Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company

Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint Stock Company

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY

-GRADUATION PAPER DIFFICULTIES OF THE STAFF IN WRITING BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE IN IQL JOINT STOCK COMPANY

Supervisor:Mrs Le Thi Phuong Mai (MA)

Student’s name:Duong Thi Han

I, Duong Thi Han, K52N3, hereby certify that this minor thesis with the tittle'Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint StockCompany' is the result of my own research in the fulfillment of the requirementfor the Graduation Paper at English Faculty of Thuongmai University and thesubstance of this research has not been submitted for a degree to any otheruniversity or institution

SignatureDuong Thi Han

Writing is considered as one of the most challenging skill among fourlanguage skills, it always requires meticulousness and elaborateness, thereforethis is not a simple skill to be proficient Writing skills, especially businesscorrespondence writing skills are becoming increasingly essential in the field ofbusiness, especially in the companies cooperating with foreign countries Thanks

to the great development of technology, entrepreneurs can save time, travel costs,shorten geographical distances by exchanging work via emails and socialnetworks This is a big reason to emphasize the important role of commercialcorrespondence Obviously, to get the best work efficiency, every employee needs

to master the skills of writing business correspondence There has been a greatdeal of researches in the field of business correspondence, but there are still gaps

in the topic of business employees’ difficulties in using this skill at work As aresult, this study was conducted to fill those gaps This research is aimed at thestaff in IQL Joint Stock Company, focusing on studying their difficulties andmistakes when dealing with business letters, then find out the possible solutionsfor both the staff and the company In order to achieve those aims, the researcherapplied qualitative and quantitative methods to conduct the research Theresearcher used a questionnaire and interview as the data gathering instruments.The author also used technique of analyzing to delve deeper into the issue Theresults from the study show that the employees were aware of the significance ofbusiness correspondence writing skills as well as the necessity to self-study thisskill However, their attitude did not seem to get on well with their actual practicevery much as they had to spend quite a lot of time for working and some otheressential activities The findings from this research are hopefully to be useful notonly for the IQL employees but also for all employees in general

On completing this graduate paper, I would like to send my deepest andmost sincere gratitude to many people who have gave me a lot of preciousassistance and timely encouragement during the conduction process of the study First and foremost, I would like to express my profound respect andheartfelt gratitude to my supervisor Mrs Le Thi Phuong Mai for her valuablesupports, timely guidance and constructive feedbacks during my study Thisresearch could not been completed without her constant and unfailing helpswhich were decisive factors to the completion of the study

My sincere thanks also go to all the teachers at English Faculty of ThuongmaiUniversity for their enthusiasm in teaching me useful lessons, bringing valuableknowledge so that I can fulfill this graduation paper

I also would like to take this opportunity to send my sincere gratitude to allthe staff in IQL Company for their cooperation and enthusiastic participation inthe survey as well as their provision of documents and information needed forthe research

I would like to acknowledge my thanks to all the authors of the books,magazines, and other materials listed in the reference part for their commendableideas

Last but not least, I would love to express my truly gratitude to my family,

my husband, my daughter for their endless love, they have emotionally andspiritually comforted me through the challenging time I also deeply thank mybest friends who gave me honest advices and enthusiastic supports at any time Iasked for This study could not have been completed without their continualencouragement

TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION i

ABSTRACT ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii

TABLE OF CONTENT iv

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS vi

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Previous studies 2

1.3 Aims of the study 3

1.4 Research subjects 3

1.5 Scope of the study 4

1.6 Research methodology 4

1.7 Organization of the study 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Overview about business correspondence 7

2.1.1 Definition of business correspondence 7

2.1.2 Parts of a business letter 8

2.1.3 Essential qualities of a good business correspondence 10

2.1.4 Several types of business correspondence 12

2.1.5 Some samples of business correspondence 14

2.2 The appliance of business correspondence 18

2.2.1 The purposes of business correspondence 18

2.2.2 The importance of business correspondence 19

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 21

3.1 Participants of the survey 21

3.2 Data collection instruments 22

3.3 Procedure of data collection 22

3.4 Research question 1: What are the difficulties of the staff in practicing

writing business correspondence? 23

3.4.1 Different language and different culture between two nations 23

3.4.2 Difficulty in lexis and terminology 24

3.4.3 Difficulty in types of letter 25

3.4.4 Huge workload 26

3.5 Research question 2: What are the common mistakes do the staff often encounter when writing business correspondence? 26

