The Business Letter

What is a Business Letter?

• A business letter is a letter written in formal language, usually used when writing from one business organization to another, or for correspondence between such organizations and their customers, clients and other external parties.

The Components of a Business Letter

• Business letters usually contain the following information (in this order):

1. Writer's address (street, city, country).2. Date of writing [Month Day, Year] 3. Recipient's name, job title, company name,

address and city4. Salutation or Greeting (Dear Mr./ Mrs./ Ms…..) 5. Message (body of the letter) 6. Closing 7. writer's signature

The Components of a Business Letter• In some situations, a business letter may

also include the following optional information:

9. Writer's Initials: typist's initials ( if writer did not type letter).

10.Enclosures (Encl:) 11.Carbon copy Recipients (cc:)

The Components of a Business Letter

Heading• Assuming you are using company letterhead, your full

address will already be on the page. Add the date two spaces below the last line of printed copy.

• If you are using blank paper, add your full address and the date in the heading. Align the heading with the right margin.

Inside Address• Include the recipient's full name, title, company name and

address one spaces below the date (or more spaces if the letter body is small). Align it with the left margin.

The Components of a Business Letter Salutation or greeting

• One/Two spaces below the inside address, and also aligned with the left margin.

• Dear Sir or Madam: (use if you don't know who you are writing to)

• Dear Dr, Mr, Mrs, Ms or Ms Smith (use if you know who you are writing to, and have a formal relationship with)

The Components of a Business Letter

The Message• The body of the letter begin one space below the salutation.• Leave one blank line between paragraphs and do not indent the

first line of each paragraph.

• State a reference reason for your letter (i.e. "With Reference to your advertisement in…", "With reference to our telephone conversation...")

• Give the reason for writing (i.e. "I am writing to you to confirm our order…)

The Components of a Business Letter• Here are some guiding phrases for your message:• Giving Bad News • Unfortunately

I am afraid that • Enclosing Documents • I am enclosing

Please find enclosed Enclosed you will find

• Concluding/ giving reference to future contact• I look forward to hearing from you soon. • I look forward to meeting you next Tuesday.

The Components of a Business Letter Closing

• Place the closing one\two spaces below the last line of the body.

• Yours faithfully, (If you don't know the name of the person you're writing to)

• Yours sincerely, (If you know the name of the person you're writing to)

• Best regards, (If the person is a close business contact)

The Components of a Business Letter Signature• printed name, position of sender, Company name.

Additional Information• Sometimes a letter requires you to add the typist's initials,

an enclosure notification, or a note that other people are receiving the same letter. Any of this information goes two spaces below the last line of the closing .

The Components of a Business Letter Writer's Initials: typist's initials

• Appear two lines below the last line of the signature block and flush with the left margin.

• The typist's initials follow the writer's initials, separated by a slash.

• The writer's initials go in capital letters, while the typist's are lowercase.

Example: LEA/lak or LEA/ald

• If the writer and the typist are the same person, no initials are needed.

The Components of a Business Letter Enclosure• If you are sending material along with the letter, such as an

invoice or report, indicate this with an enclosure notification.

• When you use this, you must refer to the enclosures in your letter. Abbreviate or describe the enclosure(s).

Examples:Enc.Encs.Enclosure: Report findings

The Components of a Business Letter Carbon copy Recipients (cc:)• Lastly, if you are sending the same letter to more than one

person, notify your recipients with a copy notation. This is abbreviated "cc:" and followed by the recipients' names.

Example:

cc: Linda AlexanderJanna Bree SmithEmily Lane

Guidelines when writing a business letter

• Keep the letter brief and to the point .• Do not use shortened verb forms - write

them out (i.e. "don't instead of do not")• Signature shouldn’t be written by hand. • No Passive we use active form.

Example

The Informal Letter

What is Informal letter?

• It is a letter written between friends, relatives or close people about anything they want to talk about..

The Main Components of an Informal Letter

1. Letter head or sender's address. (Then leave blank line) optional– Address of sender

– City of sender

2. Date [Month Day, Year] (Then leave blank line)

3. Salutation:– Dear Ahmed, (followed by a comma ‘,’ )

– Hi Ahmed!!

4. Greetings:– How are you?

– How have you been?

The Main Components of an Informal Letter5. The Message

– Write whatever you want.

6. Closing

– Yours

– Sincerely

– Best Regards

– Thank you….

7. Signature, Your handwritten or printed name 

8. P.S. [postscript] (any important note you want to add)

– Ex. Please Reply.

Example