not unload all day and automatically checks mail. Set up automatic delivery/receipt of mail at least every 10 (or better 2 - 3) minutes;
4. if you are very busy and you have received a letter, evaluate who it is from, the subject and skim through it - this will help you quickly understand whether the letter requires an urgent response or can wait a little;
5. the simplest and effective method move things along and not collect mail piles - respond to letters immediately. Therefore, if you are not engaged in a conversation or other activity that does not tolerate interruption, respond to the letter immediately.

Fields “To”, “Cc”, “Bcc”

You should understand, remember and correctly use the “To”, “Cc” and “Bcc” fields. Your actions upon receiving the letter or the actions of the recipient depend on this.

1. "To whom". If you send a question, you expect a response from the addressee specified in the “To” field. If you are the recipient, you must respond. That is, the letter and the information or questions it contains are addressed directly to the recipient indicated in this field.
2. "Copy". Recipients in this field receive a letter for information or are “invited as witnesses.” The recipient of the copies should not generally respond to the letter. Moreover, when there is such a need, it is considered polite to start with the phrase “Sorry to interfere.”
3. "Hidden copy". The fact that the letter was sent to the person specified in the “Bcc” field will not be known to the main recipient or those who are in the copies. This field is also used for mass mailing so that your address book is not known to all recipients.

When replying, do not forget about the “Reply all” button - this will save copies of the initial letter recipients and your answer will not pass by them. You can always remove unwanted recipients or add others.

If the received letter contains more than two recipients in the “To” field, this means that both of these correspondents or any of them must respond. Decide who should answer. However, be careful when sending letters containing more than two recipients in the “To” field: if you send a letter to everyone, you risk not receiving a response from anyone.

Subject field

You should not leave this field empty. The people you correspond with may receive hundreds of emails a day and use this field to quickly assess the importance of the content of the email.

The subject line should briefly reflect the topic of the letter. Titles like “Question”, “Hello!” or empty headings reveal that you are either a beginner, or a lack of basic skills in business correspondence.

"The Importance of Writing"

If the letter contains information about urgent changes, the text of a contract, or other information that you need to pay attention to first, use the “high” importance, this will highlight the letter in the inbox.

• Don't use "high" importance in vain!
• A personal letter to a business correspondent or a letter with a funny and non-business picture or link should be marked with “low” importance.

Writing a response

1. Start with a greeting, it's polite.
2. Speak the same language with the person. This not only concerns the Russian/English language, but also the form of the text. An informal response to a formal letter is disrespect for the respondent and a demonstration of one’s own low culture.
3. Do not use transliteration, except when sending letters with mobile devices. If your email client does not support the Russian language or corrupts the encodings, please attach the text of the response in the attachment.
4. A business letter should be precise, specific and concise.
   • Accuracy– indicate the exact details you are referring to (for example, meeting date, meeting agenda item, date and subject of another email, or file name).
   • Specificity– it should be clear from the letter exactly WHAT EXACTLY is required from the recipient.
   • Conciseness. He who thinks clearly speaks clearly, and your recipient sees it. Therefore, you shouldn’t put on three pages what could be written in three sentences. A laconic business text is not dryness, but time saving and precision of thought.
5. If the letter contains several questions, topics or tasks, structure them and separate them. A continuous “stream of soap” is difficult to read and you can miss, in fact, the main question of the letter.
6. Answer the requests made in the letter as accurately as possible. The answer to a request or task is “Let’s do it!” incomplete “We’ll do it by such and such a date,” “in so many days,” “after such and such an event” is a more definite and accurate answer.
7. The text must not contain errors! Typos are not terrible, but if you spell words incorrectly in every letter, it becomes noticeable very quickly and leaves a negative imprint on your image as a business partner.
8. Never send a letter without reading what you wrote! Read your answer and make sure it is concise, accurate, clear, specific and free of grammatical errors. Check that all necessary recipients are indicated and that they are correctly placed in the “To” and “Cc” fields. Check for grammatical errors.
9. Quote the text of the original letter.
10. When quoting in full (if your response is to the entire letter), write the text of the response at the BEGINNING of the letter, not at the end!
11. If your answers are point-by-point, separate the quotation with blank lines at the top and bottom.