3.5.1 The importance of business correspondence at work 26

3.5.2 Self-assessment of the staff on their writing skills 27

3.5.3 The frequency of making mistakes in writing business correspondence 29

3.5.4 Common mistakes in writing business letter 29

3.6 Research question 3: How is their attitude in self-study to improve writing business correspondence skills? 31

3.6.1 Employees’ level of interest in writing business correspondence 31

3.6.2 The importance of self-study in improving writing skills 32

3.6.3 Employees’ frequency of self-practice with writing business correspondence32 3.6.4 How to deal with difficulties in writing business correspondence? 33

3.6 Findings from the analysis 34

3.6.1 Grammar error 35

3.6.2 Word choice error 35

3.6.3 Verb error 36

3.6.4 Spelling error 36

3.7 Discussion of the findings 37

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 38

4.1 Summary of the study 38

4.2 Suggestions to improve business correspondence writing skills of the staff in IQL Company 38

4.2.1 Suggestions for the staff 38

4.2.2 Suggestions for the company 39

4.3 Limitations of the study 40

4.4 Suggestions for further studies 40

REFERENCES ix

APENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE x

APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS xiii

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

1 Chart 3.1 Participants’ years of learning English 21

2 Chart 3.2 Participants’ years of working 21

Employees’ strategies to handle with difficulties in

11 Table

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Numbe

r

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

1.1 Rationale of the study

We all know that English is supposed to be the dominant language all overthe world, and perhaps the last decade is the period in which English has grownmost intensely As in our country, everyone is rushing to learn English, Englishcenters are mushrooming, the number of students choosing English as theirmajor is also increasing, Therefore, we can say that the importance of thislanguage has never diminished but only increased So, what do they learn Englishfor? In my opinion, the most plausible reason is to have a good job

To use English fluently, we need to master 4 skills, which are listening,speaking, reading and writing Of these four skills, writing is thought to be animportant factor, playing an extremely essential role in mastering the language.Writing is considered an act of coding an idea, a thought, a reflection, a process ofputting one's thoughts into words If the writer wants to convey his thought well,

he needs to select and organize appropriate words Written text requires thewriter to have a rich vocabulary, and to know how to build sentences coherentlyand then continue to use good grammar, syntax, morphology of words to create astandard language product

Specifically, in this study, the researcher focuses on writing businesscorrespondence, which is a specific area of English writing skills Therefore, itneeds specific requirements, professional knowledge and skills related tocommercial English

Nowadays, companies always make many standard requirements forrecruitment, they usually ask the candidates to prove their English ability notonly in the interview but also during the time when they work at the company.IQL Joint Stock Company, where I interned, is not an exception IQL is a companyspecializing kitchen equipment, it has developed for many years and is currentlycooperating with a lot of foreign partners Therefore, the company alwaysrequires the staff to use English fluently Especially, Sale and Marketingdepartment is a hub for connecting with foreign partners and customers, theemployees have to exchange jobs by phone and social network, they are also

responsible for processing a large amount of English document, contracts andemails from foreign partners As a result, the skill of writing businesscorrespondence is extremely important and necessary for them However, during

my internship, I realized that the staff still had many shortcomings, so thedocuments were not handled correctly, which caused lots of inconveniences tocustomers

Wishing to help all employees in the company improve this problem, as well

as help myself build a solid foundation of writing business correspondence skills

to develop my career in the future, I decide to conduct this research with the title

"Difficulties of the staff in writing business correspondence in IQL Joint StockCompany"

1.2 Previous studies

There have been many studies on writing business correspondence both inour country and over the world, they provide a broad foundation of knowledgeabout business correspondence, from the basic to the intensive knowledge Thesebackgrounds will assist readers to have understanding of some leading experts inthe field of using English as the second language based on using English businesscorrespondence at workplace The review of previous studies will showremarkable data on staff's performance as using correspondence to finish theirassignments

