1.definisi of english busines +types
of english letter
1. Business
means buying and selling, and English is the name of our mother tongue.
Business English is obviously such English as is used in mercantile
transactions. Our definition is quickly made.
But it will bear expansion. We must answer certain questions
that inevitably arise. Is some special brand of English used in business? And
how are we to know when we are studying business and when merely the English of
business?
Take the first
of these two questions. There are of course certain words which name business
transactions primarily. Buy, sell, exchange, barter, trade, purchase, shop,
customer, hire, rent, pay, fee, price, retail, wholesale, lease, mortgage,
merchandise, commodity, goods, stock, office, factory, finance, money, funds, capital,
interest,
sum, amount, balance,
cash, currency, bill, receipt, note, draft, check, bank, cashier, bookkeeper,
stenographer, clerk - hundreds of words like these will occur to us at random
as being mercantile words in a peculiar sense.
To be sure, they are not all limited to business
transactions. Note the word brand. It is primarily mercantile, naming a
particular kind of goods. But in the second paragraph, above, the phrase
"special brand of English" appears. Here the word is used figuratively.
Every business word can be extended in that way to social or literary use. When
we speak of wholesale slaughter, or of a stock of words, we use commercial
figures of speech, and Americans are exceedingly fond of doing so. You have
heard people speak of a thoroughly posted man, as if a man were a ledger. You
have heard them speak of the balance of the day, as if time were literally
money. You have noticed that an American likes to claim everything in sight; I
mean, he prefers to claim that a thing is so, rather than assert, declare,
contend, allege, maintain, or swear that it is so.
2.But the strictly commercial words, again, aria
not the only ones employed in business. In addition to such words as are listed
above in our third paragraph, business employs thousands of terms from science
and technology. If a man is buying or selling machinery, he must know the names
of the machines. If it falls to him to buy the parts of them, he must know the
names of the parts. Does business English, then, include the study of everything
that is bought or sold? If it did, it would include nearly the whole
dictionary. Everything is bought or sold, from surgical instruments to Egyptian
mummies. Nothing is exempt but heaven and love and faith. "Tis only heaven
that is given away; Mis only God may be had for the asking." And there are
gloomy times when we feel that even faith and love are sold.
Quite clearly we are not called upon to master the
whole dictionary. No man's life is long enough for that. So far as special
study of words is concerned, we must limit it to a few which are most commonly
employed in mercantile transactions.
And I fear that even with these we shall not be
quite certain what to do. In our eleventh chapter will be found brief histories
of certain commercial terms. But it is not pretended that knowing the history
of a word will usually be of much practical value to the young man in business.
The word dollar has a curious history, being connected with our word dale, a
valley. A dollar is a dale-coin, a piece of money first coined in a certain
dale, or Thal. But who cares, except the philologist or the antiquary?
"Show me how to get the dollar," says our business man, "and you
bookworms may have the derivation." He feels that he is quite literary enough
if he manages to spell dollar with two ll's. It bores him to go farther into
derivations. And it would be bad business to urge him to go back far into
history when he is interested only in the burning present and the glowing
future.
3. If we pick up any business letter we see at once
that the words it contains are chiefly common words, not especially mercantile.
The technical buying or selling words are present, but they are in the
minority. What makes the letter good or bad is the choice and arrangement of
words to express thought and feeling. It is their composition, or putting
together. And this is really the subject that we are after. "Business
English" in the sense here used is merely short for "Business English
Composition. "
"English," as used in schools and colleges,
now means primarily English composition. It includes also the study of English
literature, but chiefly because a mastery of literature helps the student to a
mastery of writing and speaking. None of us common people ever invents a word,
and the few Edisons are lucky if they add half a dozen to the language. We go
to other people or to books for our words. They are the great social heritage
into which we enter, and literature is the best place to find them, because
there they are alive, each in its context. The proper study of literature is so
practical that I dare not confess how practical - because some people think it
is a matter of pleasure pure and simple. The words of literature are practical;
the setting of them is practical; the knowledge of life that they give us is
practical. The right sort of business man cannot read Shakspere without getting
a clearer insight into those springs of human emotion which he has to consider
daily. And if this reading makes him better in point of courage and good cheer
and character, why, that is practical too.
