Part IV. Structural and lexical peculiarities of a business letter Bredgate 51, DK 1260, Sender's address Copenhagen K, DENMARK 9th May 2001 Date
     Sounsonic Ltd.,
     Warwik House, Inside address Warwik Street, (Receiver's address) Forest Hill,
     London SE23 1JF
    UNITED KINGDOM
     Attention line For the attention of the Sales Manager
     Salutation Dear Sir or Madam,
     Please would you sent me details of your quadrophonic sound system, which were
    advertised in the April edition of "Sound Monthly"? Body of the letter I am particular interested in the Omega range of eguipment that you specialize in. Complimentary close Yours faithfully,
    Ekaterina Gadyukova Signature E. Gadyukova (Ms) Per pro p.p. D. Sampson Company position Sales manager Enclosure Enc.
     1. Structure of a business letter Sender's address In correspondence that does not have a printed letterhead, the sender's address is written on the top right-hand side of the page.
    In the UK, in contrast to the practice in some countries, it is not usual to write the sender's name before the sender's address. Date The date is written below the sender's address, sometimes separated from it by a space. In the cases of correspondence with the printed letterhead, it is also usually written on the right-hand side of the page. The month in the date should not be written in figures as they can be confusing; for example, 11.01.1998 means 11th January 1998 in the UK, but 1st November 1998 in the US. Nor should you abbreviate the month, e.g. Nov. for November, as it simply looks untidy. It takes a moment to write a date in full, but it can take a lot longer to find a mis-filed letter, which was put in the wrong file because the date was confusing. Many firms leave out the abbreviation 'th' after the date, e.g. 24 October instead of 24th October. Other firms transpose the date and the month, e.g. October 24 instead of 24 October. These are matters of preference, but whichever you choose you should be consistent throughout your correspondence. Inside's (or receiver's) address This is written below the sender's address and on the opposite side of the page, i.e. the left-hand one. 1. Surname known If you know the surname of the person you are writing to, you write this on the first line of the address, preceded by a courtesy title and either the person's initial(s) or his/her fist given name, e.g. Mr J.E. Smith or Mr John Smith, not Mr Smith. Courtesy titles used in addresses are as follows: * Mr (with or without a full stop; the abbreviated form 'mister' should not be used) is the usual courtesy title for a man. * Mrs (with or without a full stop; no abbreviated form) is used for a married woman. * Miss (not an abbreviation) is used for an unmarried woman. * Ms (with or without a full stop; no abbreviated form) is used for both married and unmarried women. Many women now prefer to be addressed by this title, and it is a useful form of address when you are not sure whether the woman you are writing to is married or not. * Messrs (with or without a full stop; abbreviation for Messieurs, which is never used) is used occasionally for two or more men, e.g. Messrs P. Jones and B.L. Parker) but more commonly forms part of the name of a firm, e.g. Messrs Collier & Clerk & Co. * Special titles, which should be included in addresses are many. They include: * academic or medical titles, e.g. Doctor (Dr.), Professor (Prof.) * military titles, e.g. Captain (Capt.), Major (Maj.), Colonel (col.) * aristocratic title, e.g. Sir (which means that he is a Knight; not be confused with the salutation 'Dear Sir' and always followed by a given name - Sir John Brown, not Sir J. Brown or Sir Brown), Dame, Lord, Baroness, etc. * Esq (with or without a full stop; abbreviation for Esquire) is seldom used now. If used, it can only be instead of 'Mr' and is placed after the name, e.g. Bruce Hill Esq., not Mr Bruce Esq.
    2. Title known If you do not know the name of the person you are writing to, you may know or be able to assume his/her title or position in the company, e.g. the Sales Manager, or the Finance Director, in which case you can use it in the address. 3. Department known Alternatively you can address your letter to a particular department of the company, e.g. The Sales Department, or The Accounts Department. 4. Company only Finally, if you know nothing about the company and do not want to make any assumptions about the person or the department your letter should go to, you can simply address it to the company itself, e.g. Soundsonic Ltd., Messrs Collier & Clerke & Co. Order of inside addresses After the name of the person and/or company receiving the letter, the order and style of addresses in the UK and in the US, is as follows: British style American style 1. Inside Messrs Black & Sons, 159 Knightsbridge, London SWL 87C The International Trading Company 24 Churchill Avenue Maidstone, Kent ZH8 92B Address (company) International Trading Company Sabas Building 507 A. Flores Street Manila Philippines The American Magazine 119 Sixth Avenue New York, NY 11011 British style American style 2. Addressing an individual
     The Manager The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Main Office Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Dear Sir, Dear Sirs, Messrs Mahmound & Son 329 Coast Road Karachi, Pakistan 3. Addressing an individual T. Hardy, Esq., c/o Waltons Ltd., 230 Snow Street, Birmingham, England Dear Tom, Miss Claire Waterson c/o Miller & Sons Pty. ............