Examples of what applies to formal business style. Official business style and its substyles
Diverse. In every life situation there are certain norms of communication. In the official sphere, there are also specific norms that sometimes run counter to the general linguistic norms. This is a feature of the official business style. It is dry and insipid, all the turns in it are unambiguous and constant.
Formal business style: definition
Official business style is a style of business management and legislative acts that has been formed over many years. Its characteristic feature is considered to be the consistency in the use of the same words and lexical phrases.
Which every person periodically encounters in his life should be understandable and unambiguous. In addition, all its genres are written according to the same templates. Sometimes, to get a new document, it is enough to simply rewrite 2-3 words.
Stylistic features
Like any other, it has its own characteristic features. The official business style in business texts is characterized by accuracy and unambiguity of presentation, an obligatory-prescriptive nature, complete impersonality, the absence of any emotional manifestations, standardization and stereotyping.
Any document should be interpreted in only one way. Therefore, all the data presented in it is unambiguous, because otherwise means confusion and lawlessness in any matter.
Since it is a business style, it is used to regulate the official sphere of human life and society. Everything that is stated in it must be fulfilled unquestioningly.
There cannot be any personal characteristics or subjective interpretations in the documents. Therefore, the official business style of the Russian literary language allows the presentation of personal information only in minor documents such as a statement or an explanatory statement to argue the need for a particular action.
The unambiguity of the presentation also translates into a high degree of stereotyping. It is present at all levels of style: from a set of tokens to the general structure of the entire document.
Vocabulary of style
Like any other, the official business style in business texts uses a standard set of lexemes and phrases. First of all, these are words from the industry of official communication: prescribe, authorize, notify, plaintiff, head, law and the like. In other styles they are used much less frequently.
The second characteristic feature is the use of constant expressions and cliches of speech. This makes any text predictable, but at the same time completely unambiguous: based on, taking into account, in accordance with.
It is noteworthy that, despite the high level of impersonality, the use of first-person pronouns and verbs is allowed in an official business style. In comparison, in a scientific style this is completely unacceptable.
And the last feature is the presence of dry, slightly outdated clerical vocabulary, which in other styles sounds inappropriate and somewhat comical: takes place, is in a state of alcoholic intoxication, a liquid that looks like cognac.
Syntactic constructions
Based on the consistency of syntactic structures, each person can easily determine the official business style. Examples of it are well known to everyone from the school. And probably more than once in my life I had to write a statement or protocol.
At the syntactic level, first of all, the presence of small constructions, simple sentences, and a minimum number of complications, such as homogeneous sentence parts or inserted constructions, are noted. This is dictated by the need for simplicity and unambiguity in understanding the information presented in the document.
At the text level, there is a high level of standardization of its structure. For example, each statement begins with a header in the upper right corner, which indicates who is addressing whom. Next comes the text of the application itself, which ends with the date and signature of the applicant. The upper left corner of the document is left to overlay the resolution on this application. The same standardization is characteristic of all other genres.
Applications
It is quite widespread and can be encountered by any person all the time. Therefore, this style is divided into several substyles, depending on the industry of application.
Legislative documents are used to form the regulatory framework of society. It prescribes the rules by which every person subject to the influence of this particular document must live. Legislative acts also establish penalties for failure to comply with regulations.
The jurisdictional branch detects a violation and imposes punishment for it. This is also where cases are reviewed in connection with certain evidence or circumstances.
The administrative official business style is very common. Examples of such documents are even studied in the school curriculum. This includes documents regulating the activities of individual organizations and their interaction with individual individuals.
And the last branch is diplomatic. Relations between states depend on the correctness of documentation in this area. One wrong comma or word can cause a global conflict.
Genres
In practice, the official business style of speech has a wide variety of examples of texts. It would be quite problematic to name absolutely all genres in one article. Therefore, we will focus on the most popular of them, dividing them into groups depending on the industry of use.
Legislative documents include a law, act, decision, decree. They are compiled at the highest levels of government by specially trained people.