Vu Thi Huong Giang (2010) has studied this area before and concluded thatthe essential techniques in writing English letters are your attitude, positiveemphasis, tone and language To reach this conclusion, she laid out the theoreticalbackground for definition, importance, purpose, format and some types ofbusiness letters Besides, she also pointed out some common mistakes in writingletters from English

Shafa Firda Nila (2017) conducted another study focusing on commonmistakes in writing business letters, saying that there were four categories oferrors: morphological, lexical, syntactic, and mechanical errors These four errorsare divided into eight types: verbs, nouns, articles, word choice, sentencestructure, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization In addition, there are three

main factors that cause these errors: language transfer, overgeneralization, andcontext of learning.

Aggoune Amina (2015) showed a case study of Internet Company Theauthor used a business letter test to research the employee's status of writtencommunication, he also described the difficulties of employees when theycommunicate and interact with non-English speaking colleagues around theworld This research has helped to build effective business writing principles.Most above studies have demonstrated the useful performance of businessletters in the workplace and the way to improve writing skills However, in orderfor the staff can develop their ability to write letters of business correspondence

in English, they need to understand the difficulties they have to face at first.Therefore, this thesis will focus on the difficulties of writing commercialcorrespondence with the research subjects are the employees of IQL Company

1.3 Aims of the study

Initially, this thesis aims at studying the difficulties of the IQL employees inwriting business correspondence, so I will delve into the difficulties in practicingwriting skills and the common writing mistakes, along with their attitude in self-study More specifically, the study is an attempt to answer the following 3questions:

 What are the difficulties of the staff in practicing writing businesscorrespondence?

 What are the common mistakes do the staff often encounter whenwriting business correspondence?

 How is their attitude in self-study to improve business correspondencewriting skills?

I conduct this study on difficulties of the staff in writing businesscorrespondence in IQL Joint Stock Company That is the company where Iinterned and the employees will be the direct research objects to help me carryout my work The results of the study will directly serve the company, it willcontribute to help the company have an effective orientation to improve thewriting ability of all employees.

1.5 Scope of the study

This thesis is about to study the employees' reality of businesscorrespondence writing ability in IQL Company Because the ultimate purpose ofthis research is to find out a better method to develop English letters writingskills for the employees in the company, the study focuses only on surveying thestaff of IQL.,JSC, then we can draw lessons for all office workers in general Inaddition, the research is going to specifically focus on the employees of Sale andMarketing department, because these people have to deal with a range of Englishletters every day, they have a better English level than the rest of the company.Moreover, they are accustomed to a high-pressure environment and always have

to try their best to improve their English skills to achieve high working efficiency

At the same time, due to time and references materials constraints, thisstudy could not delve into all aspects of business correspondence, it only focuses

on clarifying the difficulties that employees often face with and the way they study Discussions about the disadvantage of poor writing skills or other areaswould not be found in this study

self-In order to get the most accurate answer to the question ‘What mistakes dothe staff often make when writing business correspondence?’, the research datawill be taken from the Sale and Marketing (emails, drafts of contracts written bythe staff in the room) Additionally, the study is also based on referencesmaterials related to subject Business Correspondence of Thuongmai University

1.6 Research methodology

Firstly, the design of this research was survey quantitative According toCreswell (2005), survey designs are procedures in quantitative research in whichinvestigators administer a survey, a sample to the entire population of people inorder to describe the attitudes, opinion, behaviors, or characteristics of thepopulation The survey design has two kinds, the first is “at one point in time”(Cross sectional), and the second is “Study over time” (longitudinal) In this case,researcher conducted one point in time (Cross-sectional)

The second point is about the instrument of the research, it was the tool use

to collect the data from the respondent of the research In this research, the firstinstrument that the researcher used is questionnaire The questionnaire was

about the difficulties, the common errors as well as the way of self-study, and itwas distributed to all the staff in the IQL Company Technique of Collecting Datawas applied To collect the data, the researcher asked the students for giving theirresponse by filling the questionnaire The answers in the questionnaire were themultiple choices It is refracted into A, B, C, D and E, the design of the answer isdrawn as Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree.

