Lesson Twelve
Business Correspondence I
Dr. Nancy Hoagland

Lecture Notes

Introduction

In this lesson, the focus is on three kinds of business correspondence: letters, memos, and e-mail. You may ask why this lesson is placed so late in the course when it concerns some of the briefest and most common types of workplace writing. One reason is that the focus of the course is the class project which builds toward the final analytical report. Putting this formal lesson on correspondence at the end of the course allows a little more time to revise and rewrite the report, if necessary. Also, most people have a working knowledge of business correspondence and need this lesson only as a reminder of the best practices for writing letters, memos, and e-mail. The lesson is intended to prepare you to complete the final writing assignment of the course: Assignment 6: Business Letter, which is due on January 29 . For more information, see the Assignment Sheet for Assignment 6: Business Letter and the Evaluation Sheet for Assignment 6: Business Letter.

Chapter 15 Writing Letters, Memos, and E-mail, "Writing Letters"

Letters

Letters are usually written to someone outside of the writer's own organization. In writing a letter, it is always important to analyze the audience and to understand your purpose in writing. If the letter is on an important subject, you should draft the letter, get feedback, let it "cool" for a period of time, then revise the letter if necessary before sending it.

When writing a letter, try to adopt the "you attitude" by looking at the situation from the reader's point of view and adjusting the content, structure, and tone to the reader's needs and expectations. When I write an important a letter, in the first draft try to focus on producing clear content. In the second draft, I go through the letter and try to reduce the number of times I use the pronoun I by refocusing the writing from me to the reader. When I refocus on the reader, I try to be careful, however, not to use an accusing tone or to be sarcastic or threatening. A polite respectful letter almost always produces better results than threats or insults. The time to "get serious" is only after you have sent earlier letters and made previous attempts to solve a problem.

The accepted format for a letter includes a heading, inside address, salutation, body, complimentary close, signature, and reference initials. Most letters also contain some of the following notation lines: attention, subject, enclosure, and copy. Most letters are typed in one of the three following formats: modified block, modified block with paragraph indentations, or full block. I recommend using full block style with all elements aligned at the left margin. This format looks very professional and is easy to remember. Markel provides an excellent guide to the parts of a letter in Figure 15.3 Elements of a Letter on pages 368-369. The model letter in this figure is written in full block format. There is a more detailed guide to margins and spacing on page 370.

The language the you use to write a letter should be simple and direct. You should avoid using stilted language filled with letter clichés from the past. An example of a cliché is "per your request" or "thanking you in advance." It is better to use simple, every day language such as " as you requested" or "thank you for your help."

See the chapter for help in writing four types of letters frequently used in the technical workplace: inquiry, response to an inquiry, claim, and adjustment.

Memos

The memo is a brief form of correspondence that is used for communication chiefly within an organization. Most memos contain the following identifying information: the organization's logo or abbreviated letterhead, the "to" line, the "from" line, the "subject line", and the "date" line (378). Some organizations also require a "copies" line to indicate who has received a copy of the memo. The same advice about analyzing audience and purpose before writing applies to writing memos as it does to all other forms of technical communication and workplace writing.

The body of most memos should begin with a statement of purpose to help the reader understand what he or she is supposed to know or do after having read the memo. Markel writes that for all memos of more than a page, the purpose statement should be followed by a summary. The purpose statement along with the summary serves as an executive summary of the memo. Markel suggest adding subheads to the body of the memo to help organize content for the reader. He advises including an "action items" section at the end of the memo to direct the reader to any further actions that should be taken as a result of reading the memo. In my opinion, you have to be sensitive to your relationship to the reader in order to include an "action items" section. For example, I don't think you want to tell your supervisor what action items should be taken as a result of a memo that requests a salary review.

E-mail

Markel states three basic principles for writing e-mail (383):

• Follow your organization's rules for e-mail. Remember that most e-mail is archived and can be accessed by the organization. Also, it some cases, e-mail can even become a legal document used as evidence in court cases.
• Use the same level of formality that is customary in your organization. If you are unsure, always tend toward a more formal kind of writing.
• Follow the guidelines for netiquette that are followed by most people and any special guidelines observed by members of your organization.

Markel include the following guidelines for netiquette(383-384):

• "Stick to business" by staying away from nonbusiness messages.
• "Don't waste bandwidth" by keeping messages brief.
• "Take some care with your writing" by editing and proofreading before sending a message.
• "Don't flame" by sending an angry reply. Sometimes it is easy to forget how the tone of a written message seems to a reader receiving the message.
• "Use the subject line" to accurately identify the content of the message. Many people use the subject line to decide if they will read the message or delete it. Also, the subject line can be very useful in retrieving a message at a later time.
• "Make your message easy on the eyes" by using both upper case and lower case letters. Also leave a blank line between paragraphs. Be careful about using boldface, underlining, and Italic type because not all e-mail programs will display these features.
• "Don't forward a message...without the writer's permission." The writer or organization owns the copyright to a message and forwarding a message may be a copyright violation.
• "Don't send a message unless you have something to say." While Markel makes this statement, I am not sure that I agree with him. Occasionally, there is a need to let someone know you are continuing to participate in a discussion or even a business relationship at a time when the content of the message is not as important as your continued response.
  

Reminder: Assignment 5: Instructions/Technical Description/Definitions is due on January 29. For more information, see the Assignment Sheet for Assignment 5: Instructions/Technical Description/Definitions and the Evaluation Sheet for Assignment 5:Instructions/Technical Description/Definitions.

For more information, see Module 4: Communicating through Business Correspondence.

 

Material for this course was originally written and developed by Michelle Didier, Edward Harris, James Gillin, Pat Kirby, Marj Crane,Danielle Bujosa, Andrew Joyce, Ed Brandmark, Traicy Garey, and Sharon Biederman.

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