In the field of jurisprudence, the genres of official business style in the Russian language are represented by verdicts, court decisions, cassation appeals, search or detention warrants.
Administrative documents are among the most common. This includes a statement, autobiography, order, recommendation, fax, telephone message, receipt and many others.
In diplomacy, treaties, pacts, agreements, and conventions are most often used.
Business management
Much has already been said about how rich the official business style is in genres. Examples of their use are found all the time. This is an active style used everywhere in everyday life. Most often, an ordinary person encounters it in the business sector. When applying for a job, we write a resume, autobiography and application, and submit certificates from the previous place of work.
Basically, all these documents have approximately the same structure. They begin with an indication of the author who compiled this text, followed by a presentation of the material, which is certified by a signature and seal, if any.
Generalization
In Russian philology, the official business style of a document, language, speech has an active nature of use. It is highly standardized and has a certain set of words and expressions that are used contrary to some laws of the language.
For example, tautologies are not a stylistic error, since they contribute to an unambiguous understanding, which cannot be achieved by using pronouns for a more beautiful literary sound.
Every person in his life must be able to use this style, since it regulates the interaction of the individual with the organization, the state and the entire legal world as a whole.
Official business style in texts. Examples
Every modern person at least once in his life is faced with the need to write a text in an official business style. This is due to modern requirements for communication between legal entities, individuals and government agencies, or individuals and legal entities. Simply put, when contacting an organization as a representative of another organization or as an individual, you will be forced to write text in an official business style.
One of the most common types of texts in business style is commercial proposal.
Send a request to write a text in a business style to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
In order not to burden you with the rules of writing official business texts, let’s immediately look at a couple of examples.
Example of business text 1. Postponement.
To the director of LLC "..."
Kuznetsov N. S.
Dear Nikolai Sergeevich!
On January 12, we received a commercial proposal from you, in which you offer our company regular supplies of metal for projects implemented by our company.
Our management has reviewed your conditions and is ready to conclude an agreement of intent and, in the future, a cooperation agreement with you. The only obstacle to fruitful cooperation may be the impossibility of supplying rolled metal with deferred payment, which you refuse to provide to us.
We ask you to once again consider the possibility of providing a deferment for large-volume shipments! Otherwise, we will be forced to look for partners for regular supplies of rolled metal products among your competitors.
Sincerely,
Head of the commercial department Petryakova I.I.
Business text example 2. Claim
In March of this year, our company entered into an agreement with you for the production and installation of plastic windows for office premises. The total number of windows was 48 pieces, the contract amount was 593,000 rubles.
Following the agreement, the windows had to be installed before September 1st. To date, only a third of the work has been completed, despite full payment from our side.
Considering that our company has fully fulfilled its payment obligations, we demand that the window installation work be completed in full as soon as possible, as well as eliminate the deficiencies described in previously sent claims by November 1, or return the money to us for uncompleted work . We also intend to demand compensation for the damage caused.
If your company fails to fulfill its obligations under the contract, or if it refuses to return funds and pay compensation, we will go to the court of the Russian Federation and also file a complaint with the Prosecutor of the Russian Federation at the location of your company.
See other examples below after reading the rules for writing text in a business style.
Rules for writing business text
Now you can get acquainted with the rules. So, from the examples it is clear that the main rule of a business text is to maintain a business style. What is “business style” in texts? This is, first of all, brevity of presentation, lack of emotion and facts.
In a business text, it is unacceptable to use emotionally charged expressions and colloquial expressions.
The first thing to remember when starting to write a business text in an official style is that your task is to summarize the essence of what you want to write as briefly as possible. Be it a complaint about someone’s actions (or inaction), a request for assistance, a claim, a demand, or something else.
The official business style is most often used in business to draw up commercial proposals, but in private life we often have to present it in a business style when we are talking about communicating with government agencies, or about a conflict situation that has arisen, for example, when purchasing a low-quality product. .
For texts in a business style, it is customary to use certain words, which is clearly visible in all the examples given.
