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ally speaking, if you are writing to a member of the public you should address them as
Mr, Mrs, etc. If you are writing to business contacts, it depends to a certain extent on
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A Guide to Good Business Communication
your relationship with them. A title is slightly more formal, and should therefore proba-
bly be used for people you have not met. If you have met them, you should be able to
judge whether they will be offended if you leave the title out, or whether they are likely
to regard you as a bit stuffy if you use it.
It used to be common for women to indicate their marital status with their signature, as in:
Yours sincerely
Margaret James (Mrs).
But most women nowadays, particularly in business, simply sign their names, without
indicating their marital status. In this case you should address them as Ms (Ms Susan
Brown). This is a generally accepted form of address, although of course if your corre-
spondent has signed herself Mrs or Miss then you should use the same form of address.
Some people can make life difficult for their correspondents by signing with just an initial
and a surname  J. Robinson, for example  so that you do not even know what gender
they are. The best thing you can do in these circumstances is to make a guess at their
gender and address them accordingly. You should then start your letter:  I hope it is Mr
(or Ms) Robinson. Your letter was just signed J. Robinson, so I am not sure.
Addressing People by Title
If you are writing to an organisation rather than a named individual, you should try to address it
to the person who is most likely to deal with your letter: the Sales Manager, the Customer
Service Director, the Accountant, etc. If you do not know who might deal with it, here are some
tips on who to address it to.
a company, the Managing Director or the Manager
a club or a professional institution, the Secretary
a firm with a sole owner, the Proprietor
a local authority, the Chief Executive
a government department in the UK, the Minister or the Permanent Secretary
a partnership (such as a firm of lawyers or accountants), the Senior Partner. It used to be a rule
that they should be addressed as Messrs, as in Messrs Black and Green, but since Messrs is the
plural of Mr and the partners are now quite likely to be women, this could give offence.
The salutation
This is the part which opens your letter (which  salutes your correspondent), the part
that begins  Dear ... . If you know your correspondent, there should be no problem
deciding on the best salutation. If you know him or her well, you could begin  Dear John
or  Dear Mary . If you do not want to be quite so informal, you could use their title:  Dear
Mr Black or  Dear Ms White . One thing you should not do is address someone whose
name you know as  Dear Sir or  Dear Madam . This is so formal and unfriendly as to be
almost rude.
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Laying out documents
A sort of  halfway house between these two degrees of formality is becoming increas-
ingly common. It involves using no title in the inside address, and using the person s full
name in the salutation. For example, the inside address would be  Mary White rather
than  Ms Mary White and the salutation would be  Dear Mary White . The implication is
that, although you are not on first-name terms yet, you expect to be fairly soon  per-
haps because you are about to develop a business relationship.
If you do not know your correspondent s name, the correct salutation is  Dear Sir or
Madam (or  Dear Sir/Madam ). So in all cases where you are addressing someone by
their job title only, you should use this form of salutation. You should not assume that
the person you are addressing is a man and just write  Dear Sir , as this could well cause
offence if they are a woman. Some people try to get round the formality and clumsiness
of  Dear Sir or Madam by writing  Dear Managing Director or  Dear Sales Manager , but
this has not caught on, and is just as clumsy as  Dear Sir or Madam .
Starting your letter
The way you start your letter is important. You should set the tone for the rest of the
letter early, and signpost what it is going to be about. You can use a heading if you think
it will help clarify the subject immediately; however, headings tend to make letters look
rather formal, and they are now used less than they used to be. If you are replying to a
letter, then a simple way of indicating the subject is to say:  Thank you for your letter of
20 March about the trade exhibition. However, it is important to get a good reaction
from your readers, and in order to do so you need to make them want to read on. For
this reason, it is best to avoid tired old clichés like  With reference to your letter of 20
March ... or  I am writing to tell you ... Even  Thank you for your letter of 20 March can
be avoided with a little thought. Here are a few possible options:
I was delighted to receive your letter of 20 March about ...
I was very sorry to see from your letter of 20 March that ...
Thank you for taking the trouble to write and tell me about ...
I was concerned to read your letter of 20 March and to see that you have been having
problems with ...
I have thought carefully about the points you raised in your letter of 20 March and ...
There are, of course, many ways of starting your letter, depending on what you are writ-
ing about. But do try to make the start both relevant to your subject and interesting,
rather than using some of the forms that have been used over and over again. Of course,
if you are not replying to a letter, you can get straight into your subject, which makes it
easier to avoid clichés. But set the tone as well as the subject from the start. Your reader
should be able to tell from your opening not just what the letter is about, but also what
you attitude is.
The body of your letter
The main part of your letter should follow on logically from your opening, and there
should then be a logical flow through the letter, as discussed in Chapter 2. It should also
follow the three rules of business communication and be brief, clear and direct.
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Ending your letter
Your closing paragraph is as important as your opening one. This is the last thing your
correspondent will read (apart from your signature), and the last impression he or she
will be left with. You should use it for three purposes:
To summarise your position. This does not mean that you should provide a summary
of everything you have said  that would be boring. You should simply summarise
your views, or how you want your reader to feel. The exact wording will depend on
the type of letter, but here are a few examples.
 I hope this has helped you to understand our position.
 These are the problems I would like to review when we meet.
 I think you will agree that this is a very special offer.
 I am sure you will appreciate our concern about this matter.
To indicate any action you are expecting, and who will take it. There are five different
forms of action ending, depending on the kind of response you expect. A positive
reader response means that you expect the reader to take some action. Typical
endings of this kind include:
 I would be grateful if you could let me know as soon as possible what action you
intend to take.
 I look forward to hearing from you.
 Perhaps you could give me your views on these proposals within the next week or
so.
 Please let me have your cheque in settlement of this account.
A positive writer response means that you will be taking some action. For example:
 I will thoroughly investigate the problem and contact you as soon as I have an
answer.
 I will consider your proposal carefully and let you have my response within the next
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