Communications and Internet 

Rules for business email correspondence. Ethics of business correspondence

In principle, questions about how and by what means can be created and sent should not arise. However, not everyone is ready to immediately begin this task when it comes to official letters, especially when the author of the letter expects to receive a response. I’ll tell you a little secret of business correspondence: the stricter the character and style of the letter, the greater the chance of a response from the recipient. In this lesson, I will provide several sample emails that should help users decide on their own style and subsequently compose messages in the most competent way.

First, we need to decide what nature the letter we are creating will be. I divide all outgoing emails into three main types:

  • Business offer
  • Business inquiry
  • Friendly address

Accordingly, for all three types I have templates, both in the form of simple text files and in the form of templates tailored for specific email programs. Let's move on to each of them in order.

Business offer

Hello (Good afternoon), [name of the person being addressed]!

It is advisable to indicate the name in any letter when communicating, because a personal address puts a person in a friendly mood. However, if you still can’t find out the name, a template greeting will suffice.

Let me introduce to your attention a new service (new product) from our company [company name].

Let me offer cooperation in the field of [name of field of activity].

Next, briefly describe the advantages of your proposal in terms of price or some quality characteristics. The main thing is not to overdo it. Megabytes of text, and even supplemented with bright, meaningless pictures, only scare people away. If the recipient of the letter is interested in your offer from the first lines, he will definitely contact you for additional information.

If you're serious about getting the right people to contact you the first time you contact them, then it makes sense to think about reach beyond just email. It would be a good idea to create accounts in services such as ICQ andSkype. Sometimes it is much easier for a person to contact you by regular phone, if, of course, you thoughtfully left the number in your signature.

Why do you need to duplicate your own e-mail address in the signature, you ask, if it is automatically forwarded by the mail server. The rule here is that excessive information in business correspondence is never unnecessary. Let’s imagine a situation where your letter is received by a person who is potentially not interested in the offer, or who is simply not competent to respond to it correctly. It forwards the received message to another user, but for some reason, information about the true sender is lost from the automatically added data, which makes it difficult to contact you. However, it will always be enough to look at the signature to determine the author of the letter and his necessary contacts.

Business inquiry

Hello (Good afternoon)!

Or, if the addressee's name is known, then (Dear, [Name, Patronymic])!

Please provide information about the product (service) [name of product/service] with a description of the full characteristics and competitive qualities.

Based on the Federal Law of the Russian Federation [number and date of the document], I ask you to provide information [describe the data necessary to obtain].

You can also contact the management of a particular service on the Internet if your rights are violated.

In connection with the violation of clause [clause number in the user agreement] of the user agreement, namely: “[quote the full text of the said clause]”, I ask you to conduct an investigation and take appropriate sanctions against the guilty [responsible (if we are talking about service employees)] person [site (site name)]. Please report the results of the inspection and the sanctions imposed to [your own email address].

Friendly address

Greetings (Good day) (Hello), [person's name]!

When you first contact us in a friendly manner, a good indicator will be the completeness of your text message. A correctly written, voluminous text will indicate your high interest in contacting the right person and will arouse a desire for a response. Don't forget to open up the conversation with a few initial questions.

Example email

Over the past decade, email has become perhaps one of the most popular means of business communication. Today it is quite difficult to find a person who does not use e-mail in his practice of interpersonal and intercultural communications. Quickly scanning the addresses and subjects of incoming messages with our eyes, we decide which letters to read and which to delete without opening. Depending on the relationship between correspondents, correspondence can be business or private. If the letter is private, then there are no strict ethical requirements for it - the style of writing and manner of presentation depend mainly on the degree of familiarity with the addressee.

Today it is quite difficult to find a company that does not use e-mail in its interpersonal communications practice. It should be noted that in ordinary business correspondence via e-mail there are generally accepted rules that you need to know and follow. Let us dwell in detail on the most significant ones.

Rule 1. When sending an email, be sure to fill out all fields. In general, the structure of a business email can be represented as follows:

    Sender's address and name.

    Recipient's address (or recipients' addresses when there is a need to send a letter with one text to several recipients).

    The importance of writing (this is if necessary).

    Letter subject.

    Application.

    A letter consisting of a greeting; the main text of the letter; conclusions; and signatures.