Thirdly, another data gathering instrument which was used in this studywas interview The purpose of the interview was to consolidate the informationgathered through the questionnaire, so that the researcher could delve into thecauses behind the difficulties in practicing writing at workplace as well as self-study at home Besides, the interview also expected to learn about the strategiesthat employees wanted to implement to enhance their writing skills Additionally,

by giving the staff opportunity to report with their own words, the researchercould gain some insights of their understanding and attitudes toward writingskills

Finally, the researcher used Technique of Analyzing the Data for dataprocessing After the data was collected from the participants by usingquestionnaire, the data was analyzed and become a percentage Based on thesefigures, the researcher can make specific and accurate assessments of theproblem

1.7 Organization of the study

The study consists of four chapters as below:

Chapter 1: Overview of the study

This chapter provides a general overview of the study and is divided into 7sections, namely the rationale, the previous studies, the aims of the study, theresearch subjects, the scope of the study, the research methodology and theorganization of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review

In the second chapter, all the relevant theoretical background of theresearch is presented The chapter provides the most complete knowledge base

of business correspondence

Chapter 3: Research findings

This chapter presents the results of the research In other words, after thequestionnaire was given to the participants, the figures which were collectedform the survey would be shown and analyzed in this chapter This is animportant part of all the study.

Chapter 4: Recommendations and suggestions

Form analyzing in previous chapters, the fourth one presents the summary,the limitations of the study, along with the suggestion for further studies Therecommendations and some suggestions for improving the skills of writingbusiness correspondence for IQL Company’ employees would be also given The study also consists of some other parts They are abstract,acknowledgements, table of contents, list of abbreviations, list of tables and charts, theconclusion and references and appendices as well

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Overview about business correspondence

2.1.1 Definition of business correspondence

In order to understand what the employees in IQL Company have to facewith when writing business correspondence, it is necessary to consider thedefinition given by its creator and developer Vu Thi Huong Giang (2010) hasgiven many definitions of business letters, including many famous authors’ andher subjective opinion In my opinion, we should learn in turn about each specificpart of the research topic, they are Business English, writing skills,correspondence and business correspondence

First of all, we need to find out the answer for the question “What isBusiness English?” According to Johan (2014), Business English is a variant ofinternational English and it is especially related to international trade It is a part

of English for specific purposes and can be consider a specialism within Englishlanguage learning and teaching It may focus on language and skills needed fortypical business communication, such as presentations, negotiations, meetings,small talks, socializing correspondence, report writing and a systematic approach.Secondly, about writing skills, we can simply understand that writing skillsmeans the ability to convert thoughts into words, with proper standards andpunctuations, grammar and other important aspects of writing In other words,Frendo (2012) said that ‘Writing is a key part of day-to-day activities of businessand, like speaking, is used in a vast range of different situations It allowscommunication across time and space, and provides an invaluable medium forstoring records and other information’ One of the subjects in Business Englishcourse is Writing Business Letters Business letters are always formal Businesswriting takes many forms, each form suits to a specific purpose Gilling (2013)said ‘All the business writing must be clear and concise with simplestraightforward language It should be noted that in writing business emailsshould be clear, concise, and avoid of slang and jargon’

Thirdly, we go into clarify what correspondence is A correspondence is awritten form of communication between two parties In other words, it is way to

pass on ideas in writing So, what does correspondence mean in Business?Correspondence is a commonly used form of communication in business In thepast, correspondence was mostly exchanged through written physical letters ortelegraphs In today’s world, the definition of correspondence has expanded bythe inclusion of digital media Correspondences may come in the form of letters,emails, text messages, documents, voicemails, notes, or postcards.Correspondences are important for most businesses because they serve as apaper trail of events from point A to point B Therefore, the law firm may requireall employees to archive their correspondences so that they could be retrieved as

a reference point for pending cases

The final point is Business correspondence We can understand thatBusiness correspondence means the exchange of information in a written formatfor the process of business activities Business correspondence can take placebetween organizations, within organizations or between the customers and theorganization The correspondence refers to the written communication betweenpersons Hence oral communication or face to face communication is not abusiness correspondence

2.1.2 Parts of a business letter

In order to write a business letter well, it is extremely essential to know thestructure of a letter, in other words, which parts are included in a business letter

