The Grammar Business 2001 Glenrothes College

The Grammar Business Part

One

6. Common Errors in Business
Letters
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Business letters need to
sound


clear and concise
formal
but not pompous
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The dangers
When writing business letters, people
feel they need to be on their best
behaviour
So they sometimes adopt a slightly
stuffy style
Time to look at some examples
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Starting the letter -
whats the mistake?

Dear Mr Bloggs
With reference to your letter of 24th
October.
I am glad to inform you that the
shipment of pencil sharpeners has now
been successfully despatched.
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The first paragraph is not a sentence. It
needs to read like this.
Not: Dear Mr Bloggs
With reference to your letter of 24th
October (wrong).

But
I refer to your letter of 24th October.
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The first version has no verb in it. So it
doesnt make sense by itself.
But you can write

With reference to your letter of
24th October, I am glad to inform
you that the shipment of.
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And another error - can you find it?
Dear Mr Bloggs
I refer to your letter of 24th January
2001.
With regards to your outstanding
payment, two options are open to you.
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The error
Dear Mr Bloggs
I refer to your letter of 24th January 2001.
With regards to your outstanding
payment, two options are open to you.

Regards are nouns. But when the word is part
of a group e.g. with regard to, the word has
no S. The letter may start With regard to
your enquiry but it will end Kind regards
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Other common errors
Including your name above the address at
start of letter (your full name goes at the very
end)

Writing Yours sincerely instead of Yours
faithfully (or the other way round)

Spelling sincerely wrong
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The sincerely/faithfully rule
sincerely - when you know the name of
the person to whom youre writing

faithfully - when its Dear Sir or Dear
Madam
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Spelling sincerely
Write sincere with a small s
Add ly
Remember c for charming in the
middle

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Signing off


The conclusion of your letter should
be firm and clear - usually using the
simple present tense.

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So you might conclude

I enclose a copy of the contract and
look forward to hearing from you.
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It is not such good style to write:

I am enclosing a copy of the
contract and am looking forward to
hearing from you.

[However, the latter version is not actually
wrong.]
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Finally -

If youre writing a business letter on
your own behalf - for example
job application
letter to the bank
letter of complaint

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When you get to the end of your
letter

conclude e.g. Yours faithfully
leave a generous space for your handwritten
signature
type or print below this your full name

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And after your printed name.

if you are a woman, or have a particular title,
include the title in brackets after your name
e.g. Dr, Mrs, Ms, Miss,Lord, Baroness etc
if you are a man - an ordinary Mr - there is
normally no need to indicate this. It is
assumed that you are a Mr (unless, just
possibly, youre a man called Shirley or
Hilary)

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If you want to go over some of this
again



Ask for Handout Five.