Auto Writing : Business Letters

Dear Mr. X,

Last week I mentioned to you that I am being promoted to vice president at Gleechie Medical Equipment Supply Company. Taking over my territory as your sales representative will be Felicia Mamet. Felicia has been with Gleechie for four years in our Indiana office.

Felicia and I will be in your area on May 25 and 26. We would like to take some time on one of those two evenings to take you and Mark McIntyre to dinner and a baseball game. I’m hoping that this will give both of you the chance to get to know Felicia.

Larry, Felicia is my handpicked replacement. I know she will give Boonton Medical Center the attention it deserves. I have little doubt that you will be pleased with my choice.

I look forward to hearing from you to confirm our meeting.

Best regards,

X

(It was written by a salesperson to an existing customer informing him that the salesperson is being promoted and will be replaced by a new salesperson. The current salesperson comes right to the point in announcing her promotion and replacement.)

Probably the most common error involving parallel structure occurs with lists. When you write a sentence that consists of a list or series of items, make sure they are written in the same grammatical form. The use of parallel structure makes your writing more consistent and clearer to your reader.

Faulty parallel structure: To sell her proposal, the marketing director presented her marketing plan, asked for reactions to her presentation, and many other things to involve her audience.

Better: To sell her proposal, the marketing director presented her marketing plan, asked for reactions to her presentation, and did many things to involve her audience.

Faulty parallel structure: The personnel director was requested to handle terminations of employees as well as writing commendations.

Better: The personnel director was requested to handle terminations of employees as well as to write commendations.

Faulty parallel structure can be corrected no matter what part of speech the items in a series are. The important thing to remember is to be consistent with the grammatical form you use for writing items in a series.

Some writers have a tendency to want to write ‘‘I’’ instead of ‘‘me,’’ even when the latter is correct. For instance, the sentence

He gave the book to Eddie and I

is incorrect. The sentence properly should be written:

He gave the book to Eddie and me.

The above error is common when the writer lists two people as the recipient of the action. If you find yourself having difficulty in such a case, simply say the sentence to yourself as if the pronoun were the only receiver of the action.

He gave the book to me.

It is easy to add other receivers of the action after you have determined the proper pronoun to use. This is a simple way to avoid using the wrong pronoun.

Dear Sirs

In connection with a consignment of .. .,
CIF . . ., on board m.v. . . ., we are forwarding
the enclosed documents:

– bill of lading,

– insurance policy,

– duplicate invoice,

– certificate of origin,

– certificate of loading,

– certificate of analysis.

We would request you to release the
documents listed to the consignee on
payment in cash of our Invoice No. .. .
for a total amount of . . .

Please credit this sum to our account with
yourselves after deducting your charges.

We thank you in advance for your assistance.

Yours faithfully

Dear Sirs

The sales agreement concluded between
our supplier, . .. (firm) and our company
for the delivery of . . . CIF . . . to the value
of . .. provides for payment by irrevocable
documentary credit, payable at sight.

We would be most grateful if you would
debit our account with the opening of
an irrevocable letter of credit in favour of
our supplier for the amount in question
in local currency. It is to be payable subject
to presentation of the following documents:

– original commercial invoice and three
copies thereof
– complete set of clean, on-board bills of
lading
– insurance policy or certificate covering
the usual transport risks
– certificate of origin.

The credit to be valid until . . . Part-shipments
not permitted.
At our suppliers’ request, (the) . .. Bank
in . . . will act as the advising bank.

We trust we will be receiving your reply in
the near future.

Yours faithfully

Dear Sirs

As we are planning to import substantial
quantities of foodstuffs from your country
we would be most grateful if you would
let us know whether you might be prepared
to grant us an unsecured credit
facility of up to . . . until the end of the
current year.

You will no doubt recall that our company
availed itself of your bank’s services
for import business (to the value) of . . .
some years ago. Should you, however,
require additional references, we would
request you to contact the Chamber of
Commerce and Industry in .. .

We hope that you will be able to comply
with our request and, if so, let us have
details of your terms.

Yours faithfully

Dear Sir or Madam

We are pleased to announce that, as
from . . ., our long-serving and able
colleague, Mr (Ms) . .. has been appointed
as a director of our company. He (she) is
now in charge of the . . . and . . . (e.g.
Purchasing, Sales, Personnel, etc.)
Departments.

We very much hope that the good
relationship our companies enjoy will
be further strengthened by this move.

Yours faithfully

Dear Sir or Madam

We wish to inform you that our partner of
many years standing, Mr (Ms) …, is retiring
from the firm for reasons of health.

His (Her) shareholdings have been divided
equally among the other partners.

The management of the firm is, however,
in no way affected by this move and we
trust that our existing business ties will
continue to flourish to the mutual advantage
of our two companies.

Yours faithfully