2. Business Letter Writing Jakartas Skyways Limited Wisma Metropolitan Jl. Thamrin Kav.25, No.5-7 Jakarta, Indonesia Telp. (021) 587-9789 Internet: www.jakskyways.com 10 June 2005 Our ref.: CC/PR432 Your ref.: BH/13198 Ms B. Henry 68 Henley Lane Manchester M30 8FT England Complaint about Jakartas Skyways flight SO876, 28 May 2005 Dear Ms Henry Thank you for your letter of June 1 regarding your recent experience with Jakartas Skyways. I was very sorry to learn of the problems encountered and would like to apologize for the inconvenience caused. Your complaint has been passed on to our departmental manager. We hope that you will nevertheless continue to travel with Jakartas Skyways in the future. I have enclosed our latest timetable for your information. Your sincerely, pp Elizabeth Taylor Paul Bloom Customer Relations Manager Cc Caroline Hurd, Departmental Manager, Europe enc. 1 2 3 5 67 4 4 8 9 10 Write out the month in full: 10 June 2005 (British English), June 10, 2005 (American English). You do not need “th” after the number, and there is no full stop. M30 8FT is called the “postcode” in British English. In America, these numbers are the “zip code”. A subject line is often unnecessary. So is “Re:”, from the Latin for “the thing”, meaning “about” or “concerning”. “th” is not necessary. 10 June 2001 (British English), June 10, 2003 (American English). Make sure that you write a full date. In Britain, it is common not to put commas after the opening and closing greetings. In North America, it is normal to put commas in both places, or a colon after the opening greeting. The first letter after the opening address is always capitalized: “Thank you …”. It is perfectly acceptable to start a paragraph or sentence with “I”, but you should not do this all the time. It is common to use “we” instead. Sentences and paragraphs should be kept short and simple. Good letters have few commas (this one has none) and lots of full stops. “pp” (or “p.p.”) before the signature stands for the Latin per procurationem, meaning “through the agency of”. This simply means that the sender was not available to sign it. It does not mean that the signer has any special legal authority. Many people now just write “for” in front of the typed name. “cc” (or “c.c.”) stands for “carbon copies” and shows who else has received copy of the letter. “enc” is used to show that a document has been enclosed. You may also see this written “encl”, “enc.”, “encl.” or “ENC”. Often, the enclosed document is not specified.