1、1. LetterheadThe letterhead is also called return address, which is the full address of the writer. It is typed in the upper right- hand corner of the first page. In business world, letterhead is normally printed on the top of the letter paper in the middle. Thus you need not to write it again. Just
2、 write the date. For personal letter, you also need not to write the letterhead.Notes for letterhead:1） You should be aware of the order you write letterhead is just reversed from that in Chinese ,i.e., from the smallest unit to the biggest unit. For example, the number of the room, number of the bu
3、ilding, number of the street, city, province and then the country. 2. DatesBe careful!In China the 14th April 2003 is written 2003/04/14In England the 14th April 2003 is written 14/4/2003 or 14/04/2003In America the 14th April 2003 is written 4/14/2003 or 04/14/2003It is probably safest to write 14t
4、h April, 2003 or April 14, 2003 !3. The opening The opening is also called the inside address, which is the address exactly the same as that on envelope. The opening goes above the salutation on the left, which is always omitted in personal letters. The order of the inside address is the same as the
5、 order of letterhead. While in business world, if you know the receivers name and position, you should write them before the company name and address.The salutation is the greeting, which goes one or two spaces below the opening at the left-hand margin. Usually it is best to say “Dear” if you know t
6、he name of the receiver, or just “Dear Sir/Madam” if you do not know the receivers name. Then you should use a comma （,） or nothing. We Chinese normally use a colon （:）After the salutation, while, in English letter, colon should not be used. It is not correct.In salutation, you still should pay much
7、 attention to the title, Mr. for male, Mrs., Miss, Ms. For female. They should be followed by surname, family name. For example, Mr. Brown, Mrs. Brown （husbands surname）, Ms. Smith, Miss White etc.Note: In China, people always address the title of ones position, such as manager, director, and teache
8、r etc. In English, however, these are not the addressing. It is not correctly used that you write “Dear Teacher Zhang”, “ Dear Manager Yang”, and so on and so forth.It is the most important part of the letterthe content of the letter. It is one or two spaces bellow the salutation. The length of the
9、line should be adjusted to the length of the paper. Leave margins on either side. The paragraph should be blocked or indented, according to the style chosen. Usually it is singlespaced for a business letter. It usually consists of at least two paragraphseven if the second paragraph is nothing more t
10、han “ Thanks and best wishes to you,” or something. It contains introduction, purpose and conclusion in the body of the letters.6. The closingIt is the way of saying goodbye. In business writing, it is always the complimentary closing. There are various of words to choose in English closing. It shou
11、ld match the tone established by the salutation and carried through the body of the letter. It is usually two spaces bellow the body of the letter, together with the signature group.How a letter is closed depends on how it is opened. The closing should match the opening. If you use a comma （,） after
12、 the salutation, you should use a comma after the closing. If you use nothing after the salutation, you also should use nothing after the closing.Dear Sir or Dear MadamDear Sir/MadamYours faithfullyDear Mr. Smith,Dear Mrs. Wang,Dear Ms. Lee,Yours sincerely,Yours truly,*Dear RoseDear JackBest wishes
13、With kind regardsYours Love （informal, close friends）Cordially yours,7. The signature and nameThe signature is the last part of a letter. Skip a line after the closing and sign your name in line with the first word of the closing. In business letters, you should sign your full name. Your name should
14、 be typed also in another line. In order to make the people know how to address you when reply, lady writers should list Mrs. Ms., Or Miss in parenthesis after your name. However, in personal letters, you can sign your full name, first name or nick name according to the relationship with the receive
15、rs.8. P. S. （postscript）This should be located at the bottom of the paper. If you are not on purse forget to mention something in your letter, you can write P. S. and then just add what you forget.There are some phrases for polite expression:I would like towould you like, Would you pleaseI will be g
16、rateful if, I am afraid that, Thank you forIt was kind of you to haveI wonder if it is possible thatYou were most thoughtful toPlease accept my apology for the delay in sendingCertainly, you have every right to expect better service, and I1. Invitation I would very much like to invite you for.Would
17、you please attend the annual conference held.We will hold a party this weekend. We would like to invite you to be out guest.On behalf of , I am extending to you our formal invitation to visitI have great pleasure, on behalf ofto invite you to attend theonsponsored byheld in（place） on （date）/fromtoAc
18、cept the invitation:I accept with my pleasure your kind invitation.I would love to attend your party.I would like to visit you.I would be very pleased to.Refuse the invitationI would very much love to take part in your party, but .I am sorry that I will have another meeting on that day, .It is so pl
19、eased to get your invitation, while I will be on business trip during that period.Sample lettersRead the samples in the following parts and write your own letter of the same type.1. Letter of invitationCommerce Chamber46 Woodworth RoadLondon EC3 5FGApril 8, 2004Henry Jones51 Grant AvenueToronto, Ont
20、. CanadaM4C 4C9Dear Mr JonesWe would like to invite you to join us for the annual sales conference and invite you to give a talk at the conference on June 12th. The conference will start at 9:00 am.More than 500 company directors are expected to attend.We would be very grateful if you could inform u
21、s whether you will be available on June 12th and tell us the topic of your speech.Yours sincerelyHelen HendersonHelen Henderson （Miss） the SecretaryExercises 1.4.1-1 : The students union will hold a party on this Saturday at 6:00 at the students club. Write an invitation letter to your English Teach
22、er. Then exchange with your partner to check. After that write a reply to accept or refuse.2. Complaint I must complain about （that）I am not satisfied withI feel something should be done aboutMay 4, 2002Dear Sir/Madam,Further to my telephone call this morning, I would like to write to you for the ta
23、pe-recorder I bought last month in you shop.I just used it only for a week when it broke. I took it to a local repair shop, they told us that it was factory defect and suggested that I take it to your branchcompany in our town. I waited for more than two weeks, and your company did not send a replac
24、ement.I will be grateful if you could replace the machine for me soon.Yours faithfully,James ChristopherExercises1.4.1-2: You bought a walkman at duty free shop at the airport. You found the machine does not work when you got back home. Write a letter to complain.3. ApologyI am terribly sorry, butI
25、am afraid II must apologize forDear Customer,I am writing to you to explain the reasons for the poor service we have given over the past few months. I apologize for the incomplete delivery and no replies to the inquiries. I am extremely sorry for all the inconvenience caused by our poor services. Th
26、e main reasons lie in our working procedures have not kept pace with the expansion of our company. First of all, we do not have enough staffs to deal with the deliveries and inquiries; secondly, our warehouse is not large enough to store our goods; thirdly, our computer systems are also not so moder
27、n as to satisfy the need of companys expansion.I promise that orders will surely be delivered promptly and correctly. See to it that we have already taken some actions. Now we have already invited more staffs; and we have already rent a warehouse acquired; moreover, we have already invested enough m
28、oney to improve the computer systems to cope with the pace of the expansion. Accordingly, the poor services as before will not appear anymore.HenryHenry, the managerExercises1.4.1-3 : Write a reply to show the apology about the walkman mentioned above, and give your solution of the problem.4. Inform
29、ationAsking for informationCould you please tell me thatCould you possiblyWould it be possible toI would be grateful if you would. .Would you mind doingI wonder if you couldI am writing to you in the hope of/ to inquire aboutOffering informationIt is my pleasure to .I would like to tell youWe would like to inform you that.Thank you for your inquiry about5. SuggestionId like to suggest thatMay I suggest thatPerhaps we couldCould you pleaseSample le
