Different ways of business communication

In a business letter, the emphasis is on a high quality appearance. Letters have to be typed or word-processed accurately on the company's headed paper with a smart, clear layout. International mail tends to be slow and in some countries the post is unreliable. Important documents or valuable items can be sent by registered mail — or they can be sent by courier.

A FAX is facsimile copy of a document which is transmitted by normal telephone lines to another fax machine. Some faxes are exactly like letters, some are printed on special fax forms rather like memos, others are simply handwritten messages. The sender of a fax can't be certain if the message has been received perfectly — sometimes lines get missed or are illegible. A fax is not usually a legally binding document.

E-MAIL (electronic mail) is a way of sending messages between computers. The message appears on a screen and can be printed out if necessary. To make e-mail more " personal” some people use punctuation to add happy {: -) or unhappy {: -(faces to their message!

SKYPE is a software application that allows users to make telephone calls over the Internet. Calls to other users of the service and to free-of-charge numbers are free, while calls to other landlines and mobile phones can be made for a fee. Additional features include instant messaging, file transfer and video conferencing (this requires a web-camera)

In a TELEX readers often overlook some errors of spelling and grammar. Abbreviations such as TKS (Thanks) and RGDS (Regards) are common in telexes. The sender knows when each telex has been transmitted and received. A telex can be a legally binding document.

International mail within a company or between branches of the same firm is usually in the form of MEMOS: These may be brief handwritten notes or longer, word-processed letters. Most firms use special memo pads for internal message. A memo to a senior English-speaking member of staff may need as much care as a letter to a client. The style that is used depends on the practice within the company and on the relationship between the people involved.