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Unit 12: Basics of Official Correspondence

sometimes not even connected by telephone. Though the situation is changing fast, even notes
then, the exchange of letters remains an important component of communication.
2. People have to function with defined limits of authority and responsibility. In the absence
of written communication, it becomes difficult to fix responsibility. This therefore is an
essential part of any manager’s responsibility to communicate on paper.

12.1 characteristics of Business correspondence

Business conversation has following characteristics:

l Most formal type of communication: Usually most of the informal, casual conversation or
friendly conversation is done orally. Whenever there is need for formal communication, it
is the written mode in business conversation that is preferred.
l Used for documentation: Business conversation is mostly used for documentation. In an
organization, documentation of records and decisions made from time to time are very
important for future conversations, as well as rules and guidelines.

l Used for circulation of information: This is used for circulation of information in the
organization. Business conversation circulates information without distortions and
misrepresentations.

l Conventional by nature: There are not many rules of grammar for oral communication,
as there are for written communication. And business conversation most often than not
is only written. Written communication is conventional in the sense that it has to follow
definite pattern as per rules laid down by the language.

l Presence of both sender and receiver is not necessary at the same time: It is an important
feature of written form of business conversation that the presence of just the sender or the
receiver is sufficient at a given point in time, to continue the process of communication.

l A creative activity: Written form of business conversation is essentially a creative activity
which requires conscious and creative effort. The creativity of this effort comes from the
stimuli produced by the mind. The stimuli of oral communication are picked up from
outside by sensory receptors. In other words, written communication is more specifically,
more carefully thought out than oral communication that is based on spontaneous reaction
to signs picked up from outside.

Example: Let us take up the writing and production of a report that we want to
present. For this purpose, we gather all the necessary information and data. Then, we process
it through our logical thought processes and encode our communication. This is not a face-to-
face communication situation. There is no interchange of message or external stimuli rather, an
entirely creative activity of the mind.

l Time factor: Another salient feature of written form of business conversation is the time
factor it involves. While in a face-to-face communication, situation, the sender’s encoded
messages are instantaneously decided by the receiver in a written communications some
delay necessarily takes place. There is no fixed time limit to this delay. The sender or
encoder takes his own time in formulating the message which in turn takes quite some time
to reach the receiver or decoder. The receiver will take his own time in filtering it through
his mind and responding to it.

l It has fewer cycles: Written form of business conversation has fewer cycles than face-to-
face oral communication. In oral communication there are multiple exchanges of symbols,
leading to multiple cycles. Most written communication is a one-cycle event. Usually a

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