Business Letter Writing: Structure, Tone, and Key Differences from Personal Letters

hello i welcome you all to n p t e l online lectures on the course and title soft skills hope you are all enjoying this course presently we are dealing with the section writing skills and in previous lectures we have talked about what writing skills are what are the various

[pin/principles] principles involved in writing skills now we are going to talk about business letters as we remember well we have talked about the various documents that you as a student aspiring to be a professional would have to write in the days to come and in that

we had decided that will have separate lectures on business letters and the lectures that follow today are going to be concentrating on business letters now the question is what actually are business letters and why do we need to write them but

before we go into the details of business letters let us also try to understand what are letters and why do we need them do we in an age of technology really need letters of course many of you might be feeling that in a technically advanced age of today letters

have lost their importance it may only be a half truth because as you see when you have to deal with customers clients shareholders and all organizations actually need a sort of communication

and this communication in this written form can be termed as business letters now if we have a look at what letters were in the olden days you will find that there has been a sea change in the drafting of letters i do remember a line from an essay where a lady in horace

walpoles accesses i am i write to you because i have nothing to do i finish my letter because i have nothing to say dear friends in an age today we have a lot to say and we have a lot to write and that is why we have to draft business letters now business letters as the

term itself says it has the word business involved in it meaning thereby these are letters which are actually meant for the purposes of business and specially these written documents are a bit formal now here there is a point of

caution to know that when you write letters i mean personal letters or when you write letters for general purposes and the letters for business they are totally different from each other now what are actually the various differences because when you write a personal

letter you have the person whom you know very well but when you write a business letter on many of the occasions you do not know them and since the purposes of business writings are different naturally they will have differences of various kinds in terms of tone in terms

of content in terms of approach and that is why in order to succeed today in a world which is drowned by business in every walk of life you have to understand the importance of business letters and moreover

you also should know how to write letters for different occasions and in different ways what actually are the differences every letter is different every letter is distinct in olden days when people used to write letters they actually used to be also very careful about

the weather and it is said that a good letter written in those days used to act like a good essay now things have changed needs have changed expectations have changed and specially at the workplace or the business place there are variety of situations which

have actually necessitated the difference in terms of letter writing now what actually are the functions that a business letter serves a business letter as we have been saying it is actually between an organization and a customer it may also between an organization

and firm it is also between individuals at times when a person a person i mean an official writes a letter to another official hence through business letters it is actually a sort of renewal of rappo it is a communication

which helps speed up the process of business moreover letters can be kept as a record and that is why they can be cited for references in terms of future dealings you might every now and then come across certain things certain dealings which you had in with an organization

in past and once again when the need arises you want to write to them naturally you can cite your previous experience you can refer to the previous dealings and that way business becomes more smooth moreover every organization wants to know what are the developments in

a particular area and for that you will find that it is through a letter it is through a letter that you can promote a product it is through a letter that you can also understand the feedback of the customers it is also through

letters that you can enhance your business activities outside one state outside one country outside one organization and that is how these letters can create a beautiful rappo with the organization as well as with managers it is actually a medium through which people

community organization and at times even nations also come to know each other that is why the importance of business letters is not on the wane but it is on the rise however we feel that with the technical advancements

nowadays the letter that earlier used to be i mean with the help of the pen and paper of course that might have been substituted by technical gadgets and people have been writing letters by word processing them but after all it is a sort of a writing which

has to take care of the other party ah business letter also demonstrates even though it is between two organizations but it is a person who writes a person who writes the letter he writes on behalf of the organization and at times you see that the person who is writing

the letter his personality his ability his thinking caliber and all these they also come to light and there has been seen that many organizations while hiring their employees they see to it

that they also hire employees who are not only good at spoken skills but at a written skills also and when they say written skills they also have these business letters in their mind because when you are writing a business letter especially in an organization you are

actually trying to convince the other party you are either trying to have some information or you are trying to get some information you are trying to order for goods you are trying to also give feedback about a particular item or a particular ah say product but then

in some way or the other it looks like an m o u that is memorandum of understanding no business can run without the proper documentation and dissemination of business letters it is through letters that most of the businesses are being transacted nowadays and when you

are continuously writing letter to one organization or to one particular person you also try to understand by the feedback and you also try to bring certain changes in certain products that you have launched or you are going to launch because we are living in a competitive

edge where it is only through information that we can make ourselves stronger now the need here is to know the basic differences between a business letter and a general purpose letter let me tell you here that a general purpose letter is the one that you write to

your relatives to your friends to your kinsmen and to others but when you write a business letter you are actually writing it to an organization whether it is a person but remember while the exchange of letters is between two organizations