“Following”, “considering”, “we ask you to consider the opportunity”, “we ask you to assist”, etc. The set of these phrases depends on the situation, and of course, you must learn to intuitively feel when to use the phrase “we ask you” and when “we demand”.
Other examples of texts in business style
Official business style is a style that serves the legal and administrative and public spheres of activity. It is used when writing documents, business papers and letters in government agencies, courts, as well as in various types of business oral communication.
Among book styles, the official business style stands out for its relative stability and isolation. Over time, it naturally undergoes some changes, but many of its features: historically established genres, specific vocabulary, morphology, syntactic phrases - give it a generally conservative character.
The official business style is characterized by dryness, the absence of emotionally charged words, conciseness, and compactness of presentation.
In official papers, the set of linguistic means used is predetermined. The most striking feature of the official business style is linguistic cliches, or so-called cliches (French. clich). A document is not expected to show the individuality of its author; on the contrary, the more clichéd a document is, the more convenient it is to use (see examples of clichés below)
Formal business style- this is the style of documents of different genres: international treaties, state acts, legal laws, regulations, charters, instructions, official correspondence, business papers, etc. But, despite the differences in content and variety of genres, the official business style as a whole is characterized by common and most important features. These include:
1) accuracy, excluding the possibility of other interpretations;
2) locale standard.
These features find their expression a) in the selection of linguistic means (lexical, morphological and syntactic); b) in the preparation of business documents.
Let's consider the features of vocabulary, morphology and syntax of the official business style.
§2. Linguistic signs of official business style of speech
Lexical features of official business style of speech
The lexical (dictionary) system of the official business style, in addition to general book and neutral words, includes:
1) language stamps (bureaucracy, clichés) : raise a question based on a decision, incoming and outgoing documents, control over execution is assigned upon expiration of the deadline.
2) professional terminology : arrears, alibi, black cash, shadow business;
3) archaisms : I certify this document.
In an official business style, the use of polysemantic words, as well as words with figurative meanings, is unacceptable, and synonyms are used extremely rarely and, as a rule, belong to the same style: supply = supply = collateral, solvency = creditworthiness, depreciation = depreciation, appropriation = subsidy and etc.
Official business speech reflects not individual, but social experience, as a result of which its vocabulary is extremely generalized. In an official document, preference is given to generic concepts, for example: to arrive (instead of arrive, arrive, arrive etc.), vehicle (instead of bus, plane, Zhiguli etc.), populated area (instead of village, town, village etc.) etc.
Morphological characteristics of an official business style of speech
The morphological features of this style include the repeated (frequency) use of certain parts of speech (and their types). These include the following:
1) nouns - names of people based on a characteristic determined by the action ( taxpayer, tenant, witness);
2) nouns denoting positions and titles in the masculine form ( Sergeant Petrova, inspector Ivanova);
3) verbal nouns with a particle Not-(deprivation, non-compliance, non-recognition);
4) derived prepositions ( in connection with, due to, by virtue of, to the extent of, in relation to, on the basis of);
5) infinitive constructions: ( conduct an inspection, provide assistance);
6) present tense verbs in the meaning of a commonly performed action ( behind non-payment will be subject to a fine…).
7) compound words formed from two or more stems ( tenant, employer, logistics, repair and maintenance, above, below and so on.).
The use of these forms is explained by the desire of business language to accurately convey meaning and unambiguous interpretation.
Syntactic features of official business style of speech
The syntactic features of the official business style include:
1) the use of simple sentences with homogeneous members, and the rows of these homogeneous members can be very common (up to 8–10), for example: ... fines as an administrative penalty may be established in accordance with Russian legislation for violation of safety and labor protection rules in industry, construction, transport and agriculture;
2) the presence of passive structures ( payments are made at the specified time);
3) stringing the genitive case, i.e. use of a chain of nouns in the genitive case: ( results of the activities of the tax police authorities…);
4) the predominance of complex sentences, especially complex sentences, with conditional clauses: If there is a dispute about the amount of amounts due to the dismissed employee, the administration is obliged to pay the compensation specified in this article if the dispute is resolved in favor of the employee.
