Как правильно составить деловое письмо на английском языке?

Деловой портал  www.delo.ua  совместно с British Council реализует новый проект « Английский язык on-line ». В рамках проекта на портале появляются видеоинтервью с преподавателями British Council.

Тематика видеоинтервью – новые методики и подходы в изучении английского языка, интересные факты и практические советы по улучшению произношения и увеличения словарного запаса.

Тема сегодняшнего интервью – деловая переписка. Интервью дает преподаватель British Council Джоэл Раштон (Joel Rushton).

Несколько важных рекомендаций для правильного написания деловых писем:

1. Стиль написания во многом зависит от получателя письма. Письмо для коллеги и для потенциального клиента пишутся по-разному.
2. Не пишите тему письма CAPS LOCK – у читателя может возникнуть ощущение, что вы на него кричите
3. В конце письма важно использовать стандартные фразы как 'I am looking forward to hearing from you, 'Best wishes' или 'Your's sincerely'.

Текст интервью

Hello. My name's Joel Rushton, I work for the British Council here in Kyiv. And what I'd like to talk to you about today is business e-mails.

Most important thing is be aware of who the reader is. If you're writing to a colleague then obviously your formality can be quite direct and quite personal. If you're speaking to your boss perhaps or if it's a first e-mail to a supplier then your message needs to be more formal. So always be aware of who is the reader.

With the subject line it's important that it's celar and it's direct and that it's easily identifiable from spam. When you write a subject make sure that it's informative and to the point. So, for example 'Meeting on Firday 13th'. Also with the subject line don't write in CAPS. This will give the impression that you're shouting at the person. And as a general rule of thumb don't write in caps in the e-mail either 'cause again it will sound like you're shouting.

The other thing I want to talk about is how to close the e-mail. So what you need to do is, depending again on the formality, so depending on the reader, you'd quite often finish with a closing sentense. Common one's, for example, 'I am looking forward to hearing from you'. And then with the closing line you often need to have something like 'Best wishes' is okay for a colleague perhaps. 'Best regards' is something that's quite common and quite standard. With more formal e-mails you may want to finish with 'Your's faithfully' or 'Your's sincerely'. Remember that if you're writing to someone you don't know, for example you're beginning with 'Dear Sir / Madam', it's important to finish with 'Your's faithfully'. If you know the person, and you know them by name, you can finish with 'Your's sincerely'.

And the final note, the last thing to say, is, as I've said, always remember who it is you're writing to because that would depend on the formality. And if you've already received an e-mail from this person, a good rule of thumb, reply to them the same way they sent to you. For example, if they wrote with 'Dear Joel' you should also write back 'Dear Jack'. If they wrote 'Hi' then you can write 'Hi'. So, as a good rule of thumb follow the previous correspondence.

Thank you