Attachments

1. Do not attach files in EXE, PIF, BAT, COM, CMD, SCR formats to letters - many email clients or servers tightly block such attachments, and the recipient will never read them. Pack them in an archive (zip, rar) as if in a shell and insert them in this form.
2. It is considered normal to send attachments up to 2-3 megabytes without warning. If you want to send an attachment bigger size, check with the correspondent whether such a file will pass through his server or will fit into his mailbox.
3. Refrain from investments of dubious content: firstly, your correspondent may not share your tastes, and secondly, you may cause trouble for a person working in an organization where mail censorship is used.

Electronic signature

1. Having it is useful (it has your contact information) and it is a good form that demonstrates your professionalism.
2. The signature should not exceed 5-6 lines. It must include, at a minimum, your first and last name. In addition, it is advisable to indicate your telephone number, email address, name and physical address of the company, as well as the address of its website.
3. Have two options for electronic signature: for initiative (own) letters with full signature

A business letter should have a clear structure, the advantages of which are:

• saving your time and the recipient’s time;
• guarantee that the addressee will read the letter and correctly understand its essence;
• receiving an intelligible, clear answer.

Structure of a business letter

Appeal

It is located in the header of the letter and contains the position and full name of the addressee. For official business correspondence The standard address is “Dear”, which is written with a capital letter and in the center of the sheet. And then there are a lot of options depending on what they write and to whom. Thus, in Russia it is customary to address people by name and patronymic, in companies with a Western corporate culture - simply by name. If you know your partner personally, you can address him like this: “Dear Andrey Petrovich,” if you don’t know, “Dear Mr. Smirnov.” By the way, when addressing a person, the word “Mr.” cannot be shortened to “Mr.” And under no circumstances should you write “Dear Mr. A.P. Smirnov.” Either “Andrey Petrovich” or “Mr. Smirnov”.

If you are not writing to royalty, representatives of religious denominations, presidents and members of parliaments various countries, consider yourself lucky. There are official conversion formulas for them, and special ones for each rank. Before sending such a letter, carefully check whether the selected message corresponds to the status of the addressee. It is much easier to remember how to write to military personnel: “Dear Comrade Colonel,” even if this colonel is a woman. But the address “Ladies and Gentlemen” is secular, and it is better to use it, say, for an invitation to the opening of a fashion salon. If you are inviting someone to a business presentation—for example, new drilling rigs—then, according to established practice, the common address “Dear Sirs” is used for everyone. In this case, it does not matter that women also work in this organization.

Example:

to CEO
LLC "Concord"
Dobrovolsky P.I.

Dear Pavel Ilyich!
or
Dear Mr. Dobrovolsky!

Preamble

Makes up the first paragraph of the letter, which sets out its purpose, the reason that prompted you to write it. After reading the preamble, the addressee must understand the essence of the letter. Example: I am writing to you to express my dissatisfaction with the quality of raw materials for the production of furniture that your company supplies to us, and I count on your actions aimed at quickly changing the situation for the better and compensating for the losses caused to us.

Example: Over the past month, starting from the second of June of this year, 10-15% of each batch of your raw materials is defective. These facts were properly documented by the specialists of our company. Copies of documents are attached to this letter. The losses of our company due to the receipt of defective raw materials amount to about 1 million rubles. We have been cooperating with Concord LLC for five years now, and so far we have had no reason to complain. In this situation, we insist on full compensation for our losses. If necessary, we are ready to conduct a joint examination of rejected raw materials.

Conclusion

Necessary for a brief summary of everything written and a logical conclusion to the letter.

Example: I am sure that you will understand this situation, and in the near future our cooperation will return to normal.

Signature

The letter ends with the signature (position + full name) of the addressee, which is preceded by the standard polite form “With respect.” Options are also possible: “Sincerely yours”, “With hope for productive cooperation”, “With gratitude for your cooperation”, etc. When signing a letter, it is important to take into account the rank of the addressee and addressee. The letter addressed to the General Director must also be signed by CEO or at least his deputy. In this case, the signature must correspond to its decoding: the situation when the deputy director puts a slash next to the director’s last name and signs with his own name is unacceptable.

Example: Best regards, General Director furniture factory“Zarya” Kiselev A.D.

P.S

Postscript (P.S.) - a postscript at the end of a letter after the signature - is quite rarely used in business correspondence. It serves to inform the recipient about important event, which occurred after the letter was written, or convey to him information that is indirectly related to the topic of the letter.