Official business style is a style that serves the legal and administrative and public spheres of activity. It is used when writing documents, business papers and letters in government agencies, courts, as well as in various types of business oral communication.
Among book styles, the official business style stands out for its relative stability and isolation. Over time, it naturally undergoes some changes, but many of its features: historically established genres, specific vocabulary, morphology, syntactic phrases - give it a generally conservative character.
The official business style is characterized by dryness, the absence of emotionally charged words, conciseness, and compactness of presentation.
In official papers, the set of linguistic means used is predetermined. The most striking feature of the official business style is linguistic cliches, or so-called cliches. A document is not expected to show the individuality of its author; on the contrary, the more clichéd a document is, the more convenient it is to use.
Official business style is the style of documents of different genres: international treaties, state acts, legal laws, regulations, charters, instructions, official correspondence, business papers, etc. But, despite the differences in content and variety of genres, the official business style as a whole is characterized by common and most important features. These include:
- 1). accuracy, excluding the possibility of other interpretations;
- 2). locale standard.
These traits find their expression:
- a) in the selection of linguistic means (lexical, morphological and syntactic);
- b) in the preparation of business documents.
Let's consider the features of official business style.
The main area in which the official business style operates is administrative and legal activity. This style satisfies the need of society for documenting various acts of state, social, political, economic life, business relations between the state and organizations, as well as between members of society in the official sphere of their communication.
Texts of official business style of speech represent a huge variety of genres: charter, law, order, regulation, contract, instruction, complaint, recipe, various kinds of statements, autobiography, explanatory note, questionnaire, statistical report, etc.
The expression of legal will in business documents determines the properties, main features of business speech and the social and organizational use of language. The genres of official business style perform informational, prescriptive, and ascertaining functions in various fields of activity, therefore the main form of implementation of this style is written.
Despite the differences in the content of individual genres and the degree of their complexity, official business speech has common stylistic features: accuracy of presentation, which does not allow the possibility of differences in interpretation; detail of presentation; stereotyping, standard presentation; the dutifully prescriptive nature of the presentation. To this we can add such features as formality, rigor of expression of thought, objectivity, logic - which is characteristic of scientific speech.
The function of social regulation, which plays the most important role in official business speech, imposes on the corresponding texts the requirement of unambiguous reading. In this regard, each text should be characterized by such accuracy in the presentation of information that would not allow the possibility of different interpretations. An official document will serve its purpose if its content is carefully thought out and its language is impeccable.
It is this goal that determines the standard design of many business documents (personnel records sheet, questionnaire, receipt for payment of housing and communal services, etc.).
Consider an example: “When studying any international agreement, and in particular an agreement on the elimination of double taxation, it is first necessary to clearly define its scope in two aspects:
- - taxes covered by the agreement;
- - territories covered by the agreement.”
Even in this short passage there are words and phrases with an official legal connotation (international agreement, double taxation, taxes), the phrase “needs to be determined” expressing the obligation, such features as the severity of expression of thought, impartial statement, complete impersonality of presentation.
The official business style is characterized by a tendency to reduce the number of meanings of words, up to narrow terminology. Therefore, texts of this style often provide precise definitions of the words and concepts used. Polysemy (polysemy), metaphorical use of words, use of words in figurative meanings are unacceptable, synonyms are used to an insignificant extent (as a rule, they belong to the same style).
Typical for business language are complex words formed from two or more words: tenant, employer, material and technical, above, below, etc. The formation of such words is explained by the desire of business language to accurately convey meaning and unambiguous interpretation. The same purpose is served by phrases of a “non-idiomatic” nature, for example, destination, higher education institution, tax return, joint-stock company, housing cooperative, etc. The uniformity of such phrases and their high repetition lead to the clichédness of the linguistic means used, which gives the texts of an official business style a standard character.
