Business Communication Letter Writing
You need to know about business communication letter writing if you’ve your own business or are employed in a business.
Business letters are a very important form of communication for business people. They have many different uses, but mainly they act as a form of record. The writing of business letters acts as a way to keep records of what’s expected at all times.
Business letters act as a written record of a verbal exchange, often from a meeting. After the meeting has finished one of the participants will write a letter outlining the agreement and send it to the other participant.
How can Business Letters be Effective Communication Tools?
When you’re undertaking business communication letter writing you need to remember that for it to be an effective communication tool, it needs to be clear and simple to understand. This means that the language needs to be well written, free of mistakes and clear.
Business writing should only be done for one reason, and that is to communicate information. The most important role for business writing is the communication of information. This means that the information has to be easily understandable by anyone who needs to read the business communication.
To do this the business letter, email or memo should be short and direct. While it’s good to open with a short pleasantry, such as enquiring after the health of the recipient (if you’ve met them and know them) or finishing with your best wishes the majority of the letter should be devoted to its main purpose.
Keep the language simple. The information contained in the letter is important and not the words used to say it. A fancy writing style is fine for novelists writing fiction but for business people writing non-fiction letters the writing style should be simple and formal.
The language still needs to be formal, as this is official business communication, but this shouldn’t stop the style being used from being simple and easy to read.
Remember that all business communication letter writing could well be international business writing. The world is getting evermore connected and you might be doing business with someone who isn’t a native English speaker or with a company from a county that doesn’t have English as its first language.
How to Write a Business Communication Letter
See the pages about the proper format for business letters, business letter layout and the page of example business letters for help drafting your communication letter. There are even free business letter templates for you to use.
First plan what you want to say. This could involve looking at your notes from a meeting or writing some reminders of all the information you need to include. This'll help you write the best letter you can: as in the writing stage all you need to do is write and not worry that you’ll miss something important. So write your notes and plan the order you need to include all the different points.
Then comes the writing stage. Here you use your notes from the planning stage to write the letter. The more experienced you're at writing a business letter the easier it’ll be. Make sure that you write with enough formality. If you’re not sure use more, rather than less formality. This would include not using contractions, not using text speak and remaining respectful. But keep the language and grammar fairly simple. If you’re not an experienced write the simpler you can keep the style, grammar and language the less likely you are to make a mistake.
When you finish writing the letter proofread it. You should do business proofreading on anything you write for business so there won’t be any mistakes. These mistakes can leave a bad impression of you and could cost you a job or promotion. So make sure they’re all found and corrected. This is very important.
If you need someone to help you with your business communication letter writing then I can do that. See the page about my proofreading service, through which I can read and correct all your business communication. If you’d like to ask me some questions use the contact me form or go to the Excellent Proofreading and Writing Facebook page.
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By Jolyon Dodgson, copyright © 2011-2020.
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