Business writing and report

• Business correspondence


  Any professional written communication at a workplace, including transactions between coworkers, clients, and other members of the workplace
• Types of business correspondence

  • Internal business correspondence
  • External business correspondence
  • Sales business correspondence
  • Personal business correspondence
• Internal business correspondence


  • Refers to written communication within a company's departments, employees, units, and branches
  • Can be either formal or informal
  • E-mails are typically used
• External business correspondence


  • Refers to communications that occur outside of a firm or organization
  • Involves a firm employee conducting business with people outside the company
• Sales business correspondence


  • Used to communicate status and other sales-related information
  • Contains supporting documentation and records about transactions and marketing
  • Examples include invoices, sales reports, proposals, and orders
• Personal business correspondence


  • Personalized written communication from anyone in a company
  • Written and read privately by the involved people within the company
  • Examples include request letters, recommendation letters, proposals, appreciation notes
• Importance of business correspondence

  • Serves as evidence for all of a company's significant transactions
  • Promotes healthy communication among the people in and out of a business
  • Avoids unnecessary and time-consuming communication between business people
• Steps to attain the art of business correspondence

  1. Be direct

  2. Cut the fat

  3. Avoid jargons and flabby words

  4. Read what you write
• Principles to remember


  • Do: Plan what you wish to write, Be direct and effective, Use words judiciously, Keep sentences short, Avoid jargons and fancy words
  • Don't: Think that your first draft is final draft, Tell a story to introduce your main idea
• Elements of a business letter

  • Sender's section (sender's address or logo, dateline)
  • Receiver's section (receiver's position, address, contact info)
  • Attention line (optional)
  • Subject line
  • Salutation
  • Main body
  • Complementary close
  • Signature
  • Enclosure
  • Carbon copy
• The purpose of the executive summary is to give readers an overview of the entire document.
• The introduction introduces the problem or issue being addressed by the report.
• It should be written last, as it summarizes all other sections.
• Some examples of sales correspondence are invoices, sales reports, proposals, and orders.
• Some examples include request letters, recommendation letters, proposals, appreciation notes, and the like.
• the art of business correspondence: writing process; pre-writing, writing, post-writing