riting a letter or email hen we write a letter or an email ina business context, its important to use the right ems in the right context, and not to mix the different registers of formality. Use this ple to help you decide how to start and end your letter or email Before the signature Starting the letter or email British English | American English ormal business Dear Sir or Madam, (ifyou donot | Yours faithfully, | Sincerely yours, ommunication when you | know if itis aman or a woman) jonot know thefamily Dear Sir, (if you know it is aman) ame of the person you are | Dear Madam, (if you know it is a dressing woman) ormal business Dear Ms + family name, for a Yours sincerely, Sincerely yours, Smmunication when you | woman (avoid using Miss or Mrs) or Sincerely, now the family name Dear Mr + family name, for a man f the person you are déressing emi-formal business Dear + first name Best regards Best jemmunication when you Best wishes Fe on first name terms fth the person you are dressing‘iting an email for work fe have different ways of writing emails, according to whether the situation is formal informal. If you are writing to a contact, a supplier, a customer or someone who is in superior situation, you must use a formal register. If you are writing to a colleague who the same status as you and who you get on well with, you can use an informal register ich is more direct. Here are some suggestions to help you write an email in English Starting an email = Formal: Dear Ms/Mr [family name] = Informal: Hi [first name] Social opening = Formal: | hope you are well /I hope alt is well with you. Informal: How's it going? How are you? Reason for writing ~ Formal: | am writing regarding the order you placed/the new project/the meeting next week. — Informal: About the order/the project/the meeting next week, Making a request — Formal: | would be grateful if you could send me information about your products/ give me an update on progress on the project/if you could let me have. = Informal: Send me the information when you can, Offering help — Formal: Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any assistance. — Informal: If you need any more information/anything else, let me know. Ending the message = Formal: | look forward to hearing from you — Informal: Speak soon. Closing an email — Formal: Best wishes/Best regards, — Informal: BFN (Bye for now]/See you/All the best/Cheers Signing off Formal: First name + Family name = Informal: First nameMaking and changing arrangements \We organise meetings and appointments with colleagues, suppliers and clients in order to discuss projects, products and contracts and so forth. Here are some suggestions on expressions to use in an email to make arrangements and to change them when they need to be rescheduled. Do not forget to start and finish your email with the appropriate expressions ( ). Referring to your last contact — We spoke on the phone yesterday about the new product Id like to present to you. | sent you an email last week with a list of our services + Further to our conversation/your email/your phone call Suggesting a meeting —+I'd like to have a meeting this week, if possible. + Could we meet next week some time? — Would you be free in the next few days for a meeting/to discuss our products? Scheduling a time to meet + When are you free? (informal) — When would be a good time to meet? When would suit you? + What day/time would suit you? Confirming the agreed time —+1'll confirm the time by email by the end of the week + ll confirm the meeting shortly when I've spoken to my colleague/my manager. + Could | confirm that by tomorrow morning? = Can let you know later? (informal) Changing an arrangement — Unfortunately | can’t make the meeting tomorrow. —1'm very sorry, but I'm afraid | have to cancel our appointment tomorrow/next week. Finding e new time — Could we meet on Monday/next weekithe week after next instead? — If we change the meeting to Friday instead of Thursday, would that suit you? — How would Monday/next week do? (informal) Apologising for the change = I'm very sorry for this inconvenience. = I'm sorry about this. informal) 23Writing an email to explain a problem Sometimes we need to explain why a problem happened and how we intend to resolve it We use the following expressions when we want to apologise for a problem and explain why it happened. Giving someone good news + | am pleased to let you know that. = | have good news about. Giving someone bad news = Unfortunately. Lam very sorry to tell you that Telling someone that something will happen = | would like to reassure you that. + |am confident that Saying sorry to someone = I/we would like to apologise for. —+ Please accept my/our apologies for. Giving reasons for something happening = The reason for this is. This is/was due to.Inappropriate expressions for business communication Itisimportant in a business context to remain professional which means not using short spoken forms of language in written communication. Make sure that you only use the correct form of these common words or expressions in your business communication, Use Do not use Going to Gonna Want to Wanna Give me Gimme Don'tknow | Dunno Let me Lemme Example im going to send you the terms of our contract. We want to employ more staff next year. Could you give me a call tomorrow please? | don’t know if I'l be free tomorrow. Let me know what you thinkWriting a short report A report in a business context is often written in order to give a summary of information with recommendations of action to be taken. There are usually four main parts to the report. 1. Introduction: In the introduction we give a general explanation of the information of the report, a short statement of who the report is for and if necessary where the information comes from. 2. The main body of the report: This could be findings and experimental results. You can separate this part into different sections relating to different themes. 3.Conelusion: in this part you give a summary of your conclusions about the information. 4. Recommendations: In this final part, you can make specific suggestions on action to be taken in the future in order to improve the situation Donot include any unnecessary or irrelevant information in a report. Its important that the report is direct and to the point. 288