THE FORMATION OF SKILLS IN WRITING ENGLISH-LANGUAGE BUSINESS LETTERS TO MASTERS

Abstract

The article outlines peculiarities of teaching business writing to masters, as well as main business letter formats which differ in the degree of complexity, particularly the Block format, the Modified Block format, the Modified Semi-Block format, the Simplified format, the Hanging Intended format, and the Memo format. The use of a particular format of a business letter primarily depends on the purpose of correspondence. The article presents the results of the analysis of the structure of English-language business letters. The conducted comparative analysis of the data obtained from different sources has demonstrated that business letters can be divided into four main sections, namely the heading, the opening, the body, and the closing. These sections have been described in detail. In each section, certain essential (or required) and optional parts have been identified. The essential (or required) parts of a business letter include the letterhead or the typed heading, the date line, the inside address, the salutation, the message, the complimentary closing, the writer’s signature, and the writer’s identification. The optional parts are personal (or confidential) notation, the attention line, the subject line, the company signature, the reference initials, and the postscript. Business letters may also contain additional information in the form of different types of notations.