Example 1: P.S. I inform you that the percentage of defects in a batch of raw materials received 3 hours ago has increased to 17%!

Example 2: P.S. The head of our raw materials reception department will meet with your specialists at your enterprise tomorrow at 14:00.

Applications

Attachments are an optional addition to the main text of the letter and therefore are drawn up on separate sheets - each attachment on its own sheet. There are no rules for writing them.

Standard phrases for business correspondence

Notices

• We inform you that the delay in shipment... occurred due to...
• We would like to inform you that the plant management has made a decision...
• We inform you that your offer has been accepted.
• We inform you that we...
• We would like to inform you that...
• We inform you that, unfortunately, we cannot...

Models of expressions explaining motives (The most common phrases at the beginning of a standard business letter)

In accordance with the protocol...
• In order to strengthen the protection of property...
• In response to your request...
• To confirm our telephone conversation...
• To confirm our agreement...
• In order to provide technical assistance...
• Due to the difficult situation...
• In connection with the joint work...
• According to the customer's letter...

If the author is a legal entity, then the actions are transferred:

1. Third person singular, For example:
   • The Zarya plant does not mind...
   • The Russian-English joint venture Soyuz K offers...
   • The Naiv cooperative guarantees...
2. Third person plural, for example: The management and trade union committee of the Zarya plant earnestly ask...
3. First person plural:
   • Please...
   • We confirm...
   • We inform...

If the author is an individual, then the actions are transferred:

1. First person singular, for example:
   • For your information…
   • Ask…
   • I am informing you...
2. First person plural, for example:
   • We approve...
   • We have received your telegram...
   • Congratulations...
   • We support...

Request

• Please check the progress of the work...
• Please take action…
• Please provide performance data...

Sending documents or material assets

• We send machine assembly drawings...
• We send the documents you are interested in by registered post...
• We send you the contract signed by us...

Confirmation

• We gratefully acknowledge receipt of your order and proceed to its implementation...
• We confirm receipt of specifications for...
• The Zarya plant confirms the terms of supply of equipment...

Offer

• We can offer you …
• We invite you to purchase…
• We can recommend you...

Invitation

• We invite you to take part in the discussion of the project...
• Please take part in the discussion of the problem...
• We invite a representative of your company to visit…

Refusal and rejection of proposal (project)

• The draft title list you sent for construction projects worth... cannot be approved by us for the following reasons.
• Your proposal (project) has been rejected for the following reasons...

Reminder

• We remind you that according to the plan of joint work you must...
• We remind you that in accordance with... You must...
• We remind you that your outstanding payment amounts to...
• We remind you that the deadline for submitting the manuscript expires...

Guarantees

• We guarantee payment.
• We guarantee deadlines.
• We guarantee the quality of the products.

Interpretation of one's own position

• Our appeals on this issue did not lead to positive results.
• We have no objections to the design.
• We cannot deliver the goods to you... due to the following reasons:...

Interpretation of the other party's actions

• Such a delay may lead...
• It is completely inexplicable why your factory is delaying the dispatch of molds...
• The promises you made are not kept.

Final words

• We hope that our request will be fulfilled.
• We look forward to further cooperation.
• With wishes of success.
• We kindly ask you not to delay your response.
• Please forgive us for the delay in response (for an error).

Ethical Standards for Business Correspondence

Business correspondence, like any other form of human interaction, is based on a set of ethical rules and norms, the main one of which is “CORRECTNESS AND RESPECT FOR YOUR PARTNER.” Even if the purpose of the letter is to express a complaint, its text should not contain rude words or incorrect expressions that may offend your counterparty. By taking care to maintain the dignity of your recipient, you thereby preserve your own.

• start the message with a statement of refusal. First of all, you should state the motivation for the decision made and make it clear that under certain circumstances the issue can be returned to consideration;
• impose on the addressee the expected outcome of the question, for example: “Please study and resolve the issue positively” or “Please approve this candidacy”
• encourage the addressee to rush when making a decision with the words “urgently”, “immediately”, “in a shorter period of time”. It is better to use the etiquette formulas “I ask you to respond by such and such a date”, “I urge you to immediately inform me of your decision”
• hint to the addressee about his imaginary inattention, incompetence, introducing into the text of the letter a wording like “I propose to carefully study...”.

