Business Communication

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I think if any one honestly reflects on who I am, how I got here, what I think I
might do well, and so forth, I discover a debt to all those that span history in my
life. The work of some unknown person makes my live easier every day. I believe
it's appropriate to acknowledge all of these unknown persons; but it is also
necessary to acknowledge those people I know have directly shaped my live and
my work.

First of all, I would like to thank ‘Almighty Allah’ without whose blessings I am
not be able to complete this report. He gave me energy, courage, knowledge and
consistency to complete this report successfully.

Secondly, I would like to thank my respectable teacher Mr. ARIF-UR-

REHMAN for their guidance and wherever I needed it and I always got the
knowledge and inspiration to complete such report throughout the semester.

Finally, I would like to thank all those individuals who have helped me directly or
indirectly to complete this report.

Yasir Hussain

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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

Mr. Arif-ur-Rehman

Assistant Professor

Hamdard Institute of Management Sciences (HIMS)

Karachi

Dear Sir:

The services, which you have rendered for the betterment and development of the
Intercommunication skills of the students are unforgettable. The students, who
have been taught by you are representing our institute in the well known
organizations of the country.

I am very pleased to submit my term assignment which you have given to us on

25th October 2010. I have collected all the required information and studied all the
relevant facts that are necessary for effective Business letter writing. In the vision
of this information, I have given my suggestions and recommendations that are
helpful for individuals in writing letters in different situations.

I have followed all the instructions which you have given to us and avoided all
such things that will affect my ability regarding the completion of this report. The
guidance which you have provided to me, has helped me a lot to complete the
report efficiently.

But if you still found some problems and have questions regarding the report, I am
obliged to discuss them with you.

Yours sincerely

Yasir Hussain (291005)

BBA (IV)

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Dated: 15th November 2010

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Writing to be effective has to follow certain rules in a

business environment. Highlight them, this information
must not be copied/downloaded from the internet. Design
three letters (outgoing) and three letters (incoming).
Describe the strengths and weaknesses of each of these
letters and then write a note to your class instructor telling
him what one must now do to make the letter writing
process simple, comprehensive, intelligent and easy to
understand and reflects the ‘You’ Attitude. The report
should be submitted to the instructor on November 15th,
2010.

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METHODOLOGY

I have given my 100 percent potential and used all my possible skills in making
this report. In order to collect information, I have gone through different books and
websites on the relevant topics.

First of all, I have studied different books and visited various sites on Business
letter writing. Then, I have provided different effective letter writing tools which I
think might help individuals in writing letters in different situations efficiently.

Secondly, I have designed different scenarios for 3 incoming and outgoing letters.
Then, by keeping the above mentioned writing tools in mind, I have written these
letters by using imaginary names and organizations. Before writing these letters, I
have collected various incoming and outgoing letters of well known organizations
and studied the format, similarities and dissimilarities of these letters.

After writing these letters, I have gone through these letters again and again three
or four times to find any possible mistakes in it and corrected all these errors.
Then, I have given a copy of these letters to my father, uncle and to some elder
cousins for further post reading. They, after reading these letters have told me
positive and negative points of my letter writing. Then after reading these
responses, I have stated my strong and weak points of my writing.

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Finally, I analyzed all my above findings to find out the rules that will help the
individuals to write their letters efficiently. After that I have written a letter to my
course instructor telling him what rules should we follow to make the writing
process simple, comprehensive, intelligent, easy to understand and reflect the
‘You’ Attitude.

BODY
OF
THE
REPORT
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RULES OF EFFECTIVE BUSINESS

LETTER WRITING

The following rules should be followed whether you are writing a letter, a memo, a
proposal or a report and these rules are as follows:

 Write while keeping the readers profile in mind.

 Write for the benefit of the reader.
 Write according to the purpose of your writing and make sure that every
sentence and paragraph should the purpose of the writing.
 Try to use simple words and write short sentences and paragraphs.
 Avoid to use passive voice in your letter writing.
 Try to write in a natural way like you talk.
 Try to write short as much as possible and go through the point and avoid
using extra or irrelevant sentences.
 Grab the attention of the reader in the very first paragraph of the letter.
 Try to use such a format that will help the reader to take the desired response
that will turn up in your benefit.
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 Include those thoughts and images that will grab the attention of the reader
throughout the letter.
 Write the first draft of the letter.
 Post reading of the first draft and correct all possible mistakes that you found
in post reading.

