Over 300 Successful Business Letters for All Occasions

355 Pages·1998·1.05 MB·English

by  Alan Bond

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Page i
Over 300 Successful Business Letters for All Occasions
Alan Bond

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Page ii
Copyright © 1998 by Antoon J. van Zuilen, Ph.D.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microfilm, xerography, or any other means, or
incorporated into any information retrieval system, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the copyright owner.
The publisher and the author wish to point out that the names of persons, businesses, companies, organizations, institutions, hotels,
service and product names, trademarks, events, situations, places, locales, addresses, zip and postal codes, telephone area codes, e-mail
addresses, telephone and fax numbers, which are used in the sample letters, news releases, reports, phrases, and sentences or other
examples in this book are entirely fictitious and are for demonstration purposes only. Any resemblance and similarities are unintentional
and entirely coincidental.
All inquiries should be addressed to:
Barron's Educational Series, Inc.
250 Wireless Blvd.
Hauppauge, NY 11788
http://www.barronseduc.com
ISBN 0-7641-0322-9
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 97-33521
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bond, Alan J.
Over 300 successful business letters for all occasions / by Alan J. Bond.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-7641-0322-9
1. Commercial correspondenceHandbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Letter
writingHandbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title.
HF5726.B67 1998
651.7'4dc21 97-33521
CIP
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

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Contents
Chapter 1
Business Correspondence 1
Chapter 2
Letters of Inquiry 9
Chapter 3
Letters of Complaint, Adjustment, and Apology 29
Chapter 4
Letters of Congratulation and Appreciation 45
Chapter 5
Business Announcements 55
Chapter 6
Business and Private Invitations 65
Chapter 7
Miscellaneous Business Letters 77

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Chapter 8
Minutes 99
Chapter 9
Business Reports and Proposals 105
Chapter 10
Placing and Acknowledging Orders 123
Chapter 11
Credit Letters 135
Chapter 12
Collection Letters 155
Chapter 13
Job Application Letters, Résumés, and Employment Correspondence 171
Chapter 14
News Releases 247
Chapter 15
Letters to Shareholders 263

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Chapter 16
Letters of Condolence and Sympathy 285
Quick Reference Appendix 305
Index 343

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Page 1
Chapter 1
Business Correspondence
Business letters are written on the company's letterhead stationery, which includes the organization's full name, full address and
telephone, fax, or telex numbers, and (if available) the e-mail address. The parts of a business letter (see the sample letters in this
chapter) are:
- Date
- Attention line
- Inside address
- Subject line
- Salutation
- Body of the letter
- Complimentary closing
- Signature
- Reference initials
- Enclosure notation
- Copy notation
Not all of the above components are always used. The "Attention line," "Subject line," and "Enclosure'' notations are used only as they
apply to a particular letter.
Detailed information about the use of forms of address to dignitaries and officials, punctuation marks, and the rules to capitalize words in
correspondence can be found in the Quick Reference Appendix in this book.
The three business letter formats most commonly used in the international business world are:
1. Block-style format. There are no indentations in this letter. All lines are typed against the left-hand margin. The block-style letter is
very popular, because it is simple and reflects efficiency.
2. Modified block-style format. The difference between the modified block-style letter format and the block-style format is the fact that
the dateline and the complimentary closing are typed slightly to the right of the page center. There are no indentations.
3. Semiblock-style format. In the semiblock-style or indented letter format, the paragraphs are indented five spaces from the left of the
margin. The dateline and the complimentary closing are typed to the right of the page center.

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