3. Business writing

Business writing is text for a business purpose, for example we all receive bills, pesky junk mail or reports on a company’s performance (e.g. shareholder reports). However, we can see the manner in which the ever-increasing technological advances are having a direct impact on business writing, I mean even my bank statements are online now! So how does this affect our own business writing? Well in the last six months I had to write two letters of complaint, one was more of an annoyed comment regarding a service and, therefore, I simply used the online feedback communication tool to contact the company. I noted that in this email I was far more informal than I would usually expect to be in a complaint and it made me wonder why this happened. Maybe it’s because I predominantly see the internet as a social network tool and, therefore, have lost the formality in my online communication. Certainly, my second complaint was regarding a more serious issue and, therefore, I purposefully chose to send a business letter, because I thought this would automatically enforce a more serious approach to the matter. Furthermore, I felt the issue would be dealt with more formally by the company, as most companies have a system in place that records letters of complaint and ensures they are fully dealt with.

When writing a business letter there are certainly formalities that one must adhere to. Although I think these layouts make it much easier for us to write our own letters, it can, however, make you look incompetent if you get it wrong, which will therefore lower the credibility of your letter!

Different types of business writing require different layouts; I shall therefore focus on a letter of complaint, as this is something most of us will have to write at some point in our lives!

I will look at an example of a letter of complaint and identify the formalities required:

Source: LETTERWRITINGGUIDE. (2009). Sample Complaint Letter [online]. Available from: http://www.letterwritingguide.com/samplecomplaint.htm, [accessed 25th January 2009]

We shall analyse this letter in four areas; the layout, logic, grammar and rhetoric:

As the mode of this text requires a letter format the layout adheres to Barker’s (1993) format:

· Addresses
· Salutation
· Heading
· Introduction
· Body
· Action Point
· Concluding Remarks
· Complimentary close and signature

However, due to the field of the letter, to complain about faulty goods, the customer has also adhered to Morton’s (1996) five areas of content for a letter of complaint:
1. Initially explain the problem (Included in the introduction – line 13)
2. Give specifics (Main body – line 14)
3. Explanation for dissatisfaction (Main body -15)
4. Identify the preferred solution (Action point - 18)
5. Provide a polite closing (Concluding remarks - 23)

I believe that a header, following the polite salutation (line 11), would help to clarify the subject matter so that it could then be dealt with efficiently by the company in question. The tenor of the letter, considering that it is from the customer to the company, succeeds in addressing the issue in a formal and explanatory manner, displaying the importance of the subject. The use of personal pronoun emphasises the cause-and-effect relationship that the company should adhere to, however, the customer successfully keeps the tone objective, and therefore, avoids what could be seen as a ‘whiney’ tone.

I think this is a successful example of a letter of complaint and we should take note of the necessary layout and tone required. I fear that this electronic age will see us lose the formality that such issues need to be addressed by, as people strive for a speedy reply as opposed to receiving the best service. It will be interesting to see how business writing adapts as we move away from the previous ‘snail-mail’ approach that our generation is rejecting, I suppose only time will tell.