BUSINESS LETTER

A business letter is usually a letter from one company to another, or between such organizations
and their customers, clients and other external parties. The overall style of letter depends on the
relationship between the parties concerned. Business letters can have many types of contents, for
example to request direct information or action from another party, to order supplies from a
supplier, to point out a mistake by the letter's recipient, to reply directly to a request, to apologize
for a wrong, or to convey goodwill. A business letter is sometimes useful because it produces a
permanent written record, and may be taken more seriously by the recipient than other forms of
communication.

Steps in Writing an Effective Business Letter

Letters are the most widely used media of written communication in business. But
writing an effective letter is not easy matter. It requires well planning, imagination,
linguistic knowledge, careful and systematic analysis of situations and above all, writer’s
writing skills. However, the following are the various steps through which an effective
business letter can be drafted.

 Proper planning: Effective business letter is the product of good thinking and careful
planning. In writing business letter, the writer should go through the proper planning
regarding what, when, whom and how to write. A well planned letter is likely to best
serve the purpose of the organization.
 Identifying and setting purpose: Before writing, the writer should know, identify
and select the purpose of the letter. In business letters are written for different
purpose. Therefore, every business letter must be stated in one or two sentences in the
letter.
 Knowing the audience: In this step, the writer should guess the readers level of
understanding and knowledge about the message to the inserted in the letter. Here the
writer evaluates what the readers known and what will they do after reading the
message. In this connection, the writer should put himself in the readers place and
look at the message from the reader’s perspective.

Determining the scope of subject: Here the writer should determine the scope of the
message. The scope of message should be determined by considering two points, one
is what the reader wants to know and another is what the writer has to convey.
 Gathering information: After setting the purpose and scope of the letter, the writer
needs to collect necessary information. Generally, information is collected form
libraries, taking interview of concerned persons, writers own experience, knowledge
and education office file, documents and from other convenient sources. Information
should be accurate, relevant and reliable so that these can support the message.
 Organizing the information: In this stage, the writer decides how the information
will be arranged in the letter. It depends on the subject and purpose of the letter. There
 are basically two approaches for presenting information in the letter. These are direct
approach and indirect approach.
 Selecting the format: In this stage the format of letter is selected. Format of letter is a
way or means of presenting various paragraphs in the letter. There are some
recognized formats of letter.
 Outlining the contents: After selecting the format, the next step is to outline the
message of the letter. It breaks down a large topic into some convenient parts and
paragraphs logically.
 Writing the first draft: After outlining the contents the next step is writing the first
draft. While writing the first draft the writer should keep in mind that it is a working
draft. The writer can start wherever he wishes he can start from the middle or even
near to end. Any weakness in logic or lack of information or any point that is out of
place can be corrected in the final revision.
At last it can be said that when the above stated steps are followed in writing letter, one
can expect a good and effective business letter