Rule 2. The sender's address and name must be recognizable. Therefore, when you open a mailbox, always enter your first and last name in the sender's name column. The most trustworthy address is one that contains your real name, as well as the name of your organization in the domain name, for example: This email address is being protected from spambots. You must have JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Rule 3. Be sure to fill in the “Subject of the letter” column. The subject line of a letter is a special requisite of a letter, the presence of which greatly facilitates the work with electronic correspondence. The fate of a letter very often depends on its Subject, especially if the name and address of the sender do not tell you anything. The subject line of the letter should be short – no more than 50 characters – and to the point. The simpler and clearer the Subject of the letter, the more likely it is that the letter will be read and will have a response. You need to think especially carefully about the Subject the first time you write to someone.

Rule 4. Use the icon (“Re:”) only for reply. Using the icon located in the address field of the letter to which you are responding, open the form for composing a response. This form already contains the address of your interlocutor, the text of his letter and Subject. The icon (Re) is an abbreviation of the English word “Reply:” or “Response:” and means “My response to:”. Therefore, if the subject of the letter changes, changes to the subject must be made using the down arrow located to the right of the Re icon. In the drop-down list that opens, select the “change theme” command.

If, when responding to someone's email, you change the main point of the dialogue, change the Subject accordingly, or better yet, start a discussion of a new issue by creating a new email.

Rule 5. To avoid premature sending, insert the recipient's address only when the letter is completed, checked and ready to be sent. Be careful with the “Send” button: make sure that you are sending the letter to the person you intended.

Rule 6. Be sure to write a greeting consisting of a welcoming word and the name of the recipient before the main text of the letter. Some users believe that there is no need to write a greeting in an email, since it is supposedly a meaningless relic of paper mail, that it does not carry any significant information and contains only stock words.

The greeting carries information about the upbringing of the person writing the letter. As a greeting, use the following form of address: “Good afternoon, dear (respected) + name, patronymic of the addressee!” or “Dear (respected) + name, patronymic of the addressee, hello!” and only after that move on to the purpose of your message.

In Europe, it is customary to always address “Dear Sir/Madam” or less formally, especially if you know the addressee, “Dear + name”. In the USA, where the pace of life and correspondence is more intense, an email begins with an address consisting of a name and a short “Hi + name”. In Russian, an exclamation mark is placed after a written address in any genre of correspondence: business, private, official, etc., while in English a comma is placed in all these genres.

Rule 7. Structure your letter correctly. Because reading from a monitor screen is much more difficult than reading paper. Break the text of the letter into logical paragraphs. Try to keep sentences no more than 15-20 words. Separate paragraphs from each other with an indent or a blank line.

Rule 8. Be brief and to the point. The body of the letter from the first paragraph should attract the reader’s attention no less than its Subject. Be aware of the potential reader's limited time. Start with the purpose of the letter, it should be clearly stated in the first sentence. If the first sentences are formulated correctly, then there is a very high probability that the recipient of the letter will read it to the end. An email is intended to convey information quickly. If you need to send important information containing a large volume, it is better to write a short accompanying text in an email, and format the information itself as an attachment.

Rule 9. Before you start writing your letter, please attach an attachment. How many times have you received a letter, the purpose of which was to send an attachment, without this very attachment?! Such carelessness may not have the best effect on your business reputation.

Rule 10. When you write to someone for the first time, do not attach any attachments. If you do send an attachment without the consent of the recipient, be sure to write in the body of the letter what kind of file it is. Do not attach attachments larger than 5 MB, as this unpleasant situation is possible: you will send your file to the mail server in a second, and your recipient will download it for an hour.

Rule 11. When composing your response letter, answer ALL questions asked of you. If you find it difficult to answer, then write directly.

Rule 12. Before you send your email, check your spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Just because email is a fast method of communication doesn't mean it has to be sloppy. Build your phrases as competently as possible in terms of spelling and grammar. This is important not only because an illiterately written letter can spoil the impression of you, and because it is very difficult to read the text without commas and periods.

Rule 13. Emails must be answered. Email is about connecting with other people, and a little politeness never hurts. According to the rules of etiquette, emails must be answered, and the response time should not exceed three days. If you do not respond to an email within this period, this is a clear refusal to communicate. If you need a longer time to respond to a letter, it is worth explaining the reasons for the delay. When you receive an email containing an attachment, be sure to confirm that the attachment arrived and opened normally. If you receive letters from unknown people, you may not respond to them. They can be deleted without reading. If you receive an unsolicited email with an attached file, you should delete the file without unpacking it: most likely it is the source of a computer virus.

Rule 14. Don't ask for a read receipt. You can write the following phrase after the text of the main letter and before your signature: “Please confirm receipt of the letter by reply letter or by calling the telephone numbers indicated below.”

Rule 15. You should never use capital letters in your message. TEXT IN CAPITAL LETTERS is considered shouting. At best, he is considered illiterate in matters of netiquette. This may cause irritation or other unwanted reactions in your reader.

Rule 16. Never communicate confidential information via email. Be very careful when sending your bank card numbers or other sensitive information in the body of an email. When forwarded, email can be intercepted and used for personal gain. In addition, the email you send remains in the computer's memory forever.

Rule 17. Do not overuse abbreviations and emotional design. In business email, try not to use abbreviations such as BTW (by the way) or LOL (laugh out loud), also called emoticons (“smiling faces”). They are inappropriate in business correspondence, especially since the recipient of the letter may not know their meaning.

Rule 18. Be sure to put your signature at the end of the letter. A signature is a small block of text added to the end of your messages that identifies you and contains your contact information. Keep your signature short: no more than four to seven lines. A long signature takes up a lot of space and can be annoying. Include in it several possible ways to contact you (usually telephone and fax numbers), as well as a link to your company's website.

Based on articles:

1. 32 most important email etiquette tips.Emailetiquette. [Electronic resource] http://www.emailreplies.com/ Retrieved 09/19/2015.

2. Top 26 Most Important Rules of Email Etiquette. [Electronic resource] http://email.about.com/od/emailnetiquette/tp/core_netiquette.htm Retrieved September 20, 2015.

The material was prepared by L.A. Shutilina, methodologist of the State Medical Center for Dog and Medical Medicine

Anyone who strives to look decent in business circles always uses. And he always remembers the main thing - the email should not tarnish either the addressee, or the reputation of the company of which he is a representative, or the business image.

The ability to correctly and competently conduct business electronic correspondence is the main component of the image of a modern manager. This is both a sign of general cultural level and an indicator of personal professionalism. In accordance with how a person is able to formulate and formalize his thoughts, one can confidently judge his attitude towards others and towards himself personally. A carelessly written email can easily ruin the author’s business reputation in the eyes of partners and colleagues.

Rules for business correspondence by email

1. Use your work email address for business purposes only. If you send a letter from a work server while at work, it is saved, both outgoing and incoming mail. Your employer can read the letter at any time. Only conduct business correspondence within the office walls.

2. Clearly understand who your message is addressed to and to whom the information contained in it may be useful. Who is your letter addressed to? To the client? To a partner? Colleague? To a subordinate? To the boss? The addressee is indicated in the “to” column, those interested are indicated in the “copy”. Never send extra copies, especially to your boss. If third parties are mentioned in the email, then they are also usually included in the “copy” column.

3. Formulate the purpose of the message for yourself. What goal do you set for yourself: what do you strive to achieve from the reader of your letter? What reaction do you expect? The recipient, having read your message, should immediately understand what you need from him. Rules for conducting electronic correspondence:

If you want to bring an individual perspective to events - from the first person (we, I)
If your message is of an inquiry or instructional nature - from the 2nd person (you, you)
If you are writing a letter as an outside observer and want to inform the addressee about accomplished facts or events - in the 3rd person (they, she, he).

4. Do not leave the “subject” field empty. Most people who receive an email begin examining the correspondence by looking at the subject field. A person makes the decision to read a letter in a few seconds, so the content of the letter should be reflected in the subject line. The topic should be short, specific and informative.

5. Keep the content clear: address and greeting, main part, summary, signature, contacts. Any letter must contain email etiquette. Don’t be lazy and don’t skip any part of the accepted content; a correctly formatted letter is an indicator of your professionalism.

6. Addressing and greeting the addressee is an indicator of your respect for him. If possible, begin each letter with a personal message and greeting. A sign of politeness is to address your interlocutor by name. After the address, put a comma if you want to give the message an everyday character. And if you want to emphasize formality and significance, use an exclamation point, even if this letter is addressed to a colleague with whom you often communicate.

7. Adhere to the principle: short and clear (KY). One of the main rules of business email correspondence is “minimum words - maximum information.” Present your thoughts specifically (clearly), consistently, concisely and in a way that is easy to understand. Sentences should be short, this makes it easier for the addressee to convey the necessary information. There is one The golden rule of emails– portioned, one topic – one letter. It is better to send several emails (each with one topic) than one large message with several unrelated ideas.

8. Do not turn informal communication into business correspondence. There is no emotion in the email! If you want to emphasize the points set out in your email message emotionally, the emotional subtext must be hidden behind a neutral, externally calm and correct tone of presentation. It is achieved by content, not by language.

9. Adhere to a clear structure of the main text of the letter. Most often, a letter consists of three parts:

The reason for writing the letter (reason, grounds). This part is usually as short as possible
Consistent presentation of the essence of the issue
Solutions, requests, proposals, conclusions

10. The appearance of the message should be extremely easy to understand. Divide the text into paragraphs, which should contain no more than five to six lines. It is better to separate paragraphs from each other with a blank line. Choose one color and one font, so the text will be better perceived. It is better not to use exclamation marks, emoticons, abbreviations, or cursive elements unless absolutely necessary.

11. Write correctly. Illiterate writing indicates that the author is not educated enough. Your business reputation is discredited by typos and errors in the text. Before sending a letter, email etiquette recommends that you re-read the letter carefully. Many email programs and text editors can check punctuation and spelling, and if errors are found, they offer correction options. This service is required to write emails.

12. Consider what documentation needs to be included in the attachments. You should not include detailed information in the body of the letter; it is better to send it as a separate file. In the subject line of the email, be sure to indicate which file you are inserting, otherwise the recipient may regard it as a virus. All files must be scanned with anti-virus software before sending.


13. Always write contact information and subscribe. This will show you on the good side and demonstrate your professional qualities. The signature should not be more than five or six lines. It should consist of the name of the company, your first and last name, and your position. Typically, for external recipients, your email address, phone number, and company website address are also indicated.

14. Postscript is extremely rarely used in business correspondence. If you use a postscript in your message, this is an indication that you have not thought enough about the content of the letter.

15. Only in special cases is a read receipt given. Typically, a read receipt should be set only for external recipients and only when a response is expected from the recipient.

16. Use the “high importance” checkbox only when it is really necessary. If the email contains important information that needs urgent attention, set the importance to “high.” This will highlight your email in your inbox. But it is not recommended to abuse this function needlessly.

17. Re-read the letter before sending it. Is everything concise, specific, understandable, and is there any inappropriate information or grammatical errors? Are the recipient details correct? Check the sequence and logic of presentation.


18. Reply to emails promptly. Notification of receipt of a letter is a sign of respect for colleagues or partners, a sign of good manners. If at the moment you cannot answer the letter, then you need to inform the author and promise that you will answer immediately at the first opportunity. Answer all questions posed consistently. Don't start your reply as a new letter. If a letter is not answered within 48 hours, the recipient may think that his letter was ignored or lost.

19. The one who initiated the correspondence ends the electronic dialogue.

20. Remember that Rules for email correspondence, or rather their compliance is an indicator of a modern professional manager.

Communication between people is a natural and vital process. Once upon a time, the epistolary genre was the only available way to communicate between people located at a distance from each other.

Postal service has existed since ancient Rome, if not earlier. People corresponded. In literature, even novels and stories in letters are known.

Modern advances in technology offer new and better ways to communicate.

At the same time, mail correspondence is saved. This is an old but reliable way of communication that has its own unique qualities. The modern format of postal correspondence is electronic mail, otherwise E-mail.

E-mail, unlike regular mail, allows recipients to communicate almost instantly. I pressed the “Send” button (letter), and after a few seconds the recipient sees this letter in his mail, in the “Inbox” folder.

Having become accessible and widespread among users, e-mail has certain rules for conducting correspondence. Such rules allow you to organize and conduct correspondence within the framework of accepted cultural and business norms. The set of systematized rules for “e-mail” correspondence is called the unspoken “E-mail Etiquette”.

Etiquette of electronic correspondence includes features of design, composition of letters, as well as principles of communication between recipients. First, let's announce the entire list of rules:

Rule 5. Fill in the recipient's mailing address last.

Rule 7. The text of the letter must meet certain requirements.

And now more about each of the ten rules.

Rule 1. Fill out all fields in the email.

For clarity, we use (Fig. 1), which shows what a new letter looks like in Yandex mail (after clicking on the “Write” button):


Rice. 1 Email Etiquette Basics

In almost all email services (Yandex mail, Mail ru, Google, Rambler, etc.), the email contains the following information:

  1. Postal address (e-mail) and sender's name (possibly also a surname) - number 1 in Fig. 1.
  2. The mailing address (e-mail) of the recipient of the letter is number 2 in Fig. 1.
  3. The subject (title, title) of the letter is number 3 in Fig. 1.
  4. Contents of the letter (number 4 in Fig. 1), which includes:
    • greetings,
    • main text,
    • conclusion,
    • signature.
  5. Attachment to the letter (attached files or attached files) – number 5 in Fig. 1.

All listed items are required to be completed, except for the last one (number 5 in Fig. 1) – attachments to the letter. If you do not need to attach any files to the letter that explain the text of the letter, then you can forget about this point.

Rule 2: The mailing address and name of the sender must be clear.

Correspondence involves two parties, so attention should be paid to personal data. Personal data should be understandable and as complete as possible, so as not to cause misunderstanding, wariness and mystery among the addressee.

The most trustworthy postal address is one that contains your first and last name, for example, [email protected].

If the sender has a blog, then it will be useful to indicate an address with the website domain, for example, info@site. The fact is that by going to the site (site) indicated after the @ sign, you can learn a lot about the author of the site from the materials presented on it.

If the postal address is of the form [email protected], then not every recipient of a letter from such an addressee will decide to open this letter. What if there is a virus that blocks the computer, or spam that, after opening such a letter, will flow in an endless stream?

Rule 3. The subject (title, title) of the letter must always be indicated.

The header of the letter is the only thing that the recipient of the letter sees when it arrives to him. Very often, the title of the letter determines its future fate:

  • the recipient will open it
  • or delete it without looking.

Therefore, letter headings should be treated with special reverence (that is, with reverence).

Options for the fate of the received letter depending on its title:

  • the letter will not be noticed among a heap of other letters,
  • they will consider it useless and therefore will not even open it,
  • without hesitation, they will immediately send it to the “ ” or “Deleted Items” folder,
  • read partially or completely,
  • perhaps they will even answer.

The title of the letter is the key to getting the recipient interested in opening the letter, or rather, “hooking” it, attracting attention. This is especially important if you are writing a letter to someone for the first time. To paraphrase the words from the book “The Adventures of Captain Vrungel” (“whatever you name the ship, so it will sail”), we can say that “whatever you name the letter, that’s how it will reach” the recipient.

Thus, the title of the letter should be short (no more than 50 characters), interesting and to the point (express the essence of the letter).

Moreover, during the correspondence, if the recipient of the letter responds to the author, the header of the letter should not change. It also should not change during repeated correspondence, when the letter is sent many times in one direction or the other.

If during the correspondence the topic of discussion changes, then it makes sense to change the subject of the letter or, perhaps, create a new letter with a new topic for further correspondence.

Rule 4. When replying to any letter, think about whether you need to change the subject of the letter.

In the vast majority of cases, there is NO need to change the subject of the letter; I will explain the reasons below. But, as you know, there are some exceptions to the rules. However, first things first.

How to write a letter response

Many novice users respond to letters incorrectly, namely, having received the letter, they read it and click on the “Write” button to respond. This is fundamentally wrong.

When replying to a letter, you should click on the “Reply” button in order to understand where you started the correspondence and where you came to. For this:

  • You need to open the letter. In this case, the “Reply” button will appear above or below the open letter (number 1 in Fig. 2).
  • Click on “Reply”.
  • “Re: …” will automatically appear in the subject (header) of the letter (number 2 in Fig. 2). The letters “Re” are a sign that this is a response to a letter.
  • Write your answer at the beginning of the letter so that the answer comes first, and below is the text of the previous letter.
Rice. 2 How to write a response letter

Many technical support services ask you to click on the “Reply” button when communicating via email about a problem. And at the same time, do not change anything in the correspondence in previous letters. More precisely, any technical support asks to “save the citation when answering.” Because it’s easier to understand where we started to solve the problem and what we came to.

