Know your letters

In this office, although we all use e-mail far more often than snail mail, old-fashioned letters, complete with company logo and letterhead, are still sent out on a regular basis. In fact, the printed types of correspondence often contain more important messages. For example, our invoices are sent out as hard copy - so too are our congratulatory letters to readers who have won a prize in one of our competitions. Both types are important, although, obviously, the letter about the prize is slightly more appreciated.

The main advantage of letters is that they seem more official. They are therefore automatically taken more seriously than e-mails. On the whole, letters are read more carefully, too, simply because we know they won't contain the time-wasting e-mail elements we've all come to know and hate: silly jokes, old messages that have nothing to do with the current message and photographs that take ages to download.

We've created a quiz on language elements that are typically found in the most common types of business correspondence. All could be sent as e-mails, but many would still look more impressive in an official letter. Find out if you know your letters by doing our exercise. You can decide later whether to use the expressions you've learnt in e-mails, in letters or both.