Business Letter Writing
●Some rules of good writing
1) Adopting the right tone正確語氣 2) writing naturally and sincerely 3) writing clearly to the point
4) being courteous有禮貌的and considerate 5) avoiding wordiness冗長
6) planning your letter and writing effectively
●Principles of business letter-writing
In writing business letters, we should always bear in mind the essential qualities of them, the seven C’s: completeness完整, concreteness具體, clarity明晰, conciseness簡潔, courtesy禮貌, consideration關心and correctness正確性.
註：1)They have reduced the price US﹩100 per piece件. →price後要加to。 解析：reduce…to…應該是指―降低到……（某個位置、程度）‖，reduce…by…則是指―降低了……（by後面跟降低的具體幅度）‖。
2)避免使用bimonthly，會引起歧義。→adj. 兩月壹次的；每月兩次的。避免使用steamer。→n. 輪船/蒸汽機/蒸籠。 3）不要寫this month,要寫出確切的月份。 Complicated難懂的/復雜的 Simple簡單的 Be kind enough please Under date of on General Specific Soon
May 15
A large volume an order up to USD12,000 Contact you call / write / fax Our time Beijing time Somebody Mr. Li Your port
Liverpool
5）Please remit us the amount soon.劃線處需用確切量詞 6)Thank you for your emails of/dated May 5.(不能用on。解析：修飾名詞emails,所以用of/dated;而on修飾動詞。) Deadwood廢話
Correction In the view of the fact that because Had the effect of causing caused
I
want
to
take
this opportunity to thank you thank you
In the event that…
If… Courtesy: 1) 收到信，要在3天內給對方回復。 2）Because of your delay in shipment延期裝船 , we suffer a loss.→your改為the。（解析：只提事實，不要指責對方。）
3）You must/had better/should send the sample to us.(最
好不要用，不尊重)
4）可以說Would you please do sth.
註：textiles紡織品 price list價目表 catalog小冊子，目錄
●Exercises--Rewrite sentences
1) There are three buyers who want to import the goods from us.→去掉There are…who…
2) There is a book written by WH about Globalization. →A book is written by….
3) It is my opinion that they should replace the goods. →My opinion is that….
4) Here is our check for $500 in payment for your settlement. →去掉Here is, payment後加is。
5) It is our plan to open a branch in BJ next year.→We plan to…./ Our plan is to….
6) It is our expectation that the interest rate will be further raised in the near future. → We expect that….
7) The interest rate is expected to be further ….→We expect the interest rate to be further….
8) Your order for office supplies has been received, and it will be shipped immediately. →We’ve received your order…, and we will ship immediately.
9) We are shipping your order for … at once. →
●The basic format of a business letter:
1) letterhead(信頭）
2) Ref.（reference）No (發文編號）（提及某壹筆買賣的號） 3）Date （日期）
4) Inside Name and Address
5) Attention line （註意事項）(希望由誰/某部門辦理) 6) Salutation（稱呼） 7) Subject line（事由標題） 8) Body of the letter
…………………………………………………. 9) Complimentary close（結尾敬語） 10) Signature （簽名） 11) Enclosure Notation（附件） 12) Carbon Copy(抄送) C.C.
註：粗體字為Necessary parts,細體字為Optional parts.
1）letterhead
⊙Letterhead, as the first and most obvious part of a company’s business letter, has two functions: to identify where the letter comes from, and to form one’s impression of the writer’s company.
⊙A printed letterhead may contains some or all of the following parts: