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Лингвистический фон деловой корреспонденции (Linguistic Background of Business Correspondence) - (диплом)p>Please refer to the enclosed price-list, and let us know your requirements on the form attached. You may be able to profit from special terms on your initial order. Delivery can be made shortly after we receive your order. FARMERS look forward to hearing from you soonYours faithfully, FARMERS FRUIT PRODUCTS 4. Counter-Proposals, Concessions A buyer need not accept the prices and terms offered by the seller unconditionally. There will often be good reason to make a counter-proposal with the object of obtaining better prices or terms, or a shorter time of delivery. As a result of these negotiations, the supplier could make a concession, particularly for an introductory sale, or if the customer places a large order. e. g. Thank you for your letter of 10th November, enclosing your price-list. The 2 lb tins of marmalade would not be suitable for our customers, but we should like to buy 15, 000 1 lb jars. However, there is one disadvantage when compared with local produce. Housewives here are used to a jar containing 500 grammes; the English pound is only 454 grammes. Therefore we would ask you to reduce the prices quoted for quality A2 by ten per cent. As far as the settlement is concerned, we would suggest paying half the amount against your invoice on receipt of the goods, and the second half within 30 days, deducting 2 per cent discount. The samples arrived yesterday, and we must admit that your marmalade is delicious. Would you kindly let us know as soon as possible if you can supply us on the terms mentioned. In comparison to the correspondence so far, placing an order is simple from the point of view of letter-writing. Very often the purchasing department or the buyer fills in an order form, although he may prefer to write a letter to make certain points quite clear. There could be special import regulations, which make it necessary to complete formalities, or he may want to stress delivery instructions or other matters. The supplier sends an order acknowledgement promptly, to thank his customer for the order. If prices or delivery times have changed, the customer must be notified. If the goods ordered are no longer available, a substitute may be offered. e. g. Thank you for your quotation of October 30. We have pleasure in placing an order with you for 1, 900 ‘Swinger’ dresses at Price: $38, 745 in the colours and sizes specified below: We shall open a letter of credit with your bank as soon as we receive your order acknowledgement. Please arrange for immediate collection and transport since we need the dresses for Christmas. When the supplier has made up the order and arranged shipment, the customer is informed of this in an advice of dispatch. This may be done on a special form or in a letter. e. g. We would like to advise you that your order has been shipped on the SS Marconissa and should reach you within the next ten days. Meanwhile our bank has forwarded the relevant documents and sight draft for $ 1, 445. 60 to the Northminister Bank Birmingham. We are sure you will be pleased with the consignment and look forward to your next order. We have pleasure in notifying you that your credit was confirmed by our bank yesterday, 19th November. We have had the 1900 ‘Swinger’ dresses collected today for transport by British Airways to Chicago on 25th November. Enclosed is our invoice for the goods in question plus the extra charges for air freight, packing list to facilitate customs clearance at your end, certificate of origin, air waybill and insurance policy. Hoping that this initial order will lead to further business, we are Customers usually settle their accounts by cheque when payment is due, according to the terms of payment. However, some overlook the date and have to be reminded of the amount outstanding. The first letter is written in a friendly tone, as the delay may have been due to an oversight. When payment has not been received in reply to this reminder, the creditor will write again in a firmer tone. If the debtor gives no reason for non-payment and sends no remittance, the last course is to use the services of a collection agency or to take legal actions. There may be good reasons for a customer's inability to pay. Where possible he should at least make a part payment, and agree to settle the balance of his account within a reasonable time. e. g. In settlement of your invoice No. 20015, we enclose our cheque for $870. May we add that we are pleased with the way you executed this order. The furniture arrived exactly on time, and could be put on sale without delay. We were pleased to receive your check for $870. It has been credited to your account, which is now completely clear. Please give us an opportunity of serving you again in any way we can. Mistakes may occur in day-to-day business, and these give cause for complaints. There might have been a misunderstanding about the goods to be supplied; perhaps the warehouse clerk made an error in addressing the parcel; sometimes a consignment is dispatched too late or delays are caused in transit; damages may have occurred during delivery; a manufacturing defect is discovered when a machine is used. The customer is understandably annoyed. He will get better results if he takes the trouble to explain his complaint clearly, and to propose ways in which matters can be put right. His company may make mistakes too: firms often have to manage with insufficiently trained personnel or to contend with staff shortage, so mistakes and accidents happen. It is particularly necessary to exercise tact in handling complaints. A disappointed customer cannot be put off with mere apologies – he is entitled to know how the mistakes will be remedied: when he will receive the goods ordered; what he is to do with the wrong consignment or the damaged goods he received; when he will receive a replacement for his defective machine, or if it can be repaired quickly. e. g. Thank you for your delivery of ‘Swinger’ dresses which were ordered on November 4. However we wish to draw your attention to