Many novice users cannot find the previous letter, or for some other reason they often DO NOT respond (that is, they do not use the “Reply” button), but write a new letter (click on the “Write” or “Create” button). Receiving a new letter every time, it can be difficult for the recipient of a new letter to remember “from scratch” all the details of the previous letter, which makes correspondence very difficult.

And professional technical support may not respond to incorrectly formatted letters at all.

Note that “Re:” is an abbreviation for the English “Reply:” or “Response:”, which translates as “My response to:”. If the subject of the letter has changed, you should delete this “Re:” and write a new subject line that reflects the essence of the new turn of events.

Rule 5. Fill in the recipient's mailing address (To) last.

The “To” field is best filled in last, after the letter has been written and checked. This will allow you to avoid frequently recurring mistakes when the sender of a letter sends it to the recipient unfinished, accidentally clicking on the “Reply” button.

And if you click on the “Reply” button, then before clicking, check first of all whether you are sending the letter to the right addressee. It can be very frustrating when a letter, especially if it contains personal or confidential information, goes somewhere other than where you intended to send it.

Rule 6. Save the text of the letter in a separate file before sending the letter.

Unfortunately, this rule is remembered only when

  • There was an unexpected failure when sending a letter,
  • or when a letter is asked to be sent again because it was not received for some reason.

When sending important emails with a “wall of text” typed by hand rather than copied from somewhere, this is a very good rule. It makes life a lot easier.

Rule 7. The text of the letter must meet the following requirements:

1) The text of the letter must contain a greeting.

At a minimum, “Hello.” or “Good day.” If you know the name, then “Dear Name (possibly Patronymic).” The greeting “Good day” is often used when communicating on the Internet instead of “Good morning”, “Good afternoon” or “Good evening”. This is due to the fact that the sender of an email can never know exactly when his email will be opened by the recipient. The sender and recipient may be located in different parts of the Earth, in different time zones. And the sender never knows exactly when the recipient will open and read his letter.

2) The text of the letter must be correct and free of errors.

For some reason, literacy is not given much importance. Errors can be found on the official websites of serious companies, not to mention letters, in which it is sometimes difficult to understand not only individual words, but also entire phrases, they can be formulated so illiterately and with errors. It's important to remember that poor writing is bad culture and has no place on the Internet.

3) The text of the letter must be clear in content.

The sender always knows what he is writing about, but the recipient can only understand this from the text of the letter. The sender does not always write about his problem in a way that is understandable to the recipient. Letters that are unclear in content can only cause irritation and frustration in the recipient, since he spent time reading the letter, but did not understand what the sender wanted to tell him.

4) The text of the letter should cover the scope of one topic.

If the sender has something to say to the recipient on different topics, then it is better to send one letter on each topic. This will make it easier for the recipient to perceive the information and allow him to give you an accurate and comprehensive answer.

5) The text of the letter must be structured in terms of content and external perception.

Structured text is easy to read. And it is perceived as intended by the author of the letter. An unstructured text with leaps of thought, with a predominance of emotions rather than facts, with incomprehensible connections, etc. may be perceived by the recipient of the letter in a completely different way than the sender intended. As a result, communication by email will not work. It will not take place at all, or you will need a telephone, Skype and other means of communication.

6) The text of the letter must be of optimal size.

Very short letters of 5-7 words are, of course, pleasant to read, but you need to be understood by a very talented writer in order to put the main idea into these words. It is better for an inexperienced letter writer to write more in order to convey the information or information sent to the addressee as accurately as possible.

At the same time, an excessively long letter, replete with repetitions, additional explanations, unnecessary off-topic information, etc., is perceived by the recipient as a “wall of text,” tires him and causes a negative reaction. Everything needs moderation;

7) The font of the letter text must be a common type that will be displayed in all mail services.

Fans of exotic fonts, for example, those resembling handwritten text with a quill pen, should remember that the recipient may end up with unreadable gobbledygook instead of the text of the letter. Exotic lovers should ensure that the exotic font they use is sent in the letter along with the text.

8) The font size in the text of the letter should be uniform.

You can write any minor notes in small font; everything else should be done in the same font size. Some email services generally use a single universal font. This should always be remembered, since all the sender’s efforts to decorate the text with fonts of different sizes will ultimately look like monotonous text to the recipient. So is it necessary to try so hard?