it is actually between two people also two persons also hence the need of the are is to see that you maintain a proper cordiality and a cooperation while writing a little we have already discussed about the various principles in one of our lectures when we are talking

about the various principles of business writing and when we say business writing business letters is also one of them now the point of difference between these two letters i mean general purpose letters and the business letters is that of tone

now the question is what should the tone be like what should the content you know when you write a personal letter ah you you do not have too much restrictions you are not confined you are not bound i do remember many personal letters of great writers like charles

lamb thomas gray carlyle ah like robert lynd all these people who had been very famous in terms of letter writing ah they also saw to it that they also depicted the weather they also talked about ah the health of ah some people in the family and all

but then when we come to the business letters these things are not to be taken into consideration business letters means talking about business only and not having talks about family matters and all hence it is not only different in terms of content it is also different in terms

of tone what should the tone be like we have already talked about in previous lecture that there can be two tones one can be a persuasive tone most of the business documents for that matter while you are going to explain while we are going to write you are going to follow

a persuasive tone but remember in business people always want that the writing has to be very explicit and not implicit i mean clarity which we have said will be the hallmark of every writing and business letter is also

not an exception in that regard hence when we talk about the tone of course you have to be very direct i mean whatever you want you have to specify you cannot create a background ah in the very first paragraph and then in the second one you will go and talk about

it is not like that because in business time is a commodity and you have to save time and for that letter writers especially who are writing business letters should see that they are also maintaining a cordiality but they are also seeing to it that time is also saved

remember that one has to follow a neutral tone here you cannot be very subjective you cannot be very emotive as you are when you are writing a general purpose letter you have to be neutral but at the same time your tone should not be anyway offending or it should

not be hurting anyway its should not the insulting most of the time it has been seen that people when they are angry and if they write something that results in becoming either sarcastic sometimes it becomes ironical sometimes it also becomes hurting but that will not be

allowed here when you are writing a business letter because business letters serve a specific purpose it has got a formal touch as you will find business letters have formal touch and the language used is very simple in in principles of writing we also discussed that there is

no room for difficult words there is no room for ah say sesquipedalian or lengthy words lengthy sentences it has to be a business letter has to be formal but then the language has to be very simple

so that people i mean both the people who are sending and the other one who is to receive this would understand the basic purpose personal letters as i said if they are written very carefully they can amount to or they can result in two very beautiful essays we have plethora

of examples when the letters of robert lynd letters of a g gardiner letters of thomas gray carlyle lord chesterfield and all they have been very exemplary in terms of letting people know how pleasant and art

letter writing is of course letter writing is a pleasant art but here when you are in the world of business you are to see that letter writing has to be taken great care of while you are writing from one organization to another since you are representing that

organization now of course since there are differences galore you also must know how should a business letter be drafted what actually are the essential requirements dear friends in an age today of electronic mails chats and voicemails letter writing of course have

been paid or are being paid less attention and that is why there has been a lot of disturbances and lot of problems when a person has to write letter in many of the situations people actually do not attach importance to layout format

structure but these things are really a part and parcel of the letter because it denotes the practice of letter being written in one organization now let us try to understand what are the basic structure and format of a letter here we will talk about ah all the

structural part of the letter one by one a letter especially a business letter will have at least ten parts suppose you are working in an organization or you are going to work in an organization when you are to write a letter you will find that all the organizations

they have their printed letter heads so the first item in terms of structure is a letter head now what is the letter head and how ah where should the letter head be in most of the organizations though they vary

in terms of ah ah their letter heads in some organizations will find the letter head is always at the top center but yet in some it may also be towards the left while some organizations follow a letter head to be on the right hand side or some follow ah ah it to be on the

left hand side and the right hand side they write the address and other telephones and other things but then [yo/you] you are to follow the letter head which your organization follows you will find when you write on a letter head actually you are representing

an organization that is why follow the practice even even in terms of letter writing and the format also you have to follow the format which the said organization follows so the first is

the letter head then comes the date then comes the reference inside address subject line then salutation body complimentary close signature line and enclosures now let us try to understand one by one you see my dear friends it is very important for all of you to know the structural

part of the letter because in a whirlwind of emails and and technical exchanges you we have perhaps ah said a goodbye ah two references and we have said a goodbye to salutation salutations have become very indiscreet people do not bother ah to give salutations

when they write and you know our habits are often spoiled because of the excessive use of technology excessive use of computers but in many organizations they see to it that they maintain this decorum and they follow are the requisite guidelines of letter writing

now what is a letter head as i said earlier many organizations they have different ways of having a letter head it varies from one organization to another here you can see in in in this organization ah here if the name of the organization is in the middle know

at the top center on the right hand page ah the logo may be on the right logo may not be in the center but then this may vary also if you are working in some other organization where the practices

