Formal documents

Business organisations produce millions of formal and informal documents every day. They write letters, reports, emails, and prepare agendas and minutes for meetings. They respond to enquires and complains, and provide information to people both inside and outside the organisation.

The documents in the business communication have two main purposes:

• Internal communication - within the organisation
• External communication - outside the organisation

People in business communicate for many different reasons:

• Provide information
• Confirm an arrangement or agreement
• Promote an idea, product or service
• Make a request
• Provide instructions

The layout and style of a business document must be fit for its purpose as well as appropriate for the task and the audience.
In this task I am going to explain the purpose of 4 different formal documents. I have chosen to write about a formal letter, email, agenda of a meeting, and minutes.

Formal letter

A formal letter is a business letter which is written in formal language, usually used when writing from one business organisation to another or between an organisation or its customers. The business letters are mostly external and are used for many different purposes such as to make inquires, send replies, to place orders or bank correspondences and many others. The main and basic function of the letter is to influence the reader not only to send your message to the person who receives the letter. Nowadays, it is very easy to communicate through letters. Business letters can be highly effective tools to achieve your purpose.
Some of the more common reasons to write a formal letter are:

• Responding to someone
• Requesting permission for something
• Job application
• Describe a problem
• Express opinion about a product
• To thank a person

Formal email

Sending an email is a method of exchanging digital messages from one person to another. Messages can be send worldwide very easily. Emails operate across the internet or other computer networks. Business emails are less formal than the letter. They could be internal and external. They are mainly written to colleagues and ask for specific actions. Emails are usually short and other documents can be attached. Office workers receive many emails. In its simplest form, business emails are for sharing information. If it is used properly, email can be an effective method of communication.
The main purpose of emails are:

• For sharing basic information
• For marketing and advertising
• For negotiations

Emails are very useful and quick method of communication. It is very easy to store all your inbox and find the information later on, when you need it.

Meeting Agenda

An agenda is a list of meeting activities in order in which they are to be taken up. It usually includes one or mire specific topics to be discussed in a business meeting. The purpose of the agenda is to follow the topics need to be discussed so that no one gets off topic. The agenda should be distributed to participants several days before the meeting so that they have the opportunity to prepare for the meeting. Building a meeting agenda is making a plan for the meeting.
The items which appear on the meeting agenda include:

• Participants for the actual meeting
• A date and time of the meeting
• A suitable location
• The items need to be discussed and actions to be taken
• The amount of time the group will need to discuss each item
• Review the meeting's purpose
• Review the minutes of the prior meeting

Meeting minutes


Meeting minutes are the written or recorded documentation that is used to inform attendees and non-attendees of the happenings during the meeting.
Minutes usually include:

• The names of the participants
• The agenda items covered
• Decisions made during the meeting
• Due dates for the completion of commitments

The meeting minutes focus on decisions made during the meetings. They include basic information and not everything should be written but you should summarise the information carefully. In case of confusion you can refer back to it and find the information you need.

Source used for the examples: www.google.com

Unit 8 M2
In this task of the assignment I am going to explain and compare my choice of internal and external documents.

There are two basic types of documents: external and internal. External documents, such as invoices, payment vouchers, VAT report and tax returns are produced because someone outside the organisation needs them. Internal documents are used inside the company to make decisions about different things. Examples are price information, sales statistics, payment forecasts and others. You need the information they provide to control and develop your business and you are required to keep it up to date and archived in a safe place. All documents should be written correctly whether they are informal or formal.

I chose to write about formal letter and formal email because most of the companies use them almost every day. They are used mainly as external documents because the internal are more informal. People within the organisation know each other, so they don't have to use formal language and don't need to write emails in formal way. Emails which are sent to people outside the organisation should be written in more formal way and, also, the lay out is very important.

The purpose of the formal letter is often more serious. It may be a formal application for a job, a formal statement of a job offer, a formal document from the employer to the employees or the customers. All these are generally too important to write them in more informal document like e-mail or a memo. In addition, recipients may want a document that has a signature and is filed in an appropriate way.

Meeting agenda and meeting minutes are internal documents. I chose to give them as an example because they are very important for the company and they, both, improve the work within the organisation. The meeting agenda is a list of meeting activities in the order in which they are to be taken up. It usually includes one or more specific topics about the business to be discussed. It is used by the people who attend the meeting so they will know exactly what to talk about and they will make sure that they don't miss anything that have to be discussed.

The purpose of the meeting agenda is to record the actions have been decided upon and summarises of the discussions held at the meeting. After the meeting the minutes should be checked with the chairperson to confirm accuracy and then passed to anyone else affected by any decisions taken at the meeting.

All internal and external documents are important for the overall image and productivity level of the company. They improve the team work within the company and inform the customers about any changes or offers provided by the business. All documents should be stored carefully and people should be able to find it easily when they need something. Because of the importance of these kind of documents the business should be very careful with the arrangement and try to not lose any of them and keep them safe. The purpose of the documents may be different but they all help to company to work more effectively and achieve its goals.