Inquiry Letter is
a letter written to request information and/or ascertain its authenticity. A
letter of inquiry deals with various matters like job vacancies, funding,
grants, scholarships, projects, sales, pre-proposals and others. The term is
common in various business setups as it implies fund request or pre-proposal
information. Owing to this usage, the term may be considered exclusive to these
setups alone. But that is not the case, to this effect the below definition
offers a justified meaning.
Inquiry Letter Definition
A document requesting information sent on behalf of an individual or an organisation for their own respective purposes, which can be mutually beneficial to the recipient and the sender.
The term ‘Inquiry’ is same as ‘Enquiry’. The former is more commonly used in U.S. and the latter one is more common in U.K. There are some other terms which represent the letters; these are Letter of Intent, Letter of Interest, Query letter, Prospecting Letter,
Pre-proposal Letter and Concept Paper. The term ‘Cover Letter’, ‘Business Letter’, ‘Request Letter’ and ‘Sales Letter’ is also applied to an inquiry letter especially when the objective is same as that of letter for inquiry.
A letter of inquiry serves to facilitate business operations and satisfaction of the sender. Inquiry letters remove any misunderstanding and are time savers, especially when two parties want to reach an understanding. The communication towards this effect resolves the issue without any delay. With relation to it being a ‘Pre-proposal letter’, the inquiry letter is also termed as a ‘Condensed Version of a Proposal’. It is the outcome of the purpose of the letter which highlights the points of a proposal instead of a full-fledged proposal.
On an individual’s basis, these letters are sent to companies that are willing to hire but haven't advertised job openings. It can also be a letter addressed to editor in-charge of a publication proposing certain literary work. It can be a letter from a student who is vying for a seat in a college or a business that provides an internship. So, the objective of an enquiry letter is same but its projections and audiences are different. Same goes for its method of delivery, it can be sent via paper mail or electronic mail.
How to Write an Inquiry Letter
Writing a letter of inquiry can
become an easy task when you have some guiding material.
An enquiry letter may consist all or few of the below mentioned parts:
An enquiry letter may consist all or few of the below mentioned parts:
- Introduction
- Description
- Statement
- Methodology
- Final Summary
The inclusion or exclusion of
certain components depends on the scope of your letter. Business letters will
tend to have all mentioned while those on a smaller platform will include few.
Not to forget that these letter are formal letters and will follow the rules
pertaining to these. These rules refer to the common styles of writing a
business letter, i.e. Full Block Style, Modified Block Style and others.
Types of inquiry letter
Based
on purpose, there are two most common types of inquiry letters such as (1)
personal status inquiry letter and (2) business status inquiry letter.
- Personal status inquiry letter: The letters that are written by prospective employers for obtaining information about job applicants are called personal status inquiry letter. Employers write this letter to obtain information relating to the applicant’s personal and family background, ability, skills, honesty, character, integrity, quality of performance, fitness for job etc. generally this letter is written to the referees mentioned by the concerned applicant. In response to this letter, the referees write a reply letter to the employer. This response letter may be favorable, unfavorable or neutral to the applicant.
- Business status inquiry letter: When a business enterprise writes letter to another business enterprise for collecting information about a prospective customer, it is known as business status inquiry letter. This letter is usually written for collecting information about financial capability, goodwill, nature of business dealings, honesty etc. of a business enterprise to determine whether to establish business transactions with it. Responses of this letter may be either favorable or unfavorable.
Example an Inquiry Letter
Inquiry :
Reply of Inquiry Letter :
Write an Inquiry Letter
K.B.C Enterprises
25, Khan Market,
New Delhi
14th October 2016
Ref. No. KBCL/S/99/6754
M/s
Videocon Electronics
5, Okhla Industrial Area Phas-1
U.P
India,
Dear
Sir,
Reg.
Catalogues, Price Lists and Terms payment of T.V Sets
Please
send us a copy of your catalogue, price lists and terms payment of 21 inch and
29 inch Colour Televisions of “Videocon” brand and also copies of any
descriptive leaflets that can be conveyed or passed on to the prospective
clients.
We
shall appreciate an early reply about the desired information.
Yours Faithfully,
For K.B.C ENTERPRISES
Ajeng Kurnia P.S
Purchase Manager
Nama : Ajeng Kurnia Puspita
sari
Npm :20214654
Kelas : 3EB10
Sumber :