We know that there are many types of business correspondence, but all of themfollow a certain structure, including twelve following basic parts

 Heading: This is the information of the sender, containing the name andthe postal address of the business, E-mail address, Web-site address, Telephonenumber, Fax number, Trade mark or logo of the business

 Date: It is the time (day, month, year) when the letter is written Itnormally lies on the right hand side corner after the heading There are two ways

of writing the date, the first is in the order of day-month-year, for example, 3rdApril, 2020; the second is in the order of month-day-year, for instance, April 3rd,

2020

 Reference: This part is written on the left hand corner of the letter, afterthe heading It shows the information of letter number and the department from

where the letter is being sent and the year, all of them are helpful for futurereference We can write reference number as AB/HRDept./2020/13.

 Inside address: It shows the information of the recipient, it includes thename and full address of the person or the firm Letters should be addressed tothe responsible head like the Manager, the Principal, The Secretary, the Chairman,

… The proper position for this part is on the left hand side of the sheet below thereference number

 Subject: It is a brief statement mentioning the matter to which the letterrelates It should be clear, eye catching, short, simple, and easily understandable.Thanks to the subject, the receiver can quickly know what the letter is about.Some examples are:

Subject: Complaint about the Sharp washing machine

Subject: Your order No A123/4 dated 15th March, 2020

Salutation: It contains the words to greet the recipient It is also known asthe greeting The salutation generally includes words like Dear, Respected, or justSir/Madam It is usually followed by a comma (,).The suitable position for thispart is below the inside address There are various forms of salutation The type

of salutation depends on the relationship with the recipient Take these belowexamples to make it clear:

Sir/Madam: For official and formal correspondence

Dear Sir/Madam: For addressing an individual

Dear Sirs/Dear Madams: For addressing a firm or a company

 Body of the letter: This is the main part of the letter as it conveys theactual message of the sender It is placed below the salutation The body of theletter should be clear and simple to understand and it is basically divided intothree main categories:

- Opening part: The first paragraph of the letter must state theintroduction of the writer, it also contains the previous correspondence, if any

- Main part: This paragraph states the main idea of the reason for writing,

so it must be clear, concise, complete, and straight to the point

- Concluding part: It is the conclusion of the business letter It shows thesuggestions or the need of the action The closing of the letter also shows the

expectations of the sender from the recipient, the sender often shows that he islooking forward to getting a positive response The writer always ends his mail bycourteous words like thank you, warm regards, look forward to hearing fromyour side, etc.

 Complimentary close: It is a humble way of ending a letter and is typedtwo spaces below the last line of the body of the letter It is written in accordancewith the salutation Namely, the table below will show the right way of writingthe complimentary close:

Salutation Complimentary CloseDear Sir/Dear Madam

Dear Mr Smith

My Dear Sarah

Yours faithfullyYours sincerelyYour very sincerely (express very informal relations)

 Signature: It places right below the complimentary close It includes thesignature, name, and the designation of the sender It can also consists of someother details like contact number, address, etc The signature is handwritten justabove the name of the sender, it should be legible too Sometimes, the name of thecompany could be included below the designation of the writer if there is noletterhead is in use

 Enclosures: Enclosures shows the document attached to the letter Thedocument can be anything like cheque, draft, bills, receipts, invoices, lists, etc.They are listed one by one in serial number Enclosure is generally written in theabbreviated form For instance:

Encl: (i) Bill of the order AB124/3

(ii) The list of goods coming in the next month

 Copy Circulation: It is needed when the copies of the letter are sent toother people who are involved in the matter It is denoted as C.C For example:C.C (i) The Director, IQL Company

(ii) The S&M Manager, IQL Company

(iii) The Secretary, IQL Company

 Postscript: The sender can mention it when he wants to add somethingother than the message in the body of the letter It is written as P.S For example:P.S – Early payment will be discounted 10%.

