PARTS OF A

BUSINESS LETTERS

Required PartsRequired Parts

Date

Inside Address

Salutation

Body

Complimentary Closing

Author/Typist initials

3

Re:

Letterhead or return address

Karen J. Hurley

• Letterhead or return address – the letterhead is usually preprinted and is used by a business—see below. The return address is the address of the SENDER and appears above the date and is used when an individual is sending a letter and not a company—see next slide.

• Personal letter with return address above date

• Date – use the current date

• Inside address – address of the person you are sending the letter to

• Re: this stands for “reference”. Tells the reader what letter is about

• Salutation – this is the Dear so and so part

• Body – all the paragraphs that make up the letter. Each paragraph is separated by a double return. Body is single spaced

• Complimentary Closing – this is the sincerely, very truly yours, etc. part– You type your closing and then hit your return key FOUR times

and then type your name. You sign your name between the closing and the typed version of your name

• Author’s initials/Typist initials– This goes back in time when most business people had

secretaries. Most bosses type their own letters these days. • KJH/kch – this would mean I’m the author (boss) and my daughter

typed it for me.

• JS/kjh – this would mean Mr. Stewart is the author and I typed it for him.

• KJH/bms – this would mean I’m the author and I typed it (bms=by myself )

• NOTE: typist initials are NOT needed. Can just be author’s initials

Styles• There are 3 styles of letter format

– Full Blocked – every line is at left margin– Modified Blocked – every line but date and closing is

at left margin. Date and Closing BEGIN at center (tab to half way point) – they ARE NOT centered.

– Modified Blocked with indented paragraphs – the same as modified block but paragraphs are indented.

• See examples on next slides and notice left hand margin.

Full Blocked900 Dallas St.

Grosse Ile, MI 48138

Modified Block900 Dallas St.

Grosse Ile, MI 48138

Modified Block – indented paragraphs

900 Dallas St.

Grosse Ile, MI 48138

Spacing for a letter

Letter reminders• Letters should be centered on the page from top to bottom. To do

this: File, Page Setup, Layout tab, go to Vertical Placement field and choose center

• Letters generally have one-inch left and right margins. This is the default in Word. If the letter is extremely short, the margins can be changed to 1.5.

• The font size should be no smaller than 10 and no bigger than 12• The date is always is the format: month, day and year• The date is always followed by four returns to the inside address• There are two returns after the inside address, salutation, between

paragraphs, after the author’s name, and typist’s initials• The salutation is followed by a colon (:). Dear Mr. Smith:• The complimentary closing (Sincerely, Cordially, Very truly

yours, etc.) is followed by a comma and then followed by 4 returns

• Only the first word in the complimentary closing is capitalized• Typist’s initials are always lowercase – author’s are always

uppercase