two matters. Of the red dresses supplied one lot of 100(size 12) included clothes of a lighter red than the other sizes. Since we deliver a collection of various sizes to each store, it would be obvious to customers that the clothes are dissimilar. In addition the red belt supplied does not match these dresses. We are returning two of these by separate mail, and would ask you to replace the whole lot by 100 dresses size 12 in the correct colour. As far as your charges for air freight are concerned, we agree to pay the extra costs which you invoiced. However your costs for packing and insurance must have been lower for air cargo, and we request you to take this fact into consideration and to make an adjustment to the invoice amount. Would you please send us a rectified invoice, reduced accordingly. We look forward to your dealing with these questions without delay. Very truly yours. The colour of the dresses about which you complain is indeed lighter than it should be. Apparently this was overlooked by controller responsible. Please accept our apologies for the oversight. We are sending you a new lot by air this week, and would ask you to return the faulty clothes at your convenience, carriage forward. Alternatively you may keep this lot for sale as seconds at a reduced price of &1, 120. You are perfectly correct in saying that packing and insurance costs are normally less for cargo sent by air. May we remind you, however, in this case your request to send the goods by air was made at very short notice. It was not possible for us to use the lighter air freight packing materials, as most of the dresses were ready for shipment by sea freight (please see our letter of 9th November). Furthermore, our insurance is on an open policy at a flat rate, and depends on the value of the goods, not the method of transport. For these reasons our invoice No. 14596 dated 15th November 1996 is still valid, and we look forward to receiving your remittance when due. Yours faithfully, Part IV. Structural and lexical peculiarities of a business letter Please would you sent me details of your quadrophonic sound system, which were advertised in the April edition of "Sound Monthly"? 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. 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. This is written below the sender's address and on the opposite side of the page, i. e. the left-hand one. 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. 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: Both the addresses may be 'blocked' (i. e. each line is vertically aligned with the one above) or 'indented', as below: Bredgade 51, There are no rules stating that one style or the other must be used, though blocking, at least in addresses, is more common. In any case you must be consistent, i. e. do not block the sender's address and then indent the inside address. If punctuation is used, each line of the address is followed by a comma, except the last line. But, the majority of firms now use open punctuation, i. e. without any commas. An alternative to including the recipient's name or position in the address is to use an 'attention of'. e. g. For the attention of Mr. R. Singh (British English) or Attention: Mr. E. G. Glass, Jr. (American English) Dear Sir opens a letter written to a man whose name you do not know. Dear Sirs is used to address a company. Note: in the US - Gentlemen. Dear Madam is used to address a woman, whether single or married, whose name you do not know. Dear Sir or Madam is used to address a person you know neither the name nor the sex. When you do not know the name of the person you are writing to, the salutation takes the form of Dear followed by a courtesy tille and the person's surname. Initials or first names are not generally used in salutations: Dear Mr Smith, not Dear Mr J. Smith. The comma after the salutation is optional. This may be indented or blocked. It is as matter of choice. Whichever style you use, you must be consistent and use that style all through the letter. It is usual to leave a line space between paragraphs in the body of the letter; if the blocked style is used, this is essential. For the information concerning the linguistic aspect of writing the body of the letter, consult the following chapters of my diploma paper. If the letter begins with Dear Sir , Dear Sirs, Dear Madam, Dear Sir or Madam, it will close with Yours faithfully. If the letter begins with a personal name - Dear Mr James, Dear Mr. Robinson - it will close with Yours sincerely. Avoid closing with old-fashioned phrases such as We remain your faithfully, or Respectfully yours, etc. Note that Americans tend to close even formal letters with Yours truly or Truly yours, which is unusual in the UK in commercial correspondence. But a letter to a friend or acquaintance may end with Yours truly or the casual Best wishes. The comma after the complimentary close is optional. The position of the complimentary close - on the right, left or in the center of the page - is the matter of choice. It depends on the style of the letter (blocked letters tend to put the close on the left, indented letters tend to put them in the centre) and on the firm's preference. Always type your name after your handwritten signature and your position in the firm after you typed signature. This is known as 'the signature block'. Even though you may think your signature is easy to read, letters such as 'a', 'e', 'o', and 'v' can easily be confused. It is, to some extend, a matter of choice whether you sign with your initial(s), e. g. D. Jenkins, or your given name, e. g. David Jenkins, and whether you include a courtesy title, e. g. Mr. , Mrs. , Miss, Ms. In your signature block. But if you give neither your given name nor your title, your correspondent will not be able to identify your sex and may give you the wrong title when he/she replies. It is safer therefore, to sign to sign with your given name, and safest of all to include your title. Including titles in signatures is, in fact, more common among women then among men, partly because many women like to make it clear either that they are married (Mrs. ) or unmarried (Miss) or that their martial status is not relevant (Ms. ), and partly because there is a tendency to believe that important positions in a company can only be held by men. It would do no harm for men to start including their titles in their signatures. The term 'per pro' (p. p. ) is sometimes used in signatures and means 'for and on behalf of'. Secretaries sometimes use p. p. when signing a letter on behalf of their bosses. When writing on behalf of your company, it is useful to indicate your position in the firm in the signature. If ther are many enclosures, e. g. leaflets, prospectus, etc. , with the letter, these may be mentioned in the body of the letter. But many firms in any case write Enc. or Encl. At the bottom of the letter, and if there are a number of documents, these are listed, e. g. Enc. This phrase may be written at the head of a letter above salutation, and more importantly on the envelope, in cases where the letter is intended only for ht eyes of the named recipient. There are many variations of the phrase - 'Confidential', 'Strictly Confidential' - but little difference in meaning between them. 2. Subject title Some firms open their letters with a subject title (beneath the salutation). This provides a further reference, saves introducing the subject in the first paragraph, immediately draws attention to the topic of the letter, and allows the writer to refer to it throughout the letter. It is not necessary to begin the subject title with Re: e. g. Re: Application for the post of typist. 3. Copies c. c. (= carbon copies) is written, usually at the end of the letter, when copies are sent to people other than the named recipient. b. c. c. (=blind carbon copies) is written at the copies themselves, though not, on the top copy, when you do not want the named recipient to know that other people have received the copies as well. How long should a letter be? The answer is as long as necessary and this will depend on the subject of the letter. It may be a simple subject, e. g. thanking a customer for a cheque, or quite complicated, e. g. explaining how a group insurance policy works. It is a question of how much information you put in the letter: you may give too little (even for a brief subject), in which case your letter will be too short, or too much (even for a complicated subject), in which case it will be too long. Your style and the kind of language you use can also affect the length. The right length includes the right amount of information. The three letters that follow are written by different people in reply to the same enquiry from a Mr. Arrand about the company's product: 1. Too long Thank you very much for your enquiry of 5 November which we receive today. We often receive enquiries from large stores and always welcome them, particularly at this time of the year when we know that you will be stocking for Christmas. We have enclosed our winter catalogue and are sure you will be extremely impressed by the wide range of watches that we stock. You will see that they range from the traditional to the latest in quartz movements and include ranges for men, women and children, with prices that should suit upper-market bracket priced at several hundred pounds. But whether you buy a cheaper or more expensive model we guarantee all merchandise for two years with a full service. Enclosed you will also find our price-list giving full details on c. i. f. prices to London and explaining our discounts which we think you will find very generous and which we hope will take full advantage of. We are always available to offer you further information about our products and can promise you personal attention whenever you require it. This service is given to all our customers throughout the world, and as you probably know, we deal with countries from the Far East to Europe and Latin America. , and this fact alone bears out our reputation which has been established for more than a hundred years and has made our motto a household world - Time for Everyone. Once again may we thank you for your enquiry and say that we look forward to hearing from you in the near future? Yours sincerely, There are a number of things wrong with a letter of this sort. Though it tries to advertise the products and the company itself, it is too wordy. There is no need to explain that stores or shops are stocking for Christmas; the customer is aware of this. Rather than draw attention to certain items the customer might be interested in, the letter only explains what the customer can already see, that there is a wide selection of watches in the catalogue covering the full range of market prices. In addition, the writer goes on unnecessarily to explain which countries the firm sells to, the history of company and its rather unimpressive motto. Thank you for your enquiry. We have a wide selection of watches which we are sure you will like. We will be sending a catalogue soon. Yours faithfully, There are number of points missing from this letter, quite apart from the fact that, since the writer knew the name of his correspondent he should have begun the letter Dear Mr Arrand and ended Yours sincerely. There is no reference to the date or reference number of the enquiry. Catalogues should be have sent with a reply to the enquiry; it is annoying for a customer to have to wait for further information to be sent. Even if a catalogue is sent, the customer's attention should be drawn to particular items that would interest him/her in the line of business. He/she might be concerned with the upper or lower end of the market. He might want moderately priced items, or expensive ones. We have enclosed our winter catalogue and price-list giving details of c. i. f. London prices, discounts and delivery dates. Though you will see we offer a wide selection of watches, may we draw your attention to pp. 23-28, and pp. 31-37 in our catalogue, which we think might suit the market you are dealing with? And on page 34 you will notice our latest designs in pendant watches, which are becoming fashionable for both men and women. As you are probably aware, all our products are fully guaranteed and backed by our world-wide reputation. If there is any