Business Correspondence in General

Business correspondence, like other genres of writing, is also an art that requires refined writing skills and mastery over the language. With the ever increasing global competition and the need to build worldwide contacts over vast distances, attaining excellence in business correspondence has become all the more essential. Business correspondence is inclusive of various business and commercial activities like formatting letters for requesting or sending information, resume or CV, writing cover or reference letters.

The proverbial saying, “the first impression is the last impression”, very appropriately applies to cover letters. This adage is equally valid for other forms of business correspondence, irrespective of the fact whether they are for the first or the umpteenth number of time. Business letters, which are the most common form of business correspondence, allow you to express your personal style along with the purpose and objective of writing. So, as business correspondence makes a lasting impact on the client or the recipient, hence very possible effort should be made to make it as useful and beneficial as possible. It provides you with an opportunity to communicate effectively with your clients, customers, staff members and other potential parties. Efficient business correspondence not only enables, but also enhances overall business performance. Flaws in the business correspondence may not only be misunderstood but also misinterpreted, consequently affecting the relationship, reputation and productivity of the business. Therefore, it becomes all the more essential to follow some general guidelines in business correspondence.

Starting your business letter by addressing it to a person or an individual by his/her name, rather than the name of the company or firm is always better, as personal letters are usually preferred to formal letters. Do not forget to affix an appropriate title like Mr. or Mrs. Send your letter to the particular person who is in charge, or managing the whole affair, and is responsible for taking the decision. Or else, you can also obtain information by calling up the company and enquiring about the details and the person in charge. Try and limit the content and information to a single page. Writing more than page, and exceeding beyond what is required, will eventually result in the reader getting losing interest, or getting frustrated. Either way, the letter might end up in the trash without the recipient even having read it half way through. And obviously, the purpose of your business correspondence will be defeated. So, keeping the letter short and to the point helps, because letters that are too lengthy usually don’t get read.

Your business correspondence should have aesthetical value in the sense that the very first impression should be able to make a lasting impression. To begin with, use a good quality of paper for printing the letter. Besides this, ensure that the writing is free from grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. Printing the letter is always better than writing. The use of simple and easy vocabulary is recommended. Re-read the entire letter, or better still, have it reviewed for feedback by someone else. You can easily make your letter stand out from the rest by formatting it in a way that not only adheres to the standard format of business letters, but also contains specific content. Keeping copies of your correspondence and maintaining a record of the response is also very helpful, as it will not only facilitates future reference, but will also prevent confusions later.