1. Business means buying and selling, and English is the name of our mother tongue. Business English is obviously such English as is used in mercantile transactions. Our definition is quickly made.
But it will bear expansion. We must answer certain questions that inevitably arise. Is some special brand of English used in business? And how are we to know when we are studying business and when merely the English of business?
Take the first of these two questions. There are of course certain words which name business transactions primarily. Buy, sell, exchange, barter, trade, purchase, shop, customer, hire, rent, pay, fee, price, retail, wholesale, lease, mortgage, merchandise, commodity, goods, stock, office, factory, finance, money, funds, capital, interest, sum, amount, balance, cash, currency, bill, receipt, note, draft, check, bank, cashier, bookkeeper, stenographer, clerk - hundreds of words like these will occur to us at random as being mercantile words in a peculiar sense.
To be sure, they are not all limited to business transactions. Note the word brand. It is primarily mercantile, naming a particular kind of goods. But in the second paragraph, above, the phrase "special brand of English" appears. Here the word is used figuratively. Every business word can be extended in that way to social or literary use. When we speak of wholesale slaughter, or of a stock of words, we use commercial figures of speech, and Americans are exceedingly fond of doing so. You have heard people speak of a thoroughly posted man, as if a man were a ledger. You have heard them speak of the balance of the day, as if time were literally money. You have noticed that an American likes to claim everything in sight; I mean, he prefers to claim that a thing is so, rather than assert, declare, contend, allege, maintain, or swear that it is so.
§2.But the strictly commercial words, again, aria not the only ones employed in business. In addition to such words as are listed above in our third paragraph, business employs thousands of terms from science and technology. If a man is buying or selling machinery, he must know the names of the machines. If it falls to him to buy the parts of them, he must know the names of the parts. Does business English, then, include the study of everything that is bought or sold? If it did, it would include nearly the whole dictionary. Everything is bought or sold, from surgical instruments to Egyptian mummies. Nothing is exempt but heaven and love and faith. "Tis only heaven that is given away; Mis only God may be had for the asking." And there are gloomy times when we feel that even faith and love are sold.
The following are the parts of a business letter listed in the proper sequential order.
Letterhead - Stationary printed at the top of the page including the company name, logo, full address, and other elements such as trademark symbols, phone & fax numbers, and an e-mail.
Dateline - The date is the month (spelled out), day, and year. If you are using Microsoft Word, click - Insert, then Time and Date. Press Enter four times after the date.
Letter Address - The complete address of the recipient of the letter. The letter address usually includes the personal title (Mr., Mrs. etc.), first and last name followed by the company name, street address, city, province, and postal code. Press Enter twice after letter address.
Salutation - The word Dear followed by the personal title and last name of the recipient (Dear Mr. Smith). Press Enter twice after the salutation.
Body - The text that makes up the message of the letter. Single-space the paragraphs and double-space between the paragraphs. Press Enter twice after the last paragraph.
Complimentary closing - A phrase used to end a letter. Capitalize only the first letter. If there is a colon after the salutation, there must be a comma after the complimentary close. Press Enter four times (or more) after the complimentary close to allow for a written signature.
Name and title of writer - Type the first and last name of the sender. The sender's personal title (Mr., Ms., Dr., etc) should be included. Use a comma to separate the job title if it's on the same line as the name. Do not use a comma if the job title is on a separate line. Press Enter twice after the name or title.
The Styles of Business Letters (Layouts of Business Letters) have undergone changes over the period of time. In the old times, the style was followed strictly.
But recently liberty has been given to the business people to follow their own styles. Although no room was allowed for deviation form the standard form an effective letter during old days, the letters written then was more effective. There are still many business houses which use the old layout
But things have become much easier and business people have taken liberty in their approach towards adopting the layout of their business letters.
1. Full Block Style
2. Block Style
3. Semi Block Style
Fully-Blocked Style, Modified Block Style and Simplified Style are widely used these days among the business houses. Fully-Indented Style, Semi-Indented Style and Hanging-Indented Style are not extensively used. But all can be used by all. There is no restriction in using one style over others. It is only you who should decide which should be the best for you to bring the desired results.
4. Idented Style
5. Simplified
6. Hanging Idented Style
Usually, the business letters are written on the letter head of the company. In case you have to write your letter in a white paper, please write your address before you start writing your letter. There are few people who suggest writing the sender’s address just below the date. This is also acceptable. There is not strict rule to suggest what is best for you. Let your sense of business judgment rule.
