Dear Help Desk: How to Close a Business Letter

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Your Comments, Please! *If you would like us to respond directly to you, please include your email address in your message.* Your Feedback Is Our Feed! VOCABULARY for Today's Podcast (to) stop by - (to) go somewhere and stay for a short while unique - one of a kind VOCABULARY for Today's Podcast (to) look forward to - (to) be eager about a future event near future - soon (to) study abroad - (to) study in a foreign country politely - in a manner that shows consideration for others appropriate/appropriately - suitable to the occasion or situation (a) formal letter - a letter written in a formal style, that is, with conventional language, sentence structure and punctuation. A business letter and letter of application are all examples of "formal letters". snail mail - Mail that is written on a piece of paper, inserted into an envelope, and mailed via conventional means. It is referred to as "snail mail" since it takes longer for the recipient to receive than email does. complimentary - (remark or act) expressive of praise and admiration appropriate - fitting for an occasion going up the ladder- increasing in importance progressively ( ) - a little more ( ) each time authority figure - a person who is in a position of power and authority. deference- respect for a person of authority and position	Dear Help Desk! How to End a Business Letter Dear Listeners, I'm Jane Hanser and the ESL Help Desk is glad that you have stopped by! The ESL Help Desk is a unique podcast for learners of English because all of our examples and activities are based on authentic language, either written or spoken by others learners of English. Our Library contains audio stories, grammar and communication lessons. If you are taking an English as a Second Language class or are learning English on your own, the ESL Help Desk has something for you! Today's podcast, "How to End a Business Letter". is second in a two-part series that was initiated on request from a listener. You may want to access Part One, "How to Begin a Business Letter" in order to receive the complete series. I hope you enjoy today's podcast and the complete series. Yours truly, Jane The ESL Help Desk Dear Help Desk, I have been enjoying your podcasts and look forward to each one. In your podcasts you have invited us to share our questions with you, and I would like to take advantage of your offer, if you don't mind. I have written a letter in English only once or twice, but in the near future I want to send emails to foreign universities. I want to study abroad after graduation. So I'd like to know how to write English letters politely. I'm particularly interested in how to begin and end the letter. Sometimes I send emails in English, and I usually end the email with "Bye". I know that "Sincerely", "Love" and "Yours" are used to end letters but I don't know how to use these appropriately. Bye. Daisuke Dear Daisuke, Thank you for sharing your question with the Help Desk. Yours is an important question and I am sure that many others are wondering the same thing: How to appropriately begin and end a formal letter. I hope my answer will help you as well as others with a similar need. In your email to me you indicated that your emails are going to be "formal". Are you interested in writing email letters or "snail mail" letters? Each one has its own culture. Best, Jane The ESL Help Desk Dear Jane, Thank you for adopting my question on your podcast! It will be a wonderful help for me and surely for many other learners of English. To answer your question, I'd like to know how to write postal letters in English. Do you have any rules for how to begin and end formal letters? If letters sent by email should be addressed and signed differently, I'd like to know that as well. Respectfully, Daisuke Dear Daisuke, I shall try my best to answer your question, which concerns what we call the "Complimentary Closing" of a letter. There are many ways of ending letters. Endings such as "Bye" are not used in writing, in general; they are appropriate to verbal communication, and are more informal. As far as letter writing is concerned, words such as "Love" are saved for special and close relationships. You would not want to use this closing in any type of formal application. This brings me to make the point that the formalities used in British English are slightly different from those used in American English. So let's start with American English, since that is what I use and that is what I'm much more familiar with. Going up the ladder of formality, we use closings such as "Yours", "Yours truly", and "Very truly yours", with each one being progressively more formal; and "Sincerely" and "Sincerely Yours" similarly appropriate and commonly used. "Kind regards" is now also on the list of acceptable endings for a business letter. The closing "Respectfully" is also on the list of acceptable ways to end formal business letters; in a letter in which the person to whom you are writing is more of an authority figure, this would definitely be the way to conclude your letter because it exemplifies the greatest amount of deference. There are endings that are acceptable in British English and used in the United Kingdom but that are not used in American English and in the United States. Some of those endings and variations on endings that are recommended are "Faithfully yours" , “Very sincerely” “Very sincerely yours” “Yours always sincerely” and “Always sincerely yours”. In addition, our closings are unisex; that is, the ending doesn't change depending on the gender of the person to whom you are writing. Be careful to not use common endings for email in formal postal letters. Email has its own culture. One common ending for emails in which the writer gives advice, as is the case with this very ESL Help Desk post, is "HTH", which stands for "(I) hope that helps". Many people will end an informal email with "All the best"; others shorten that to "Best". A more formal email ending commonly used is "Regards" which can be shortened to, in a much more casual context, "Rgds". And one important thing: In a separate paragraph before your complimentary closing, particularly where you are making a request, always thank the person to whom you are writing with the simple words, "Thank you," HTH, Jane ESL Help Desk We'd now like to thank you for listening in to this week's ESL Help Desk podcast! Stay tuned as we continue with great podcasts for learners of English. All the best! Music Copyright, permission of Luca De Bernardi, www.saguarovideo.it/blog Photo of Headphones Copyright Karl-Erik Bennion	Visit Our Library In our library you'll find: MP3 Audio Stories Communication Lessons How To's Grammar Lessons Listening Comprehension Grammar Lessons Essays Subscribe to Our Feed Today's Date Looking for Grammar Software? www.softwareforstudents.com Looking for Our Grammar Book? The Grammar HELP! Student Handbook
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