All the rules mentioned above should be followed in order to write effective
business letters in all different business scenarios.

INCOMING
LETTERS

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Mr. Fahad Baig

Sales Manager

Galaxy Computers

Karachi

Respected Sir:

Your company is one of the leading computer providers in the country. We have
purchased many computers and their accessories from your company in the past.
Every time you have satisfied us with the high quality of your products.

About two months ago, we have purchased 25 new laptops for our some senior
managers. But some managers have complained us that laptops are not working
properly. We have discovered that 5 laptops are not working properly.

We have sent these laptops to your company so that you can check the fault behind
this problem. We hope that you will take this complaint seriously and solve our
problems as soon as possible.

Yours Sincerely

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Bilal Khan

Head of I.T Department

Hamdard University

Dated: 7th November 2010

Mr. Jawwad Ahmed

Associate Manager

Galaxy Computers

Karachi

Dear Mr. Ahmed:

Your company is one of the best computer providers in the country. I have
purchased many computers and their accessories from your firm in the past. Every
time you have provided me the cheapest prices for very high configuration
computers.

Recently, our management has decided to build new computer lab to teach the
initial know how of computers to the primary students. For this purpose we have
decided to purchase 25 Pentium 4 computers.

So, we want you to provide the price quotations of different configuration Pentium
4. We hope that you will provide us such cheaper rates that no one will offer us in

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the past as you have done in past. We will desperately wait for your response and
wish that you will sustain your good relationship with us.

Yours Sincerely

Ahmed Ghayas

Administrator

Hamdard Public School

Dated: 8th November 2010

Mr. Salman Qureshi

Marketing Manager

Galaxy Computers

Karachi

Respected Sir:

Last week, your firm had sent a proposal for the betterment of our organization.
We are very impressed with your suggestions and recommendations. You have
told us the advantages of computerization of our firm and the cost of doing it.

By measuring all the benefits and costs of computerization we discover that we

will get more profits after computerization. So, by keeping all these factors in mind
we have decided to computerize our firm.

For this purpose, we want you to please provide us 75 Pentium 4 that we will
install in different departments of our company and manage our customers and
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suppliers more efficiently. We hope that you will provide us our required order on
the very cheapest price and build your strong relationships with our company and
support us with your cheap services as well as in the future.

Yours Faithfully

Shehroz Bukhari

Research Manager

Wall Mart

Dated: 10th November 2010

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OUTGOING
LETTERS

Mr. Bilal Khan

Head of I.T Department

Hamdard University

Karachi

Respected Sir:

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Your company is one of our major customers in the country and every time we
have provided you the best quality of our products. We apologize that this time we
have failed to fulfill your requirements.

We have taken your complaint very seriously and investigate the factors due to
which we are unable to provide you the best quality of the products. We discover
that this time our company purchased the laptops from Fujitsu and this brand is not
well known for their laptops.

We have returned your faulted laptops to that company and ordered the high
configuration laptops of Apple for your firm and this will take time duration of two
to three days. By doing so you will have to pay little more amount of price because
of the brand and quality difference. We hope that you will understood our
problems and cooperate with us.

We promise you such circumstances will not happen again in the future and our
good and strong business relationships will not be affected by this issue.

Yours Sincerely

Fahad Baig

Sales Manager

Galaxy Computers

Dated: 11th November 2010

Mr. Ahmed Ghayas

Administrator

Hamdard Public School

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Karachi

Dear Mr. Ghayas:

Your school is one of the well known educational institutes of the city. You
provide quality education and guide the students in making their bright futures.

You have requested us to provide you the price quotations of different

configuration Pentium 4. We have three different configurations of Pentium 4 and
each of them will cost you different prices. A Pentium 4 with 2.0 GHz processor,
512 MB RAM and 20 GB hard disk will cost you Rs. 9,000. A Pentium 4 with 3.1
GHz processor, 1 GB RAM and 40 GB hard disk will cost you Rs. 10,500. A
Pentium 4 with 4.0 GHz processor, 2 GB RAM and 80 GB hard disk will cost you
Rs. 12,000.