9) In the text of the letter, you should not abuse the use of capital letters.

It is difficult to read letters where all the letters are small, even at the beginning of a sentence, or vice versa, where all the letters are CAPITAL. Remember that a LETTER WRITTEN WITH Caps Lock ON AND CONSISTING OF CAPITAL LETTERS IS PERCEIVED ON THE INTERNET as A SCREAM and means only a scream and nothing else.

10) The tone of the letter should under no circumstances be aggressive or irritable.

The text of the letter should not contain curses or insults. It is best to write a letter when you are in a balanced and reasonable state. Light playfulness and appropriate humor are welcome if the recipient supports a similar tone of communication and is able to appreciate it.

11) At the end you should always leave a signature (first name, last name, nickname, position for business letters) with possible wishes to the interlocutor.

Wishes include: With respect, With gratitude, etc.

Rule 8: Emails must be answered.

It is always customary to respond to a letter, so you need to find the time and opportunity to pay mutual attention and respect to the senders.

Email does not tolerate stagnation. Working with email largely depends on the discipline and organization of the recipient. This consists of regularly monitoring your mailbox, familiarizing yourself with incoming correspondence, studying it, systematizing it and writing responses.

One of the important points is the timely response, which in itself speaks positively about the recipient and characterizes his degree of responsibility and interest.

Email is not the usual paper mail with postmen, cars, planes, trains. Emails are delivered in seconds, and senders expect a quick response. In electronic communication, a completely different pace is adopted; one might say that it is “here and now.” Lateness in time may lead to the loss of relevance of the topic under discussion.

Rule 9: Do not send confidential information by email.

Unfortunately, email can be hacked and intercepted. And then the passwords, bank card numbers, PIN codes, etc. written in emails. may become accessible to unauthorized persons who can use them for personal gain. Therefore, such information should not be trusted by email.

Rule 10. Do not publish information from personal letters without the consent of their senders.

By respecting other people's confidential information, you respect both yourself and your right to privacy.

Communication via email without mutual visual and auditory contact requires adherence to the rules of etiquette, which in turn contribute to the establishment of competent and cultural dialogue between people.

In one of his letters, Antoine Saint-Exupery noted:

“Look for me in what I write.”

This is a very apt expression, including in relation to the above-mentioned principles of email etiquette.

Quite often, the first contact in the business world begins with written communications – business letters. But if it is written without following the rules of business letter etiquette, then barely established contacts may be interrupted, and you will lose a client or business partner. Therefore, you probably won’t have to convince anyone how important it is to be able to write business letters that will help create a favorable impression of you personally and of your company as a whole.

Basic rules of business correspondence. Modern forms of correspondence developed more than 150 years ago. It is generally accepted that their homeland is England, where the rules for drawing up business correspondence were first introduced.

General rules for conducting correspondence

1. Before you start writing letters to your business partner, you should understand the following points:

Type of letter (covering letter, order letter, notification letter, reminder letter, presentation letter, refusal letter, letter of guarantee, etc.);

Is a response to your letter expected (there are conditions when receiving a response to a letter is not expected, for example, a presentation letter);

Will the content of the letter be clearly understandable to your addressee, will it leave any ambiguities regarding the issue of correspondence;

Are you sure that a letter sent by mail will arrive on time (if not, then it is better to use telefax, DHL services or send a letter via the Internet).

2. The tone of the letter should always remain correct.

3. It is necessary to carefully select vocabulary, avoiding inaccuracies, ambiguity, and excessive use of professional words. The text of the letter should be easy to understand.

4. A business letter should only be written on the letterhead of the organization on behalf of which you are acting. Since the appearance of the letterhead is a kind of business card of your company, the design of the official letterhead should be treated with special care. The more formal the letter form, the more formal the tone of the letter should be.

When preparing documents, it is recommended to use the Microsoft Word text editor (a software product of Microsoft Corporation) using Times New Roman Cyr fonts in sizes No. 12 (for the design of tabular materials), 13, 14, 15, Times DL in sizes No. 12, 13, 14 through 1 -2 intervals.

When drawing up a business letter, page numbers are placed at the bottom on the right side of the page, and when drawing up other business documents - in the middle of the top margin of the sheet.