2.1.3 Essential qualities of a good business correspondence

Everyone should always maintain the quality of the business letter The qualities

of a business letter make it presentable It becomes easy for a person or anorganization to imprint an impression onto the others The qualities of a businessletter can be classified as:

Let us discuss each of them in detail

2.1.3.1 Inner Quality

business letter which facilitate quick processing of the request and that leads toprompt action Namely, the following factors determine inner quality of abusiness letter

Simplicity: The language used in the business letter must be simple and easy.People should not write a business letter in difficult and fancy words, as a result, itwill not take the reader too much time to understand the letter

Clarity: It is obvious that any ambiguity will lead to the misinterpretation ofthe message stated Therefore, the language used in the business letter must beclear It helps the receiver to understand the message immediately, easily, andexactly

Accuracy: The writer must always check for the accuracy of the businessletter because an accurate letter is always appreciated and it shows the writer’sgood knowledge as well Accuracy generally means no error in grammar, spelling,punctuations etc Correct personnel should be targeted for communication

Completeness: Everybody should write a complete message It helps thereader to know about the whole issue and the solution to be taken The letter shouldprovide all the necessary information The writer must also keep in mind that themessage should be concise and short along with the complete details

Relevance: The letter should only contain important information Mentioningsomething not involved in the main matter just wastes time of both the writer andthe reader So, irrelevant information should not be included and avoided in anybusiness communication.

Courtesy: The language used in the business letter must be courteous Awriter should always use open, friendly, and honest wording in his letter, whichmust win the heart of the reader It does not mean that he should use slang andabusive words, he just needs to add the words like please, thank you etc

Neatness: A business letter must be neat even if it is typed or handwritten.Overwriting and cuttings should be avoided while proper spacing, indention, anduse of paragraph should be used

2.1.3.2 Outer Quality

We can understand that the outer quality of a business letter means the quality

of its outer appearance The outer look of the letter must be catchy and impressive

To get a good-look appearance, the writer needs to ensure the quality of paper used,paper color, paper size, etc When the receiver looks at a good quality paper, heobviously has a good impression of the sender Some of the outer qualities are:

Quality of paper: The paper which is used should be in accordance with theeconomic status of the firm but it must be kind of good Since the original copy ismuch more important, it should be printed with good quality paper, while theduplicate copy can be printed with ordinary paper

Color of the paper: To make the receiver quickly and clearly understand theintention and the purpose of the letter, the writer better uses the different color ofpaper for different types of business letter This will help enhance work productivity

Size of the paper: The standard size paper should be used The most usedpaper for writing a business letter is A4 paper

Folding of letter: Everyone should be careful when folding a letter It should

be done with minimum number of folds and the letter should not look bulky whenplaced in a cover The folds should be well pressed down When a letter is placed in acover it must give a smart look

Envelop: The envelope used must be of good quality The sender needs to payattention to the size of the envelope which should be fit the size of the letter for

fitting the letter There are various types of envelopes such as ordinary envelope,window envelope, laminated envelope, etc.

2.1.4 Several types of business correspondence

Business letters are the most formal method of communication followingspecific formats The different types of business letters used based on theirdifferent contexts It is written the book Business Correspondence that there arecommon five main types of business correspondence They are:

- Business inquiry letter

- Quotation letter

- Order letter

- Complaint letter

- Recovery letter

Let us go into details of each types of business correspondence

Business inquiry letter: These letters are used when sometimes the buyerwants to know the details of the goods such as quality, quantity, price, mode ofdelivery and payment, etc which they want to buy Inquiry letters ask a question orrequest for something from the recipient The purpose of the letter is to obtain theinformation or object requested When writing this type of letter, sender shouldkeep it clear and succinct and list exactly what information you need, which may beasking for a price list or a sample Moreover, the design, size, quantity, quality, etc.about the product or service in which the buyer is interested also should be writtenspecifically The period or the date, till which information is required may also bementioned Be sure to include the contact information so that it is easy for thereader to respond

Quotation letter: Quotation letters are written to reply to letters of enquiryfrom a prospective buyer, in which relevant information is involved These lettersallow individuals, companies, and organizations to inquire the price list, mode ofpayment, discount of materials and services offered by certain businesses

Order letters: Order letters are sent by consumers or businesses to amanufacturer, retailer or wholesaler to order goods or services Specificinformation such as model number, name of the product, the quantity desired and

expected price must be included with these letters Payment is sometimescontained in the letter.