I have provided you the prices of different Pentium 4 of one computer and you
have to purchase 25 computers. So, we will provide you 15% discount and we
hope that no one will provide you such cheap prices that we have provided to you.
We wish that you will purchase computers from our firm and build long term
relationships with us.

Yours Sincerely

Jawwad Ahmed

Associate Manager

Galaxy Computers

Dated: 12th November 2010

Mr. Shehroz Bukhari

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Research Manager

Wall Mart

Karachi

Your firm provides you the finest quality of different products to your customers.
But your company has the very wide range of products and its very difficult to
manage the supplies and demands of various products.

We have studied the problems of your firm in great detail and discovered some
solutions to solve them. We think that you should computerize the entire processes
of your company and manage your suppliers, customers and various products with
computer systems.

We hope that you will take our proposal seriously and buy high configuration
computers for your firm. We are 100% sure that your this step definitely increase
the sales and profits of your organization and minimize the costs. We wish that you
will try to build strong and healthy relationships with our company.

Yours Faithfully

Salman Qureshi

Marketing Manager

Galaxy Computers

Dated: 13th November 2010

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STRENGTHS

 I have tried to use simple words and short sentences as much as possible.
 I have avoided to use difficult words or jargons in letter writing.
 I have expressed my vision in short paragraph.
 I have kept the purpose of writing while writing the letters.
 I have tried to write by keeping the level of reader in mind.
 I have tried to write for the benefit of the reader.
 I have not use passive voice in my writing.
 I have written all my letters in the natural way, the way I talk.
 I have post read the entire document after writing the first draft of my report
and corrected all possible mistakes that I found.

WEAKNESSES

 I have not written my letters precisely.

 I have also used some irrelevant sentences in my writing that should be
avoided.
 In some letters, the paragraphs are not fully interconnected.
 I have written in such a format that will lead the reader to take the desired
response efficiently.
 My letters are not perfect enough that might not grab the attention of the
reader upfront.

I have mentioned all my possible strengths and weaknesses that I feel are in my
writing. I will try to improve my writing and try my level best to overcome my
weaknesses. If you find any strength or weakness of my writing after reading my

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report, I request you to please tell all these factors that you think might improve
my writing.

NOTE TO THE TEACHER

Mr. Arif-ur-Rehman

Assistant Professor

Hamdard Institute of Management Sciences (HIMS)

Karachi

Respected Sir:

The term report which was given by you is a great source of knowledge and helped
me a lot to improve my English. The information which I gathered in order to
complete this report provides me the rules to make the letter writing efficient.

In order to make the letter writing simple, comprehensive, intelligent, simple to

reflect and that reflects the ‘You Attitude’, one should some easy and necessary
rules. To make the writing process efficient we should use easy words and short
sentences that would be easily understandable by the reader. Try to avoid writing
irrelevant sentences and provide all necessary data in the letter.

While writing we should keep the benefit of the reader in the writing and highlight
them so that the reader will take the required action that would benefit the writer.
By following all the above rules, we can make our letter writing skills more
efficient.

I have provided all my suggestions that I think might improve the writing skills of
the individuals. If you find some other ways to improve the letter writing, you
should please inform me so that I can improve my writing skills.

Yours Obediently

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Yasir Hussain

291005 (BBA-IV)

Dated: 13th November 2010

CONCLUSION

As we know that every incident of our lives had some positive and negative
impacts due to which we have learned a lot of knowledge. Similarly, I have learned
many things in making this report.

I have discovered some of my strengths and weaknesses of my writing in making

this report. The information which I gathered to complete this report is extremely
knowledgeable.

In the entire process of completing this assignment, I have discovered various rules
to make the writing process more efficient and I have improved my writing skills
by implementing these rules while writing my letters.

I have written different letters in different scenarios of business environment.

These letters helped me a lot to understand the writing formats of corporate world.
This report will help me throughout my student life and as well as in the future
when I start my carreer in the corporate environment.

