Business Writing In English It isn t always easy to write a clear, concise e-mail or a formal letter in another language. Often, we know words and phrases we should use, but putting everything together can be a challenge. Therefore, let s take a look at some concrete examples of e-mails and letters to help us correspond a little better in English. E-mails First, let s look at some various types of e-mails to introduce ourselves, set up, confirm, and cancel appointments, handle complaints, and confirm orders. Introducing Yourself Often, we have to send cold e-mails where we introduce ourselves and our company to a potential customer or to another company with which we would like to collaborate. We call these cold e-mails because there has been no previous contact. Setting Up an Appointment Arranging meetings and appointments is a common theme for e-mail writing and may seem simple, but there are some useful tips we can see in the following examples to improve.
Confirming an Appointment This e-mail doesn t have to be super long. Keep it short and simple! Cancelling an Appointment Unfortunately, things come up and we cannot always make every appointment we have planned. This is a nice example of a polite way to cancel and/or reschedule an appointment:
Date and Time Notice in each of these e-mails, that we use the ordinal numbers when referring to the date (May 16th and May 3rd). Here s a list of ordinal numbers to refresh your memory: May 1st May 2nd May 3rd May 4th May 5th May 6th May 7th May 8th May 9th May 10th May 11th May 12th May 13th May 14th May 15th May 16th May 17th May 18th May 19th May 20th May 21st May 22nd May 23rd May 24th May 25th May 26th May 27th May 28th May 29th May 30th May 31st AM & PM Also watch out for writing about time in English. We do not use military time like the rest of the world. We like to say AM, which stands for ante meridiem, meaning before midday and PM, which stands for post meridiem and means after midday. You can also just say o clock in the morning or o clock in the afternoon. Europe America 0:00 midnight 0:01 12:01 AM 8:00 8:00 AM or 8 o clock in the morning 12:00 noon 12:01 12:01 PM 14:00 2 PM or 2 o clock in the afternoon 18:00 6 PM or 6 o clock in the evening 23:59 11:59 PM
Confirming an Order Often, we have to send confirmation e-mails not only to confirm appointments, but also orders or purchases from customers. Handling Complaints These types of e-mails are definitely no one s favorite to write. However, it can be important to write a professional, polite e-mail in response to customer, client, and coworker complaints. Sometimes we need to ask for more information:
Other times we have to respond that there is nothing we can do: Finally, sometimes we simply have to suggest a compromise:
Letters Writing formal letters in English can be a long, taxing process if you aren t careful. Here are some examples of the structure of a letter, invitations, letters of complaints, handling complaints, and of thank you letters to make that process easier: Structure of a Letter There are seven main parts to a letter: 1. Sender s Address This is your address or the address of your company. 2. Date 3. Recipient s Address This is the address of the person to whom you are writing. 4. Salutation or Greeting 5. Body Within our body, we have the introduction, all of the detailed information, and our call to action which tells the reader what he or she should do after reading the letter. 6. Closing 7. Enclosures Enclosures are like attachments in e-mails. Here you should include the number of pages the recipient should expect with (but not including) the letter as well as a brief description of the documents.
Sender s Address Date Recipient s Address Greeting Introduction Detailed Information Call to Action Closing Enclosure Number of pages expected + a brief description of the documents
Invitation Letter Formal letters of invitation are used to invite people to conferences, galas, international meetings, etc.
Letter of Complaint Writing letters to complain about products or services can be tricky. Here s an example of a polite, yet firm letter:
Handling Complaints Here s an example of how to respond to a letter of complaint. In fact, it is in response to the letter above:
Thank You Letters Writing a short letter of thanks can really go a long way in building relationships between your company (and you) and your customers or community:
Further Tips and Tricks: Here are some other tips and tricks to improve your writing in English: Use the passive voice when necessary. The passive voice is really useful when you want to sound more professional or more neutral. It can also be used when you want to avoid blame. For example, saying Management styles should be improved is softer and more neutral than You should change your management style. Further, if you do not want to tell everyone that the shipping mistake was all John s fault, simply say A shipping mistake was made rather than John made a mistake. Block your paragraphs. Notice that in all of the examples, all the paragraphs are blocked and there are spaces in between each paragraph. This helps the recipient read and process information more easily. Keep your e-mails brief and your letters to one page. In general, people do not want to read a whole book to get the information you are sending. Make sure to keep your paragraphs short while including all the details. E-mails should be as brief as possible, while still polite. Letters should never be longer than a page (unless absolutely necessary). Be polite Use modals like Would and Could and words like Please. Would you please send me the information? comes across so much better than just Send me the information. Politeness can go a long way, especially in a letter or e-mail. Thank you for reading Hopefully, these examples have given you a bit more clarity in writing in English. Feel free to use the examples as a format for your next e-mails and letters! If you have any trouble, you are always welcome to contact us for support: elanlanguages.be