that the letter head will follow ah the address or the logo on the left hand side or the address on the right hand side so you have to maintain the practice that is allowed and that is followed in the organization where you are working say to it that the logo has all the details

such as the location the telephone the fax number the website information everything because you know sometimes or the other when you are writing to them suppose you get a letter from one organization and you are going to respond to them maybe sometimes you are

not in a ah position to write letters but then you want to ah simply talk to them so it is only through the letter head of that organization that you get the number and you can just give them a call and should know ah about the developments or what sort of

queries you have next to that is the date line remember you are actually to mention the date and the date should be written as the same on which you are writing this date actually since you know all these letters are going to be kept in record so the date

has to be mentioned and it is through date that when you respond you will also make out of this date a reference date you know many many business letters you will find as for your letter number this and this dated this and this so what is it actually this is about

the date so on the right hand side not more than two spaces you have to write the date even if the company has got a logo it may not have the date written date will be written by you

i mean by the letter writer and the name of the month comes first most of the organizations they write the date as here suppose it is march ten so they will write like this march ten two thousand seventeen some organizations have the practice of writing ten three two

zero one seven in certain cases ah they may have some differences but remember you are not to change it you are actually to follow the practice which is allowed in your organization next to date is this is the reference

now here as i was saying please see if you find that the date is there on the letter head the date that you write on the letter head this will actually help you write the reference and most of the business letters whether it is a letter of query it is a letter

of inquiry it is actually a letter of our orders or whatsoever it is actually the reference number suppose something went wrong because you know things may go wrong in business now nothing ah everything is not in our hands so something goes wrong and if you are going

to write that and business ah in in business people are so busy that it is very difficult to decipher which letter which date that is why the reference is written and when you write the reference you write both the references i mean your reference and their reference

so you may also mention our reference this here the date is there sometimes the month is there sometimes ah the departmental you know ah departmental information is also there that all these are given in brief they may be given in a say in a very brief manner ah

as here at h c w i mean this may be a sort of this may be a sort of code for a particular section or a particular department i c s this again we may be instrumentation center like something like that so you have to be aware of from where you are writing and when you

are writing please put both of this our reference and your reference next is a inside address i mean this is actually the address i mean the person this is the address of the recipient when you are writing the address it will again once again after you have written the date

just you have to come now here it is very important to ah ah tell you that if you are going to write a letter in a format which allows the date to be written on the right or to the left this once again varies from organization to organization we shall in the

next lecture talk about how every organization will have a different format of letter writing so depending upon the format after the date please write the inside address and when you write the inside address ah you know in in many cases you are writing to the manager

but in certain cases you know the name of the manager so if you know the name of the manager you can write and if the business transaction is going on ah for a long time and you know each other then only you can write mister

such and such but if you do not know and you are writing the letter for the first time you can simply write the general manager or whatsoever especially when you are writing from the organization and if it is a letter where you do not want to write the name it

is often written messrs before the firm messrs such and such and in case you know the person to whom you are corresponding you can write but when you are writing the inside address see to it that the inside address is written correctly the inside [rit/address] address

is written accurately for example the name of the person but before every name either right depending upon the gender [dep/depending] depending upon the designation if you are writing to a person

and who is a doctorate you should write doctor such and such but then if you know the name i mean it is always advisable that you write the full name shri rajkumar bhatt as i have written here shri rajkumar bhatt twenty five winter mayor cottage i mean this is the entire

address summer hills shimla and then the himachal pradesh i mean this is the complete address which is written in inside address next to inside address is of utmost importance is subject line as well as salutation

my dear friends with a very sad hurt let me tell you that in this age of email this salutation has undergone a change you know email in email you will find people not writing dear hey why like this but remember when you are writing a letter and specially a business letter you

have to be very considerate we talked about the courtesy and consideration in the previous lecture so please write dear sir or dear madam in certain cases where you do not know the person ah persons gender you can write the both dear sir oblique madam but in such cases

where you know ah the person is a man you write dear sir dear is to be written i have seen many letters coming where people ah are even confused whether to write dear or not sometimes it becomes very difficult but you know since we are cordial beings it is all

this appropriately write dear sir now the question about punctuation also varies from one format to another in a certain format after dear sir you can write ah the comma but when you are writing a full block form you will find which will discuss later that

there is no need of putting a comma and next to that just after dear sir ah has to be a subject line i mean business people are very busy that is why they are business people and of course we do not have much time maybe at times people may not have too much time

to read the entire content of the letter so it is only through the subject line that they come to know what it is about so in subject line please see that you write clearly about the subject for example regarding

replacement of solar panel batteries or transfer of my savings account or regarding the status of my article like this you know use your subjects will vary so depending upon your subject please write the subject very clearly and just after you have written the subject