For the recipient of business letters, the mandatory requirements, from the point of view of ethical standards, are:

• refusal of the response form, in which a letter of request or a letter of offer is returned to the author with the response information placed on them;
• prompt and clear response to the sending organization. Delay or lack of response may be considered uncooperative.

Following the ethical standards of business correspondence listed above will not require you to perform a feat and over time will become easy and habitual. Moreover, it will provide you with a reputation as a tactful person and even teach you how to turn opponents into allies.

General rules for writing business letters

In addition to structure, another important component of a competent business letter is its neat design.

Information mail

Information mail- This is an official letter that informs the addressee of official information.

The length of the newsletter ranges from one paragraph to several pages.

Usually, newsletters are signed by the head of the organization, and in the case of mass mailing (for example, to all clients of the company) may not contain a manual signature at all. Often information letters are of a standard nature.

An inquiry– an official letter sent to obtain any official information or documents.

In general, letters of inquiry are drafted in the same way as letters of request. Letters of request are usually signed by the head of the organization or an officially authorized official.

The text of the request letter must contain a justification for the need to provide materials or information and the actual statement of the request.

A letter of request requires a letter of response.

Letter of response

A letter of response is a service letter that is written as a response to a letter of inquiry or a letter of request.

The answer may be negative (rejection letter) or positive.

The text of the response letter should use the same language and vocabulary that the author used in the initiative letter, provided that the request letter was written correctly in terms of language.

You should not include in the text of the response letter a link to the received letter (“To your letter dated _______#__…”).

Information about the initiative letter is included in the registration number of the response letter. It is advisable to start a refusal letter with a justification for the refusal: “In connection with...”, since a negative response must be justified, you cannot simply refuse a request without explanation.

Confirmation letter

A letter of confirmation is an official letter in which the addressee confirms previously reached agreements, intentions, receipt of information, documents or other materials, etc.

The key language formula of this type of letter is: “We confirm (receipt of documents, preliminary agreement, consent to ...).”

When confirming a preliminary agreement, the text of the letter must briefly outline its essence.

If receipt of documents is confirmed, you should name them, etc. The confirmation letter may end with a request, wish, or proposal.

Letter of complaint

A letter of complaint is an initiative business letter, the purpose of which is to express a complaint or dissatisfaction to the addressee.

In conclusion, specific wishes or proposals for correcting the situation should be expressed.

Letter of guarantee

Letters of guarantee are intended to provide the addressee with written guarantees in order to confirm certain promises or conditions, intentions or actions of the author (sending organization), one way or another affecting the interests of the addressee.

Letters of guarantee are addressed to an organization or an individual. The word “guarantee” may not be mentioned at all in the text of the letter, however, the letter will remain a document containing a guarantee.

Payment for the work performed, the timing of its completion, the quality of the work, the quality of the product, the timing of its delivery, payment for the products received, etc. can be guaranteed. These aspects can form the content of the whole letter or be included in the text of the letter as its component.

Letters of guarantee are emphatically legal in nature, corresponding in status to documents of a contractual nature. Most often, letters of guarantee are issued to confirm payment.

In this case, it is mandatory to indicate the contract number and invoice according to which payment must be made.

Letters of guarantee are distinguished by clarity, accuracy and unambiguity of wording - since we're talking about on providing the addressee with guarantees on behalf and on behalf of an organization or official. It must indicate the type of operation to be performed.

Such letters may begin with a statement of the essence of the guarantees provided to the addressee, for example: “With this letter I guarantee...”.

In other cases, a letter of guarantee may contain a statement of the reasons behind the author’s intention to declare his readiness to provide the addressee with certain guarantees. In this case, the corresponding statement is formulated in the final sentence, for example: “We guarantee payment” or “I guarantee timely and full payment.”

A peculiarity of this type of letters is the presence, along with the signature of the author (for example, the director of an organization), of the signature of an official who is directly responsible for financial or other issues. If a letter of guarantee is sent as an obligation to pay for a purchase, service provided, etc., then it must indicate Bank details payer organization.

The key phrase of the letter of guarantee may include the following words and expressions:

• We guarantee...
• We guarantee that...
• The Partner company guarantees...
• Please send to our address cash on delivery (type of guarantee)…
• We guarantee payment...
• We hereby guarantee...