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GLOSSARY

A B
Accessories-
Betterment-Subordinate or supplementary part
Act or process of bettering
Acknowledge- Brand-
Express recognition or realization Trademark
Analyse-
Examine or think about something
Apologize-
To say sorry for your mistake

C D
Cheap-
Desperate-
Lower in price willing to do
anything
Collect- Design-
To gather something Plan of
something
Complete- Desire-
Make something perfect Hope for
something
Consistency-
Development-

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Quality of always be the same Gradual growth of

something
Configuration- Discount-
Shape or arrangement of something Reduction in the
cost
Corporate- Discover-
Belonging with a business Find something that
was hidden

E F
Effective- Faithful-
Producing results that are wanted Loyal to a leader
Environment- Fault-
All factors that influence the Some mistake that has
happened
way people live

G H
Gather- Honest-
To come together or form a group Someone who does
not lie or steal
Guidance-
Help or advice given to someone about
work

I M
Imaginary-
Management-
Not real but produced from pictures or ideas Act or skill of directing
and organizing
Implement- Measure-
To take action or make changes To find size, length or amount
of something
Impress- Mention-
Something that admires you To talk about
something
Incident-

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Something that is unusual

Inspiration-
A sudden good idea about what you should do
Investigate-
Try to find out the truth about something

N O
Necessary- Oblige-
Things that you need To make it necessary
for someone

Overcome-
To control a problem
that prevents
you from achieving
something

P Q
Potential- Quality-
Natural ability that could develop to something that is superior
than
make you very good others
Precise-
Quotation-
To show that you are giving more exact How much money a
piece of work
details cost
Proposal-
A plan or suggestion which is made formally
To an official person

R S
Recommendation- Satisfied-
Official advice given to someone Pleased something has
done according
to you

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Relevant- Scenario-
Problem being discussed or considered A situation that could
possibly happen
Requirement- Sincerely-
Something that is needed or asked A feeling that is honest and
true based
on what you really feel or
believe
Response- Suggestion-
Something that is done as a reaction of A plan, idea or possibility
that
something someone mentions
Return- Sustain-
To give back something To make something
continue to exist

U V
Understand- Vision-

To know the of what someone is telling A picture in your mind of a

possible situation
Unforgettable-
Events that you will always remember
Upfront-
Behaving or talking in a direct honest way

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REFERENCES

BOOKS:
 Webster's New World Letter Writing Handbook 
by Robert W. Bly
 How to Write It: A Complete Guide to Everything You'll Ever Write 
by Sandra E. Lamb
 Letter Writing Made Easy!
by Margaret McCarthy
 1001 Letters for All Occasions: The Best Models for Every Business and
Personal Need 
by Corey Sandler, Janice Keefe

WEBSITES:
 www.businessletterpunch.com
 http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/effective-content-writing-tips-for-
newbies-2882898.html
 http://letter-writing-etiquette.info/
 http://www.businessballs.com/writing.html
 http://www.honestreporting.com/a/mediaMonitor.asp
 http://grammar.about.com/od/businesswriting/Business_Writing.html
 http://www.writing.com/page/letter_writing/letter_writing.html

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LETTER TO THE TEACHER

Mr. Arif-ur-Rehman

Assistant Professor

Hamdard Institute Of Management Sciences (HIMS)

Karachi

Dear Sir:

You have provided lot of knowledge and guided all of us to improve our writing
skills throughout the semester. The various assignments, quizzes and finally the
term report helped us a lot to realize our strengths and weaknesses of our writing.

The report which was to us as a part of our course requirement gave us very
knowledgeable information and improves our writing skills. I have followed all
instructions while making this report. After discovering the weaknesses of my
writing, I am trying my level best to overcome these problems by reading different
books and writing different letters in different scenarios.

The entire knowledge and skills that I have learned from you and from different
assignments which were given by you, I will practice all these knowledge
throughout my student life as well as in my corporate career.

I am very thankful to you for all your efforts and guidance and I know you will
guide us similarly as well as in the future.

Yours Obediently

Yasir Hussain

291005 (BBA-IV)

Dated: 14th November 2010

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