Observation and Analysis of the Business Essay

1 Introduction The following Report is based on the Research, Observation and Analysis of the Business letters that are contained at the end of this report. The outcome of this report will help me with my communication and design skills; I will then be a much better position to prepare my own Business letter in the future. This Report was set by Terry Dickenson and Adrianne Oates to be completed by 11th November 2002. This Date has been met. I have studied the Business letters and discussed with a couple of colleagues the layout, design and content of the letters and this has influenced the points made in the report. I obtained the Business letters from Wickes, Sports Shoes Unlimited and . 2 Examination of Business letters Letter number 1: Wickes Layout The Layout is very important in a Business letter. Whether it looks professional and Business like is very important. It has to look like a Business letter. The Wickes Business letter has a nice letterhead. It has the logo and it does not come down further than 4 cm. It doesn’t have an Address, however it does have the Head Office and the Registered Office address in the footer along with a contact number and the company registration number. The Business letter header has been printed in black and white. The logo is black and white logo. Printing/Paper The paper is just cheap printing paper; the letter has been printed out in Black and White. It is been made to look professional by having a letterhead but has been printed in black and white. This means the letter is in expensive to produce. The paper is standard printer paper; it has no embossing or watermark on it. Font/Writing style The font is a sans serif font, probably Arial. It is Black text on white paper. It is fairly small text, about 12 or 14 point. The company has used Bold text to make the important text stand out. Content/Accuracy The content of the Letter is accurate; it contains no errors and has been set out in an appropriate manner. The letter is very general. It has been created using mail merge, the letter has been sent to all the customers in the company’s contacts database. The company has put the main points next to bullet points, this means the customer will remember the main points, this is what the company wants so it is well designed. Letter number 2: Sports Shoes Unlimited Layout The Sports Shoes Business letter has a nice letterhead. It has colour. It has, like the Wickes Letter got a logo and the letterhead does not come down further than 4 cm. The Address and contact numbers has been put in the footer instead of the header. The company registration number has not been put on the letter at all. The Business letter header has been printed in colour. It makes the letter look a better quality letter. The logo is in colour. Printing/Paper The paper is quite expensive. The letter has been printed out in colour, because of the letterhead. It has been made to look professional by having a letterhead. The company have spent time and money making the letter look good. It has been printed on glossy paper, which is expensive. The letter has then been printed in colour as well. This means the letter is more expensive to produce than the Wickes letter. The paper is glossy, but it has no embossing or watermark on it. Font/Writing style The font is a sans serif font, like the Wickes Letter. It is Black text on white paper. It is fairly small text, about the same size as the text on the Wickes letter, 12 point. The company has used no Bold text, but has used capitals to make the important text stand out. Content/Accuracy The content of the Letter is accurate; it contains no errors or miss spelt words. The letter has been set out in an appropriate manner. The letter has probably been created using mail merge, the letter has been sent to all the customers in the company’s contacts database, just like the Wickes letter. This is common for companies who want to contact all their customers; it is a cheap and effective way to create the letter. The company has used paragraphs to break up the long text. This means the customer will remember more of the letter than if it was solid blocks of writing. It is also more likely the customer reads the whole document rather than giving up after the first couple of lines if the writing is broken into manageable chunks. Letter number 3:New College Letter Layout The New College letter has a letterhead. It is in black and white. It has, like the Wickes and the Sports Shoes Letter got a logo and the letterhead does not come down further than 4 cm. It does not contain an Address in the letter, however it does have a contact number. The Business letter header has been printed in black and white. It makes the letter look less appealing than a letterhead in colour, but it is cost effective. The logo is in colour. Printing/Paper The paper is not expensive at all, it is standard printing paper like the Wickes letter. The letter has been printed out in black and white. It has been made to look professional by having a letterhead. It has been printed on normal non-expensive printing paper. This means the letter is not expensive to produce at all. The paper has no embossing or watermark on it, the letter has just been printed straight out onto normal paper as you would a report or a word document. Font/Writing style The font is a sans serif font, like the Wickes and the Sports Shoes Letter. It is Black text on white paper. It is medium sized text, about one point bigger than the other two letters. The company has emphasised the title of the letter by putting it in bold type and underlining it, it has also been put in capitals. No emphasising has been used to make any of the body text stand out. Content/Accuracy The content of the Letter is accurate; it contains no errors or miss spelt words. The letter has been set out in an appropriate manner, using paragraphs. The letter has not been created using mail merge, however it doesn’t need to have been because it has been addressed to a group of people rather than an individual. It is a cheap and effective way to create the letter; this can only be done if there is no confidential information in the letter. The company has used paragraphs to break up the long text. The company has used fairly large text to make it easy on the eyes. 3 Conclusions Having analysed the three Business letters I have came up with the following conclusions that will help be when making my own Business Letter: 1. Always have a colour letterhead. 2. Do not make the letterhead come down the page more than 4 cm. 3. Use bold text and capital letters to emphasise phases and words. 4. Always include some contact information. 5. Always sign and print your name at the end of the letter. 6. Use paragraphs to break up the long text. 7. Use the most cost effective method of printing your letter. 8. Use mail merge if necessary to save time. Doing this analysis has equipped me well to carry on and do my own Business letter.