Summary

A resume is a type of business letter aimed at providing the most complete and advantageous presentation of a specialist to an employer.

When writing a resume, you should strictly follow a number of rules:

1. Introduce yourself
2. Education
3. experience
4. Do I need to indicate the desired salary level?
5. Do I need to provide additional information about myself?
6. Do you need personal details?
7. Tailor your resume to the employer's requirements
8. Attitude towards business trips
9. Availability of recommendations
10. Covering letter

There is not and cannot be a single resume for all occasions that could be sent to all companies without changes.

Each time you should first think about what qualities will be valued at new job, and modify the resume accordingly. The information presented in the resume must be reliable. Don't leave any blank spots on your resume.

And most importantly, the resume should be short: no more than one to one and a half pages. Your ability to formulate clearly and concisely is an indicator high level general culture.

Having a photo on your resume is welcome.

1. Confirmation of the fact and terms of work in the organization, brief information about positions held and duties performed (for a letter of recommendation from a private individual, this paragraph indicates for what period of time and in what capacity the author of the letter knows the recommended person). The list of responsibilities should indicate the qualifications of the person recommended. If the recommended person held various positions, then data on positions held and performed job responsibilities are indicated for each time interval. Example: Sidorov Vladimir Aleksandrovich worked at the Vector company from March 12, 1998 to March 16, 2002, including from March 12, 1998 to March 16, 2002 - as manager of the trade and purchasing department, from March 17 to November 25, 2002 - as a senior manager in the same department. His responsibilities as a manager consisted of organizing the supply of components, and as a senior manager - in organizing interaction between companies supplying components and production.
2. Brief description of professional, business and personal qualities recommended and the successes he achieved during his work in the organization. You should abandon such general words as reliable, competent, conscientious, etc., and focus on specific facts that characterize the recommended person from the point of view of his professional qualities, ability to cope with certain tasks. Here you can focus on such categories as the level of knowledge and diligence in performing basic duties, the ability to cope with non-standard tasks, ingenuity, initiative, learning ability, ability to adapt to different situations, emotional stability, leadership qualities. Here you can give an approximate comparison of the recommended person’s work with the work of his colleagues, indicate the most significant achievements, projects developed and implemented by him personally. Example: I independently mastered the software, independently and successfully carried out business meeting, effectively led subordinates, etc.
3. Reasons for changing jobs (leaving the organization, moving to another place). This could be a change in the profile of the organization, closure of a division, personnel changes in the organization, change of residence, etc.
4. Conclusions. Brief and specific assessment of competence, business qualities recommended, its creativity and capabilities career growth. Recommendations for occupying a specific position or positions (in some cases, it is advisable to indicate here the extent to which you recommend a person for the desired position: unconditionally, strongly, with some reservations, do not recommend). Example: Sidorov Vladimir Aleksandrovich is fluent in technology... (has extensive experience working with server software... or ... can independently work with corporate clients ... etc.). I believe that Mr. Sidorov can effectively perform the duties of a department head, working as a department head, deputy head of the computing department of a mid-level enterprise.
5. Contact details of the person signing the letter. This point is especially relevant for letters of recommendation written by private individuals, since it is quite possible that a new employer, after reading the letter of recommendation, will want to clarify some details.

Press release

A press release is an information message for the media, the purpose of which is to draw attention to a certain event (occurred or upcoming) in order to maximize coverage of this event in the media.

Press releases are compiled and sent out by press services of companies and organizations and have certain writing rules:

• the word “Press release” must be indicated in the header of the document and the date of its distribution must be indicated;
• the title of the press release should reflect its topic and the message of the information message as clearly as possible;
• the essence of the press release title can be disclosed in more detail in the subtitle (however, its presence is not necessary);
• the first paragraph of the press release must necessarily contain the following information: what, where and when it happened (will happen);
• The volume of the press release should not exceed one and a half pages of typewritten text. In this case, it is advisable to limit yourself to one page, including the signature and footers of the organization’s letterhead;
• The press release may include quotes from news makers - responsible speakers of the organization;
• the press release is drawn up on the organization’s letterhead;
• the signature to the press release must indicate the name of the contact person who can provide Additional information on the topic of the press release, and his contact information: phone (preferably mobile), e-mail, ICQ number.

Letter of congratulations

The “Congratulations” format belongs to the category of personal business correspondence.