Official business speech reflects not individual, but social experience, as a result of which its vocabulary is extremely generalized in semantic terms, i.e. Everything that is sharply unique, concrete, and unique has been eliminated, and the typical has been brought to the fore.
Business speech is characterized by the use of verbal nouns (replenishing the budget, providing housing, serving the population, taking measures) and participles (given, indicated, above-named). Complex denominative prepositions are widely used (in part, along the line, on the subject, in order to avoid, upon reaching, upon returning).
Typically, a sentence contains a fairly large amount of information and is designed to be read again. Simple sentences are often complicated by homogeneous members, which is due to the need to exhaust the subject of the message. Passive structures are actively used; complex sentences with a subordinate clause: “The procedure for conducting the meeting and examining additional evidence, if it was presented, to the appellate instance is determined by the presiding officer. As a general rule, explanations from the persons participating in the case and their representatives are first heard. First, the person who filed the appeal and his representative speak. In the event of an appeal by both parties, the plaintiff will act first.”
In this passage, the first sentence is a complex sentence with a subordinate clause. The following sentences contain several participles (participating, submitting), a passive verb (being heard), and a complex denominative preposition (in the case). Strict logic and precision of presentation determine the sequence of actions in the presented situation. This text acts as a regulation and establishes the procedure for considering an appeal.
Sometimes, after reading the next contract, you understand why it is customary to use specially trained people to work with them. This happens due to the peculiarities of the official business style, making it difficult to understand. But this manner of presentation also has its advantages, otherwise its use would have been abandoned long ago.
Signs of an official business style of speech
Of course, for us, the main indicators of the officiality of a document are the seal of the organization and the signature of the person in charge, but when it comes to the style of speech, completely different signs come to the fore.
- Objectivity, information content and reliability.
- The absence of words that can be interpreted in two ways.
- Impeccable construction of phrases and documents from a legal point of view.
- Conciseness of wording, the desire for maximum brevity, the use of complex sentences with frequent use of complex conjunctions and verbal nouns.
- Neutrality of presentation, lack of emotional coloring, preference for direct word order, almost complete neglect of individualization of style.
- The use of speech cliches when constructing phrases.
- Using standard phrases to describe typical situations.
- The logical nature of the presentation, its narrative character.
All these features of the official business style of speech make it the most closed and stable among all book styles. Time brings its changes to this language, but the main points - phraseological units, specific speech and syntactic turns - remain unchanged. In other styles of speech, the use of cliches has long been considered a disadvantage, but in formal conversations they are welcome. Actually, this kind of templated text, combined with a lack of emotional coloring and a large number of enumerations, which are also a sign of the official style, is what makes documents so difficult to read and.
The purpose of the formal business style of speech
At first glance, all this linguistic inertia and conservatism were invented to emphasize the isolation of business from other spheres of life. As a result, the average person gets a headache from trying to understand all the intricacies, and is forced to pay money to specialists.
On the one hand, this is true, a number of specialists (document specialists, lawyers, archivists) are partly translators from official business speech to colloquial speech, understandable to the majority of the population. But you shouldn’t look for the tenacious clutches of a global conspiracy here, because on the other hand, the official business style of speech is designed to minimize the likelihood of errors and simplify work with various kinds of documentation. In colloquial speech, we often use expressions with strong emotional overtones, love ambiguity, often use argot and do not disdain irony. Can you imagine what, for example, a supply agreement written in colloquial language would look like? On compliance with delivery deadlines, liability for violation of the agreement and the conformity of the delivered goods ordered could be forgotten. That is, a special style of presentation for official papers was created to exclude the possibility of speculation and different interpretations of information depending on the education of the people working with them. And to speed up work with various kinds of documents, drafting standards have been invented. Everything is regulated: from the location of the details to the order in which the address is written on the envelope. This allows you to quickly find the information you need without revising the entire document. For example, an accountant paying for the rental of premises is only interested in the terms of payment, details and duration of the contract. The clear structure of the document allows you to quickly access this information; otherwise, the time for processing the contract would greatly increase.