Formal Business Letter
Business letters are written to accomplish different business tasks. It is used for communication between two organizations, between organization and their customers, clients or external parties. Body of the letter is changed according to its subject matter i.e. letter of complaint, letter of inquiry or job letter. However, in any type it is different from personal letters exchanged between friends.
Instructions:
Before writing a business letter few instructions are required to understand.
- Business letter should not be hand written. Word programs are normally used to write a business letter.
- Wording of letter should be simple and self-explanatory. So that the concern person easily understands, what you want to say.
- Letter should be brief – few lines explain the whole phenomenon-because no one has enough time to study lengthy letters.
- Select a specific font i.e. Times New Roman to size 10 or 12 .It should be same for the whole letter.
- Business letter must be justified lines and the text is aligned on both the right and left margins.
- Professional language must be used through out the letter; it will give an inspiring touch to your letter.
- If a company is using it’s letterhead than return address and thank you notes are not required to mention.
Format of business letter:
The format that our business organization normally used has following points.
1. Addresses:
- Dispatcher –
The person who is writing the letter or the return address should be written on the top-right corner of the letter.
- Addressee –
The address of the person you are writing to or the inside address should be written on left side and it should be written after the sender’s address.
2. Date:
After the addresses, date is written after double spacing. It can be aligned left or right side. Write the month as word i.e. 29 January 2010.
3. Salutation:
After double spacing from date, salutation can be added and it has two possibilities in writing.
- If you do not know the exact name of the person, you are writing to. You can use the words like Dear Sir/ Madam,
- If you know the exact name of the person, you are writing to. Use words like Mr, Ms or Mrs. or Dr, and the full name instead of sir or madam i.e. Dear Ms Anna,
4. Content of the letter:
Content of the letter can be divided into three phases.
- The first paragraph of the letter should be short and will explain the purpose of writing i.e. with reference to your advertisement appeared in daily News dated 25 March, your letter of 25 March or your telephone call on 25 March.
- The middle paragraph of the letter is related to the information behind the writing of the letter. This portion must be concise; few lines will explain the whole phenomenon.
- The ending paragraph is related to the action, which you are expecting from the receiver.
5. Ending of the letter :
In the ending of the letter, again there are two possibilities.
- If you know the name of the person you are writing to, than you can write in the end yours sincerely.
- If you do not know the name of the person you are writing to, than you can write in the end Yours Faithfully.
6. Signature and title:
After the ending words, four or five lines must leave blank for signature. If the recipient do not identify you, than add your title in brackets after the space of signature. Signature must be with hand produced not computerized.
