外贸英语函电与单证课件作者王俐俐主编第1章节.ppt

Lecture 1 What do you know about business letters? Verbal communication in business context To send receive information, ideas, attitudes, emotions for specific purposes Of increasing sales and profits and to Establish good relationship with customers, employees, general public How BL differs from Generic Writing ? Business writing varies from the chatty, conversational style often found in email messages to a familiar co-worker, to the more formal, legalistic style found in contracts. In the majority of memos, email messages, and letters, a style between these two extremes is appropriate. Always remember, writing that is too formal can alienate readers, and an overly obvious attempt to be causal and informal may strike the reader as insincere or unprofessional. In business writing, as in all writing, knowing your audience is critical. Business Letter - Purposes More than communicate, it persuades, influences and instills confidence in the reader that you are a polished professional. Such confidence is needed before anyone will buy anything from you.    Functions of Business Letters To inform To influence To entertain To inform To convey information needed to complete the day-to-day operations of the business To explain instructions to employees, announce meetings and procedures. To influence To influence the reader’s attitudes and actions. To promote a product or service To seek support for ideas and worthy causes presented to supervisors, stockholders, customers/clients, or general public. To entertain To secure the desired response or action To retain a customer’s goodwill or patronage. To collect payments for example: to ask for payment is quite difficult to secure it without offending the reader and losing his or her future patronage. No communication is wholly successful unless it retains the reader’s goodwill. Which is better? Dear Sirs Have you overlooked the unpaid balance from your recent purchase? If your payment i