advice needed on writing professional business correspondence in Russian

[red-kitti.livejournal.com]

Does anyone have any advice on how to begin and end a formal business letter in Russian? Up until this point, the only letters I've written in Russian have been to friends and I know there must be a difference... Any advice or urls for pages giving advice would be welcome. Спасибо!

Comments

just found something...

[red-kitti.livejournal.com]

I just found a great website, with a page on this very subject - http://masterrussian.com/aa112199.shtml

[pochitai.livejournal.com]

great find !
thanks !

[naree.livejournal.com]

(refering to the masterrussian.com link mentioned above) phrases that shouldn't be used:

Уважаемая редакция - sounds ridiculous applying to bisiness correspondence

д-р = доктор- never used, instead use:

Уважаемый г-н Иванов = Dear Mr. Ivanov


Дорогой Андрей Петрович - sounds old-fashioned when you use patronymics (Петрович).

[red-kitti.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I would have totally used "Уважаемая редакция", if you hadn't posted to tell me not to:)

[oryx_and_crake]

No, patronymic is not old-fashioned, it is absolutely normal.

thanks

[red-kitti.livejournal.com]

Do you have any advice on how to end the letter? Is ending the letter with "С уважением, (my real name)" ok?

Re: thanks

[oryx_and_crake]

Should be OK

[naree.livejournal.com]

depends on what kind of company you work in. If it's old-fashioned company, then it would be pretty normal there. For other cases, it sounds funny.

[oryx_and_crake]

If you are writing to a different company or to someone whom you do not know personally, it's not funny, it is polite.

[oryx_and_crake]

P.S. red_kitti was asking about a way to address a formal business letter, not an e-mail you send to one of your co-workers (which you probably had in mind since you have mentioned "the company one works in"). In business letters, you call the addressee either by patronymic or by title and surname (Иван Петрович or г-н Иванов). This is not "old-fashioned" but in accordance with business etiquette.

[red-kitti.livejournal.com]

Спасибо! I am sooo lucky to have found this community - if I had had to write this business letter without everyone's help and advice, it would have been very, very bad!