further information you require, please contact us. Meanwhile, we look forward to hearing from you soon. The letter should be neither too long nor too short. It is better to include too much information than too little. Your reader cannot read your mind. If you leave out vital information, he won't know what he wants to know, unless he writes back again and he may not bother to do that. If you include extra information, at least he'll have what he wants, even though he may irritated by having to read the unnecessary parts. Provided, of course, that you include the vital information as well as the extras: the worst letter of all is the one that gives very piece of information about the product, except for the price. As well as containing the right amount of information, the letter should also make all the necessary points in a logical sequence, with each idea or piece of information linking up with the previous one in a pattern that can be followed. Do not jump around making a statement, switching to other subjects, then referring back to the point you made a few sentences or paragraphs before. 1. Unclear sequence Consider this badly-written letter. There is no clear sequence to the letter, which makes it difficult to understand. Dear Sir, We are interested in your security system. We would like to know more about the prices and discounts you offer. A business associate of ours, DMS (Wholesalers) Ltd. , mentioned your name to us and showed us a catalogue. They were impressed with the security system you installed for them, so we are writing to you about it. Do you give us guarantees with the installations? In your catalogue we saw the 'Secure 15' which looks as though it might suit our purposes. DMD had the 'Secure 18' installed, but as we mentioned, they are wholesalers, while we are a chain of stores. We would like something that can prevent robbery and shoplifting, so the 'Secure 15' might suit us. How long would it take to install a system that would serve all departments? Could you send us an inspector or adviser to see us at some time? If you can offer competitive prices and guarantees we would put your system in all our outlets, but initially we would only install the system in our main branch. We would like to make a decision on this soon, so we would appreciate an early reply. Yours faithfully, Here is a better version of the same letter, in which the ideas and information are in logical order. We are a chain of retail stores and are looking for an efficient security system. You were recommended to us by our associates DMS (Wholesalers) Ltd. for whom you recently installed an alarms system, the 'Secure 18'. We need an installation which would give us comprehensive protection against robbery and shoplifting throughout all departments; and the' Secure 15' featured in your catalogue appears to suit us. However, if one of your representatives could come along to see us, he would probably be able to give us more advice and details of the available systems. Initially, we will test your system in our main branch, and if successful, then extend it throughout our other branches, but of course a competitive quotation and full guarantees for maintenance and service would be necessary. Please reply as soon as possible as we would like to make a decision within the next few months. Thank you Yours sincerely, The first sentence or paragraph of a letter is an important one since it gets the tone of the letter and gives your reader his first impression of you and your company. Generally speaking, in the first paragraph you will thank your correspondent for his letter (if replying to an enquiry), introduce yourself and your company if necessary, state the subject of the letter, and set out the purpose of the letter. Here are two examples: Thank you for your enquiry dated 8 July in which you asked us about our range of cosmetics. As you have probably seen in our advertisements in fashion magazines, we appeal to a wide age-group from the teenage market trough to more mature women, with our products being retailed in leading stores throughout the world. Thank you for your letter of 19 August which I received today. We can certainly supply you with the industrial floor coverings you asked about, and enclosed you will find a catalogue illustrating our wide range of products, which are used in factories and offices throughout the world. This is the main part of your letter and will concern the points that need to be made, answers you wish to give, or questions you want to ask. As this can vary widely with the type of letter that you are writing, it is dwelt in other parts of my diploma work. It is in the middle paragraphs of a letter that planning is most important, to make sure that your points are made clearly, fully and in logical sequence. When closing the letter, you should thank the person for writing, if your letter is a reply and if you have not done this at the beginning. Encourage further enquiries or correspondence, and mention that you look forward to hearing from your correspondent soon. You may also wish to restate , very briefly, one or two the most important of the points you have made in the main part of the letter. Here are some examples: Once again thank you for writing to us, and please contact us if you would like any further information. To go briefly over the points I have made - all prices are quoted c. i. f. Yokahama; delivery would be six weeks from receipt of order; and payment should be made by bank draft. I look forward to hearing from you soon. I hope I have covered all the questions you asked, but please contact me if there are any other details you require. May I just point out that the summer season will soon be with us, so please place an order as soon as possible so that it can be met in good time for when the season starts. I hope to hear from you in the near future. We are sure that you have made the right choice in choosing this particular line as it is proving to be a leading seller. If there is any advice or further information you want, we shall be happy to supply it, and look forward to hearing from you. |
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