Principles of Business Writing

The principles of Good Business Letter can be described in the following ways:

1) Knowing the Addressee – Good Business Letter should contain the relevant information about the knowledge of subject and the person to whom it is addressed. It will create maximum influence on the reader and will benefit in best possible way.

2) Writing Naturally – Good Business Letter should have genuineness in expression of thoughts or ideas. It should be written in soft spoken language and the reader should believe that we are in conversation with him.

3) Writing Clearly and Without Ambiguity – Good Business Letter should be free from any confusion or ambiguity. It should insured clarity of thoughts with no omission of words, no faulty punctuation and no disorderly arrangement of facts. There has to be affixation of full stops and commas at right places so that there is no change in the sense or subject of the matter. Besides this, there has to be proper specification of numbers and figures to maintain the authenticity of the matter. The faulty punctuations or faulty words may prove disaster or failure for the business relations.

4) Writing Completely – Good Business Letter should have all the relevant facts and complete information so that there are no unnecessary queries. The letter should be complete in all aspects and everything should be described or written specifically.

5) Courtesy and Consideration – The courtesy in business correspondence is simply not restricted to obligatory words like “Thank you" or “Please" but implies to promptness in attending to the letters. It is important to acknowledge letters when it is not possible to give immediate replies. There has to be politeness in declining business proposals or saying “no" and it has to be done in decent manner. In business, courtesy begets courtesy, so there has to be congenial and friendly with business associates and parties
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6) Avoiding Jugglery or Jumbling of Words – It is important that the language of the letters should be simple and should not be like essay or article from literary point of view. It has to be written in short sentences with simple words. The letter should not have typical or difficult words and it should be refrained from verbose or prosaic style of writing.

7) Avoiding the use of commercial words/phrases/abbreviations – The use of commercial words/phrases/abbreviations should be avoided as they have become obsolete and out of practice. There are some important commercial terms that cannot be substituted, yet they should be minimize or avoided in the letters.


8) Effectiveness – Good Business Letter should be concise, precise, relevant, concrete and consistent so that it is easily understood by the reader and its contents should be fully followed. The letter should be arranged in the relevant way so that the important facts should be given prime importance. It should be followed by other important facts in continuation so that the entire letter becomes link chain. The letter can be divided into small paragraphs and each paragraph should contain specific type of information. It should be not too short or too lengthy as this may prove monotonous or irrelevant in a business letter to the reader.

9) Planning the Letter – The writer of the letter should have good thinking power and should plan out its contents before writing the letter. It helps in assorting all relevant facts, figures and places so that the letter becomes more useful and result oriented. The following steps are to be taken for planning a letter and they are as follows:


a) Collecting facts or information – It refers to collecting all the relevant facts or information to be included in the letter.

b) Selecting right or accurate style/approach – It implies to the initiation of letter and can be done through three approaches or styles. They are:

1) Direct – In this type we can jump into main issue or conclusion before giving any type of preface or introduction. For example – Enquiries, Quotations, Orders etc.
2) Indirect – It involves making indirect or preface for the main information, issue or subject.
3) Persuasive – It should be written in a way that the reader should be motivated and its content should arouse his interest to create a demand for the business. For example – sales executive offering lucrative offers to sell his products through effective business letter writing.

c) Arranging Facts, Figures and Places – The collected information of the relevant facts, figures and places should be arranged and assorted properly so that the letter becomes link chain and should be able to satisfy readers.

10) Checking or Revising the Letter – The business letter should be revised and checked thoroughly before signature and dispatch. It is done to assure accuracy, clarity and effectiveness of a business letter. It should be free from faulty words, faulty punctuation, and incomplete information etc for congenial and prosperous business relations.