It is drawn up on a greeting form or postcard and when compiling it, it can and should prevail creativity. This applies to both the text of the letter and its design.

Congratulations can be personal (happy birthday) or mass (for example, Happy New Year).

In the first case, the address to the addressee must be personal - by name and patronymic; in the second case, it can be general, for example, “Dear friends!”

In both cases, the sender must personally sign the congratulations (a facsimile is used when sending mass congratulations).

Personal congratulations

Mass congratulations

Invitation letter

The “Invitation” format belongs to the category of personal business correspondence.

It is issued on official letterhead or a postcard and is intended to notify the addressee about a certain special event that he is invited to attend.

The invitation must contain information about the place and time of the event, as well as its name.

The invitation must indicate the acceptable dress code (for example, black and tie), as well as the number of persons to whom the invitation applies.

As a rule, the invitation is personal in nature, but when holding mass events may be impersonal.

Personal invitation

Mass invitation

Letter of gratitude

The “Thank You” format belongs to the category of personal business correspondence and is aimed at expressing gratitude to the addressee.

As a rule, gratitude is issued on the official letterhead of the organization, but can be issued as a postcard.

The text of the thank you letter is written in a concise, friendly and official style with reference to the event that prompted the sender to express his gratitude to the addressee. If desired, other merits of the addressee can also be listed. Gratitude is certified by the personal signature of the sender and, in some cases, by the seal of the organization.

Example: Message from the Prime Minister of Great Britain to the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (April 25, 1942) “I am very grateful to you for your message of April 23. We will, of course, welcome the visit of Mr. Molotov, with whom I am sure we can do a lot useful work. I am very glad that you find it possible to allow this visit, which I am sure will be very valuable.”

Letter of Condolence

The “Condolence” format belongs to the category of personal business correspondence and is intended to express empathy and support to the addressee regarding some other sad event or loss.

When writing a condolence message, it is very important to choose the right sincere words that can really support the recipient in his grief.

At the same time, it is important to express your feelings and experiences regarding what happened.

Condolences are issued in a discreet, correct style on official letterhead or a special postcard and certified by the personal signature of the sender.

Business letter- a document used for communication, transmission of information over a distance between two correspondents, who can be both legal entities and individuals.

Due to the nature of their activities, a manager or management specialist needs to write a lot of business letters.

Business letters include characteristics, resumes, letters of recommendation, letters of reminder and gratitude, letters of invitation to an interview or presentation, letters of refusal, statements of claim, complaints, etc.

How to write a business letter correctly

• business letter paper should be good quality, absolutely clean, neatly trimmed;
• It is desirable that the business letter form contain the logo of the organization, its full name, postal and telegraphic addresses, telephone, fax, email and bank details;
• official business letters are printed on the front side of the sheet, without marks; all pages except the first are numbered with Arabic numerals;
• the width of the margin on the left side of the sheet must be at least 2 cm, the paragraph begins with a red line with a retreat of five intervals from the left edge of the line; the text is printed at one and a half to two intervals; It is advisable to avoid word wrapping;
• in the upper right corner of a business letter, under the address of the sending organization, the date is indicated, preferably in full (for example, January 2, 2007);
• the name of the organization or the surname and address of the person to whom the business letter is sent is written on the left side of the sheet;
• below, from the edge of the line or in the center of the sheet, a polite address is written; for example, “Dear Ivan Ivanovich”; a comma is required after an address, but an exclamation point is often used to begin the next phrase with a red line and a capital letter;
• the business letter ends with words of gratitude for cooperation and expressing hopes for its continuation;
• the signature is placed in right side sheet, after the final politeness phrase, for example, “With respect...”, the signer’s surname is printed under his handwritten signature;
• resolutions on all types of incoming correspondence must be made in pencil or on separate sheets of paper; a business letter is folded with the text inside, and the most important business letters are not folded, for which they are sent in large thick envelopes;
• a telegraph request should be answered within 3 days, a business letter - 10; if the request requires detailed consideration, then within 3 days you should inform that the business letter has been taken into account and give a final response within 30 days.

• accuracy and clarity of presentation of thoughts - short words, short phrases, short paragraphs
• maximum accessibility of the text for understanding, the use of simple phrases that accurately and unambiguously express the essence
• literacy
• correctness