But this is not a plea for the study of Shakspere.
For all the illustrative matter used in this book we shall go to business
documents pure and simple. We shall have business narratives, business
descriptions, business
arguments, business explanations. We are to try to get at the principles of
English composition on business topics:
Our purpose is to point out some of the established
principles which govern effective expression. Everybody is ready to admit that
the power of effective expression is a financial asset. It helps the
stenographer, the salesman, the manager, the advertiser, the correspondent. It
makes for more responsible positions and advanced salaries. Good selling-talk
sells goods. Judicious explanations remove difficulties. Persuasive arguments reach
buyers.
2.parts of letter
·
The
Heading (The Retern Address) or Letterhead - Companies usually use printed paper where heading or
letterhead is specially designed at the top of the sheet. It bears all the
necessary information about the organisation’s identity.
- Date - Date of writing. The month
should be fully spelled out and the year written with all four digits
October 12, 2005
(12 October 2005 - UK style). The date is aligned with the return address.
The number of the date is pronounced as an ordinal figure, though the
endings st, nd, rd, th, are often omitted in
writing. The article before the number of the day is pronounced but not
written. In the body of the letter, however, the article is written when
the name of the month is not mentioned with the day.
- The Inside Address - In a business or formal
letter you should give the address of the recipient after your own
address. Include the recipient's name, company, address and postal code.
Add job title if appropriate. Separate the recipient's name and title with
a comma. Double check that you have the correct spelling of the recipient
's name.
The Inside Address is always on the left margin. If an 8 1/2" x
11" paper is folded in thirds to fit in a standard 9" business
envelope, the inside address can appear through the window in the
envelope.
- The Greeting - Also called the salutation.
The type of salutation depends on your relationship with the recipient. It
normally begins with the word "Dear" and always includes the
person's last name. Use every resource possible to address your letter
to an actual person. If you do not know the name or the sex of of your
reciever address it to Dear Madam/Sir (or Dear Sales Manager or Dear Human
Resources Director). As a general rule the greeting in a business
letter ends in a colon (US style). It is also acceptable to use a comma
(UK style).
- The Subject Line (optional) - Its inclusion can help the
recipient in dealing successfully with the aims of your letter. Normally
the subject sentence is preceded with the word Subject: or Re:
Subject line may be emphasized by underlining, using bold font, or all
captial letters. It is usually placed one line below the greeting but
alternatively can be located directly after the "inside
address," before the "greeting."
- The Body Paragraphs - The body is where you
explain why you’re writing. It’s the main part of the business letter.
Make sure the receiver knows who you are and why you are writing but try
to avoid starting with "I". Use a new paragraph when you wish to
introduce a new idea or element into your letter. Depending on the letter
style you choose, paragraphs may be indented. Regardless of format, skip a
line between paragraphs.
- The Complimentary Close - This short, polite closing
ends always with a comma. It is either at the left margin or its left edge
is in the center, depending on the Business Letter Style that you use. It
begins at the same column the heading does. The traditional rule of
etiquette in Britain is that a formal letter starting "Dear Sir or
Madam" must end "Yours faithfully", while a letter starting
"Dear " must end "Yours sincerely". (Note:
the second word of the closing is NOT capitalized)
- Signature and Writer’s
identification
- The signature is the last part of the letter. You should sign your first
and last names. The signature line may include a second line for a title,
if appropriate. The signature should start directly above the first letter
of the signature line in the space between the close and the signature
line. Use blue or black ink.
- Initials, Enclosures, Copies - Initials are to be included
if someone other than the writer types the letter. If you include other
material in the letter, put 'Enclosure', 'Enc.', or ' Encs. ', as
appropriate, two lines below the last entry. cc means a copy or copies are
sent to someone else.
3.styles
of bussines
1.
Full Block Style
2. Block Style
3. Semi Block Style