It is recommended to print the text of the letter itself on A4 format forms with 1.5-2 line spacing, and on A5 or smaller format forms with one line spacing. Document details (except for text), consisting of several lines, are printed with one line spacing.

A written request must be responded to within 10 days of receipt.

Messages received by fax and email must be responded to within 48 hours, excluding weekends

Rules for writing a business letter in Russia

In Russia, the preparation of official forms is regulated by regulatory documents and, first of all, GOST 6.30-2003 “Unified documentation systems. Unified system of organizational and administrative documentation. Documentation requirements."

GOST establishes two standard formats for document forms - A4 (210 x 297 mm) and A5 (148 x 210 mm). Each sheet of the document, drawn up both on the form and not on it, must have margins of at least 20 mm - left; 10 mm - right; 20 mm - top; 20 mm - lower.

These requirements for document preparation are enshrined in Russian legislation, but the author recommends using them when composing a business letter to a foreign partner.

Depending on the degree of closeness with your correspondent, the address may begin with the words “Dear + surname (first name, patronymic)” or “Dear + first name and patronymic (first name).” Words such as “dear”, “sir”, “madam”, “deputy director”, “head of department”, etc. under no circumstances should it be shortened. Otherwise, the recipient has the right to think that you don’t really respect him very much. And the letter should end with words of gratitude for your cooperation. And then the expression is placed before your signature: “With respect, ...” or “Sincerely yours ...”.

In official letters it is unacceptable to address yourself as “you,” even if in life you and this person are not only on business, but also on friendly terms.

Typically, a business or official letter consists of several typical structural elements:

1. Title area.
In this part of the letter on the left there is a corner stamp of the organization indicating the name of the organization, its postal and other details, as well as the registration number and date of registration of the letter as an outgoing document. If the official letter is a response letter, then it is indicated here which document the letter responds to.
The addressee's details are placed on the right side of the header.

Below the corner stamp is a title for the text of the document. The language structure of the header can look like:

ü preposition “O” + noun. in the prepositional case: “About the supply of cars”;

ü on the issue “About” + noun. in the prepositional case: “On the issue of the supply of spare parts”;

ü regarding + noun in the genitive case: “Regarding a purchase order,” etc.

2. The actual text of the letter. The main features of the design of the text of the letter are as follows.

ü The text of a service letter, as a rule, should concern one issue or several questions if they are related and will be considered in one structural unit recipient organization.

ü The text of the letter, as a rule, consists of two parts. The first part sets out the reason, basis or justification for drawing up the letter, and provides links to documents that are the basis for preparing the letter. The second part, starting with a paragraph, contains conclusions, proposals, requests, decisions, etc.

Structure of a business letter

1. Name of the sending organization.

3. Date the letter was written.

4. Address of the recipient of the letter.

5. Indication of a specific person.

6. Opening address

7. An indication of the general content of the letter, i.e. letter subject.

8. The main text of the letter.

9. The final formula of politeness.

10. Signature.

11. Indication of the application.

When writing a business letter to a Russian partner, it is worth remembering a few more rules.

The position of the person to whom the document is addressed is indicated in the dative case, for example:

to CEO
OJSC "Alfa Business"
V.A. Prokhorov

JSC "Beta Holding"
Chief accountant
V.M. Ivanov

If you use the abbreviations “Mr.,” “Ms.,” then write the respondent’s last name first, followed by the initials.

The document must not contain more than four addressees. The word “Copy” is not indicated before the second, third, fourth addressees. If there are more recipients, a document distribution list is created.

When sending a letter to an organization, indicate its name, then its postal address.

When sending a document to an individual, indicate the surname and initials of the recipient, then the postal address

A note indicating the presence of the attachment named in the body of the letter is formatted as follows:

Application: for 5 l. in 2 copies .

If the letter has an attachment that is not named in the text, then indicate its name, the number of sheets and the number of copies; If there are several applications, they are numbered, for example:

If applications are bound, then the number of sheets is not indicated.

If the application is not sent to all the addresses specified in the document, then a note about its availability is drawn up as follows:

Application: for 3 l. in 5 copies. only to the first address.

The “Signature” detail includes the job title of the person who signed the document (full if the document is not drawn up on letterhead, and abbreviated if the document is drawn up on the company’s official letterhead); personal signature; decryption of the signature (initials, surname), for example:

Trainings



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