Complaint letters: Complaint letters are written to deal with a problemsituation when other attempts such as phone contacts and email have failed toimprove the situation These letters should be written promptly after receiving thedefective goods The words and tone the sender uses in the letter may be thedeciding factor on whether your complaint draws the attention of the supplier orany other party Be direct but tactful and always use a professional tone if you wantthe company to listen to you

Recovery letter: Recovery letter is a type of letter written by suppliers tocustomers in order to remind and collect money without annoying the customers.Information such as the rest of money, argument for payment and specific date forpayment should be mentioned in the letter

2.1.5 Some samples of business correspondence.

Business inquiry letter

Dear Sir/ Madam,

I am writing you in reference to your advertisement on The Daily Bugle, Iwould like to receive a catalog about for product F8X car

I would also like to know about some more details about the product

Would you kindly give us detailed information about the “Nokia 2100” mobile sets recently advertised by you in the “Daily Star.” we are impressed by the

description of the respective mobile set as advertised by you and expected to purchase if terms and conditions are found to be suitable Our annual

requirement of such a set is around twenty-five thousand (25,000) pieces

As we handle a lot of mobile sets each year, we hope and trust you will quote the most favorable prices and terms

I am writing to formally place an order for 550 pcs of assorted sling bag as

advertised to Daily Fashion Magazine issued this month The catalog number is 8364-83748-JC Also, include your latest catalog with the order

According to your advertisement, The 550 pcs of assorted sling bag is only

Php15,000.00 with free shipping delivery charge A check in this amount is

enclosed and send the confirmation of receipt of this check at my email address atjc_mer@sisme.com Please ship my order to our receiving center at:

my home on that day.

Mr Johan was one hour late for his appointment and offered nothing by way ofapology when he arrived at noon Mr Johan then proceeded to present a range ofproducts to me that I had specifically told his assistant by telephone I was notinterested in I repeatedly tried to ask your representative about the products thatwere of interest to me, but he refused to deal with my questions We ended ourmeeting after 25 minutes without either of us having accomplished anything

I am most annoyed that I wasted a morning (and half a day's vacation) waiting for

Mr Madman to show up

I trust this is not the way LightUp Company wishes to conduct business with valuedcustomers I would welcome the opportunity to discuss matters further and to learn

of how you propose to prevent a similar situation from recurring I look forward tohearing from you

It has come to our attention that your account is overdue for payment.

We are not aware of any disputes or reason for non-payment, therefore wewould respectfully remind you that you have exceeded the trading terms forthese outstanding amounts and we would be grateful to receive yourremittance as soon as possible

The details of the outstanding invoices are as follows:

Invoice No Invoice Date Due date Amount

On behalf of Big Bang Company

2.2 The appliance of business correspondence

2.2.1 The purposes of business correspondence

Along with the development of the world, the business is also becomingmore modern and faster thanks to a series of support tools Businesscorrespondence is one of them, Business letters are written for the fulfillment ofseveral purposes, and according to a wealth of analysis, business letters are usedfor these following aims:

 For conveying information: The main purpose of any business letter is toconvey information regarding business activities Information can be transmittedthrough business letter to customers, suppliers, debtors, government authorities,financial institutions, bank and insurance companies and to any other partiesrelated with the business Through it, business organizations collect andexchange business-related information It is a handy tool if you need to inform allemployees of a new office policy or to inform the partner of the changes of thecoming launching program No one can deny that business letter is such a quickand effective means of communication

 For negotiations: Business correspondence is a useful method ofcommunication for stating facts, sharing figures and negotiating with anotherparty It is quicker than regular direct way and provides an easy way to keep arecord of the proceedings It you want to see exactly what is included in a quote, it

is easy to sort through your email archives to find the information you need andyou know that both parties have a copy of the same information All these thingscan be done without wasting any time of moving from here to there

 For marketing and advertising: Business correspondence, especially,commercial email often beats out print media marketing and advertising You caneasily reach your target customers, personalize the email message with therecipient’s name and including a link to your organization’s web presence. So,you can completely use business letter to introduce customers a new product Indirect mail, a form of advertising, these letters are called sales letters Throughwriting various business letters like inquiry letter and circular letter, businessorganizations can create new market for their products