now is the time to begin your letter once you start your letter i mean this we call as the letter body this letter body depending upon your need and the expectation of the other party this may vary

but then here you are to talk about the ah subject or the business that you want to transact sometimes it may be two paragraphs sometimes it may be three paragraphs but see to it that brevity is the soul of wit it is always better to write the less and mean more for that you

need to have a control over your vocabulary and all but it has already been seen that the body of the letter has to be divided into three paragraphs the first paragraph will be the beginning where specifically i mean i mean in a very direct manner you will come

to the topic and then finally what matter is to be transacted but next to that will be a little bit of discussion depending upon the nature of the letter whether it is sales letter complaint letter whatsoever

so depending upon the nature it may also vary and once you have completed your letter the remaining part will be disclosing line of your letter remember when you close the line majority of people even now while they are going to close a line or give the complimentary

close what they do is they have a party c p l ending for example they will say waiting to see you hoping to get your response all these are negatives all these are not you know welcome it is always [re/better] better to write the complete sentence for example

you can say i wait ah to get your letter soon i hope to hear from you soon i hope i look forward to meet you soon i look forward to receiving your answer soon i mean these are the ways ah which you should

adopt when you are going to close your letter i mean when you are going to give a compliment ah complimentary close and then finally ending your letter once you end your letter i mean here also majority of people write your [fath/faithfully] faithfully but then this also varies sometimes

people also write sincerely depending upon your nature with the person that is why it is always better to write yours faithfully or sincerely then there are also people who write yours truly nowadays there has been a fashion ah when when people try to show

more cordiality and they also write yours cordially but you know on an average you know you you will find that when they write your sincerely or yours faithfully a good number of people put an apostrophe after your this is this is wrong so at this stage let me advise

you that when you write you letter write yours completely and then write sincerely a student writing to his teacher may write yours obediently but then the general trend or one thing that can save your face always is either your sincerely or yours faithfully having given a complimentary

close comes the signature line where the [li/writer] writer of the letter need to ah put his name and if because we are nowadays word processing our letter so what we do is we write our name in a bracket and we leave some space between yours faithfully and your name because we

can put our signature for example here you can see ah it is it is written ah your sincerely pranita goswami and the gap is there i mean it is always advisable to give two lines gap so that the person may put his or her signature depend sometimes you may also write on behalf

of your organization for some organization in that case if you are not in the position of writing letters every now and then and you are [wrr/writing] writing on somebodys behalf you write for arvind prakashan for such

and such organization and you write your name and put your signature once you know in business world ah there is actually a practice ah that people dictate their letters especially people at the top posts those who do not have time enough they actually dictate their letters

and somebody is the typing the letters so in such a case if it is so ah there has to be just after the signature line there are identification marks say for example if i am dictating my letters and somebody is taking a note for it naturally are these abbreviated

forms as i have put here i mean b m is the person who is actually dictating the letter ah another person l k i i mean this is somebody who is actually who has typed the letter in in certain cases the name of the person who

dictates ah is not there the there are initials and these are the names these are actually the names of the people who have just typed the letter now when you have given the identification marks another important thing is in some letters we will find especially in business letters

you will find that you have to attach something you know sometimes you have to ah give some supplementary a piece of paper or whatsoever some documents as a part of evidence and all so for that you have a special column [wh/where] where you can call enclosures remember this

is actually a safe way to put enclosures because sometimes in organizations it may so happen that some of your pages are lost so if on the first page where you write enclosure and you also mention three pages in bracket

you can also write or you can also mention i mean enclosures here you can write three and you can also say you can also say ah that you have enclosed the check have also enclosed the purchase receipt or you have also enclosed a copy of the order so these things are actually

for the evidence so do put it in a business letter and once you have done all these get ready with an envelope now depending upon your letter size you should choose the envelope in many organizations do have the printed envelope in which you can put your letter

and the letter is ready to be posted now once you have done all that please see that letters especially business letters they serve as a record they are to be kept because you know for future references it is these letters which can come to our help but then what is

of utmost importance is these exchange of letters are actually the exchange of goodwill that is why we say it builds relationship and every business it is actually the outcome of a goodwill it is outcome of our relationship that is why the language when you talk about

the language see to it that you are throughout polite because you know as lord chesterfield ah one one of the essayist of olden days ah he also advises that politeness is as much concerned in answering letters within a reasonable time as it is in returning above immediately

so all of you as future letter writers will maintain this politeness and cordiality so that your business letters try to bridge the gap and try to ensure a positive relation between two organizations ah since they will help in making a business grow making a business

tribe with this in mind we sell in the next lecture talk about the format and will also talk about the language thank you very much